Does Virtual Home Office Organizing Work?
Yes, especially when life happens. Unfortunately for my client his parents were both ill at the same time. As a result, over a number of years, his home office became cluttered with all the items that couldn’t quickly be put away. It was now time for my client to get his life back on track and virtual home office organizing was the solution. He wanted an organized home office where all items have a home and where he could efficiently tackle the tasks that needed to be done. His objective was to walk into the room and utter a sigh of relief because the clutter and disorganization were gone.
Over 4 weeks we met twice a week. During these 1 hour meetings, we created and implemented a virtual home office organizing strategy that would transform his home office into a truly functional workspace that could be easily maintained.
Before: A small but ample size room in my client’s NYC apartment was used as his home office. A small portion of this space was used for storing miscellaneous items like plant supplies, snacks and memorabilia. There are 2 shelving units that contained an assortment of items that were randomly placed on the shelves with the overflow stacked on the floor. His desk has 2 shelves above it that weren’t being used strategically which was a problem because his desk doesn’t have any drawers. In addition, he was using a large container as his in-box and it was overflowing with paperwork that needed to be sorted.
The top of the credenza was cluttered with random items that had collected because my client didn’t know where to put them. In addition, the drawers/cabinets were jammed pack with office supplies, training materials, and computer accessories. As my client is a plant lover and the room has ideal exposure, his plants were on many surfaces and needed to be organized as well.
After: I divided the room into 4 zones and we tackled one area at a time so that the decluttering wouldn’t be too overwhelming. As we sorted the boxes and containers, items were quickly moved to one of the following piles: keep, storage unit, give away or throw out. All items to be kept were assigned a specific storage locations (home) in the room so we could keep like items together. For example, all the household items and memorabilia were assigned spots on the 6’ metal rack. The other smaller shelving unit was used primarily for storing computer and tech equipment.
The only items that were left on the top of the credenza were some reference books, a stationery organizer and a lovely plant. The office supplies were streamlined so that they only take up one drawer. The computer accessories were assigned to one of the cabinets and folders, pads, label stock and the like were neatly filed away in bins in the other cabinet.
As for the desk, all the paperwork was sorted and filed accordingly. Desk organizers were placed on the shelves for most frequently needed office supplies, an in box, to-do box and a work in process container. As a result of much hard work, my client had collected 6 bags of trash, had 14 empty containers, 3 empty drawers, and room on the neatly organized shelves by the end of the 4 weeks!!
Lessons Learned:
“My office is now a calm place to work, instead of a stressful one. Thanks to Stephanie, for the first time in a long time, I can create a long-term vision for my office. When I sit back and look around, I am astounded at all the space we made and how organized everything is. Rather than looking at how to fill this new-found space, I stick with one of her mantras, “Empty space is GOOD space.” No matter what I do in the future with this space, I will continue to use what Stephanie taught me and use my tools to manage my space, keeping it efficient and comfortable.” Director of Learning & Development
Does your home office need to be re-organized? Doing the work virtually may be another option for you to consider. Reach out to your NYC Professional Office Organizer today to discuss how virtual home office organizing can address your challenges.