Verlie Feeney
Fail to make the grade on any of these measures and it can result in a space that’s cluttered, shortens productive hours, and looks more corporate than stylish. To fulfill your needs discover our favorite home office storage solutions as well as the advice of designers and professional organizers.
The best home office storage ideas suit what you need to store and the aesthetic of your room.
Consider both freestanding furniture and custom-built cabinetry and think, too, about whether your storage ideas should be open or closed, or include some of both types. ‘Using decorative boxes in the open shelves to store smaller items, such as photos, extra pens, or office supplies is a clever and visually appealing use of space – you get storage and decor all wrapped in one,’ says Courtnay Tartt Elias with Creative Tonic Design (opens in new tab). ‘In the same vein, I love to store flower vases in the open shelves of bookcases for a pop of color that feels fun and whimsical.
When planning your home office setup, bear in mind that the space behind a desk can be the ideal place to locate storage furniture, and a long low design can do double duty. ‘Not only does this hide items you don’t want on display, but it can also act as an additional work area when the need arises.’ Keep a home office feeling spacious by opting to provide all the storage the room needs on a single wall.
This is a particularly good solution for smaller rooms, avoiding the need to accommodate separate freestanding pieces, and can allow the desk to be positioned centrally. Follow this room’s example with cabinetry with decorative detail that makes the storage a handsome feature. ‘For the less attractive office items you need to store like printers, closed cabinets are ideal,’ says Courtnay Tartt Elias.
‘Building file cabinets into your bookcases is a lovely way to both increase the usable area of the desk above and ensure that all of the storage necessary for a functional home office is cohesive and beautiful,’ she says. If the room has a high ceiling, a library ladder like this one allows easy retrieval of items when necessary and adds to the coziness of a book-lined office. This is the method Pamela Meluskey and Larisa Bright, founders of luxury organization company Settled (opens in new tab) recommend. ‘Break down office items into clear categories, and label each bin or basket appropriately: Apply the same wisdom when organizing a desk – categorization and layout according to your needs will ensure the best home office productivity. ‘From jars and trays to teacups and tin cans, unusual or sentimental objects will provide much more creative inspiration throughout the day.
‘We also love to use baskets under a desk to conceal a multitude of things including trash bins – no one wants to see that.’ Maximize productivity in a small home office with storage that puts everything immediately to hand. Combining home office storage with a desk can be a neat solution for small rooms and also those that are awkwardly shaped, like this narrow version. Custom-built cabinetry provides the optimum amount of storage and allows the depth to be tailored to individual requirements.
To organize office storage efficiently always discard before you begin as it’s easy to accumulate paperwork that’s no longer needed, out-of-date tech, and more. After that it’s worth drawing up a list of exactly what you need to keep in the room – or office area – in order to make sure you include everything in your organization plan.
This gives you the option to move it out of the room when you’re in there to create extra space, then put it back into the home office when you’re done for the day.
