• Tailoring to your space- they can be tiered and stacked in different arrangements
• Mounting them on the wall to take advantage of vertical space
• Taking advantage of the depth of your cabinet space and maximizing the amount of stuff you can fit in your storage cabinet
• Accommodating different types of items, from binder clips to letter size sheets of paper; yet the consistency of material keeps it looking organized
• Labeling them!

Cost: $13 - $55

Available at: The Container Store

In order to help you feel better in your space, and thus increase your productivity, try personalizing your office.  Here are some tips to help you create a space you will enjoy:

• Add items that remind you of good times or people that make you happy.  Bring in framed photographs or significant items.  You can even create a personalized calendar with fun photos.
• Try keeping these items contained or together, rather than strewn about everywhere.  If they take up too much space, they will begin to feel like clutter.
• Consider lining photographs in a row, which looks and feels more organized.  Here’s an adorable chalkboard frame that can store your memos and remind you of messages.  
• Add some color!  Purchase some flowers or add a pretty painting.
• Remember to reassess your personal mementos quarterly to make sure they haven’t exceeded their boundary within your workspace.

Got some tips of your own for improving a drab cubicle?  Share them with us!  

If you’re going to be sitting somewhere from 9 to 5 each week, you might as well make it an organized, functional space.  Don’t feel limited by your small space; you can still create an organized work area!  

1. Maximize your use of walls by hanging anything and everything possible, like a coat hook balanced on the rim of the cubicle.  We love these Safco PanelMate Organizers.
   
2. If you have “office toys,” try grouping them together rather than spreading them out all over your cube.  Your collection will look cohesive and contained, instead of sloppy.
3. Use a monitor stand that also has dual functionality as a paper tray or supply organizer.
4. Keep all of your most-used items within an arm’s reach semi-circle from your chair – these are your action items.  The next layer of the circle is for reference items, and then the outside layer is for archive items (if it must stay in your cubicle).
5. Label everything (including outside drawers, if applicable) so that others can find what they are looking for easily without going through all your stuff (for example, if someone is looking for a pencil, you don’t want them looking in your snack drawer).

Get a jump start on organizing now with our Business Spring Cleaning Checklist!

Here are some tips for managing the piles of magazines on the coffee table:

• While reading your mag, dog ear articles, recipes, and images that you really like.  When you’re finished with the magazine, tear all of your dog-eared pages out to save, and then recycle the rest of the magazine.  
• For even better paper management, scan all of these dog-eared articles, recipes, and images so you can get rid of the paper all together!
• Recycle magazines older than one year (most of the information is now irrelevant; you can rip out favorite pages to save).  Try to recycle magazines before they pass 6 months in your home.
• If you have magazines you didn’t pull anything out of, rather than recycle them, you can donate to schools or senior centers to be used for projects or read again.
• If you want to completely rid yourself of extra magazine clutter and you have a tablet, consider signing up for the electronic version of your magazine subscriptions instead.

Mount magazine holders onto the wall to use as bins for your mail center.

If you mount three on the wall, you can use them for:

1. incoming mail that needs to be sorted
2. mail that has an action associated with it (such as invitations, bills, coupons)
3. outgoing mail

To learn more about mail centers, attend our upcoming webinar Creating a Mail Center in Your Home: Handle Bills Efficiently

It’s easy to make the connection between stuff and money. Stuff costs money. But, as you go about deciding which items to bring into your home, remember this: stuff equals time.

Which items are worth your time?”

Read the full article to learn more about her revelation.  Time management is not only about creating schedules and staying on task, it’s about making sure other things don’t eat up all of your time unexpectedly.  In the long run, the more stuff you have, the less time you have.