Hey there! You might remember I shared a tour of my small home office a couple of months ago. I went over the various ways I organize this space in my house but only briefly touched on how I keep my desk organized. So today I thought I’d go into a little more detail and provide you with some of the desk organizing solutions that I use. I hope you find some of these ideas helpful especially if you are short on space.
*I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.*
Earlier this week, I was talking to my sister as she was trying to set up a desk in her bedroom and needed some organizing ideas. My sister only recently started working from home during the pandemic and it looks like this might be the case for awhile. With two monitors on her desk, there was no room for anything else and she needed somewhere to store all her work files and such.
That’s when I told her she needed a Pixie, otherwise known as a super awesome 3-tiered rolling cart. I’ll even go on record to say that everyone needs a Pixie in their life. I’m not really sure how I ever functioned without her. And yes I named her, this should come as no surprise to you. I am an Organizing Junkie after all and we get very attached to our organizing superstars. And that’s what Pixie is. She is a superstar! And even if you don’t have an office space, Pixie works beautifully as a portable office as well. I originally wrote all about her HERE. This picture below is what she looked like back then. As you can see she traveled more at that time than she does now. I need to take her out for some sunshine more often 🙂
Today she’s organized a little differently but still as functional as always. These carts come in all sorts of colors too. Here’s a link to a black one on Amazon for you but a quick search will find you many other colors.
To refresh, here’s what my desk area currently looks like. As you can see my computer takes up a good portion of the space. Not a lot of room to store the necessities of life which is where Pixie comes in and is such a lifesaver. I can have everything I need right at my fingertips. The key to keeping her organized is the “container in a container” philosophy. (That’s not a real philosophy, I just made it up.) Divided containers are your best friend here otherwise you’ll just end up with a jumbled mess.
The top shelf holds two divided containers that contain my planners and notebooks as well as my glasses, address labels, note cards, etc. Here is a similar desk organizer to the one I’m using but I also like this one and this one.
Here is a link to my Breathe Rae Dunn pen holder.
The second shelf utilizes a mail organizer with three sections. I love these! They are so helpful for keeping items vertical, saving so much space. It also allows you to quickly find what you need. Sweet!
I also have one on my desk for papers that need immediate action. I couldn’t find the exact ones but here’s a link for a similar black mail organizer and a white mail organizer like the one I have on my desk.
The bottom shelf holds a super divided insert from Ikea designed specifically to fit this type of rolling cart. It contains all sorts of random odd things perfectly!
And by the way I did convince my sister to buy her own Pixie. It looks great and I love the color (she purchased hers at Canadian Tire). She added a file holder (similar to this one) to the top shelf to organize all her work files which is perfect. Everything is easily accessible and if she decides to work elsewhere in the house she can just role it with her where ever she goes. I wonder if she’ll name hers? Probably not, she’s not as weird as me, ha!
Moving on to my desk, you’ll see that it has one very shallow drawer in it. I use a divided jewelry organizer (similar one here) to keep everything tidy along with a magnetic strip to hold little containers of paper clips and push pins. The magnetic strip (similar one) is nice because the containers stay put when I open and shut the drawer door.
To the right of my desk I have yet ANOTHER divided container (are you sensing a pattern here!) and this one holds receipts in the front and coupons and other pending papers in the back. Mine is an old Martha Stewart one which I don’t think they make anymore.
Near that I also have a charging station permanently set up on my desk so it’s handy and ready to use at all times.
Another important element to think about is using wall space when short on desk space. Here’s an example in my old office space before I moved things around. Easily gets your files up and out of the way. More about that HERE.
Trays are another way to contain items and keep them from spreading out all over the place. That’s how I store my business cards and a candle. Here’s a similar Rae Dunn tray to the one I have.
If you’d like to read more about how I use a planner and list notebook to organize my life, you can do that right HERE.
I hope you enjoyed this teeny tiny tour of my desk space and how I keep it organized. If you’ve got any questions for me, just leave them in the comments. I always answer there. This would make a great weekend organizing project if you’ve got a cluttered space you’d like to makeover. Have fun!
To see more of my favorite desk organizing solutions, please visit my Amazon Shop!
