Organisation wizard Marie Kondo has taken the world by storm. Her KonMari approach to organisation at home has helped many transform their chaotic homes into dens of tranquillity. With one of the best-selling books globally and a Netflix show that has amassed millions of views, we’d like to think that her decluttering methods could help those of us with even the messiest of home offices.
Kondo has taken Japanese minimalism principles and repackaged them for a Western audience. Her method is based on keeping items that ‘spark joy’ rather than items that might come in handy or could be useful in the future. Her way of tidying may seem unorthodox; dedicating periods of time to decluttering and aiming for perfection from the get-go. However, this tactic enables you to be done and dusted in no time, with very little room to reminisce over mementos or talk yourself into keeping pointless items.
So, how can you adopt Marie Kondo’s techniques for your home office organisation? A cluttered office forces the brain to constantly re-assess what needs to be accomplished. Whilst working you are subconsciously focused on the mess surrounding you and this can have a negative impact on concentration and productivity. Below, we highlight Marie Kondo’s top tips so you can start improving your remote working space.
1. Remove everything
The KonMari method is not for the faint hearted. You’re going to want to dedicate an entire day to tidying your home office. Start by removing everything from the space except for essential furniture. Shuffling piles about and navigating through the mess will not be efficient. Move all your office items into another room and, once complete, go to town giving the room itself a spring clean. This gives you a great foundation to start rebuilding your office with just the home office essentials.
2. Pile up the items
Once your cleaning is complete, head to wherever you have abandoned all your office things. Pile them in the middle of the room and go through each item, down to the rouge highlighters and collection of staplers, to determine what stays and what goes. It can sound like a mundane task, but it is proven by Kondo as an effective method for ridding yourself of the majority of your clutter. Her principle is based on keeping items that ‘spark joy’. However, we understand that a keyboard wrist rest might not necessarily spark the required levels of joy. For your home office consider items based on whether you could work effectively with or without it.
3. Ditch the books and go digital
Realistically, how many of the books on your shelf have you read? More often than not our bookshelves are full of reads that are there for academic show rather than serving any purpose. In her book Joy at Work: Organising Your Professional Life, Kondo dictates a specific order in tidying your office: focus first on books, then papers, then miscellaneous items, and finally, sentimental possessions.
Kondo makes a point to not start reading whilst your tidying, this will eat into your time. Take each book at face value and decide whether you cannot live without it. She suggests that even if there is a book you deem important, or that brings you joy, you can download the e-book copy instead.
4. Rid yourself of digital clutter
Working from home comes with a lot of kit. Desktops and laptops and tablets and cables…countless cables. Streamline your kit to the essentials; do you really need three spare laptop chargers just in case? Could a USB multiport adapter decrease the number of cables you need? Be brutal and save yourself from tripping over your old printer and getting tangled in a web of wires.
Whilst focusing on tech chaos, now can be the time to address what is stored on your devices. Clear your desktop, file any important items discarded on this screen and send anything else to the recycle bin. Organise your documents and delete any applications that you no longer use. Don’t begin browsing the market for new programmes or software to replace the old, this is your time for a digital detox.
5. Utilise organisation tools
Once you have come to the end of your tidying and you’re left with the core items you will keep it’s time to move them back into your home office. You may find that you can get rid of the old bookshelf and the huge storage unit looks a little empty now. Whatever furniture remains, selecting the correct home office organisation solutions can help you store retained work belongings neatly.
Let’s be honest, a cluttered office doesn’t help us work effectively. In fact, it can really affect your mood as well as your output. Marie Kondo’s minimalistic approach can help you bring order to the home office chaos and set you on track for improving your focus whilst working and performing above and beyond company expectations.
With the number of people working remotely, home offices have become the norm for many. If you’re wanting to facilitate the purchase of a bigger property with a designated home working space, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today, we have a vast portfolio of properties for sale. You can get an instant valuation to get the process started and sell your house for free, avoiding the fees associated with high street vendors. Call our property experts on 0800 566 8490. At SOLD.CO.UK we pride ourselves on being one of the leading online estate agents in the UK.
