Organizing your desk: the Must Haves

Trying to de-clutter and organize a workspace can be a bit of a challenge especially when the clock keeps ticking and working never ends. For me, having my desk organized is one of the only ways I can get school or work things done, but keeping the organization for weeks at a time can be rough. Luckily, there are several items and ideas that can help people like me to keep our desks organized long-term.

A plan

  1. Image result for desk layout
    Source: Pinterest

    Have a layout of your desk ready to organize, or at least think about where you’ll remember that you put things, and make sure to keep it where you can look at it again.
    Take a sheet of paper and draw a sketch of your desk so you can save some energy from moving things around 10 times. Think about a place for notebooks, office supplies, textbooks, calendars, and anything else your personal bubble may require.

Filing system

  1. Having an efficient filing system is a huge part of keeping a desk organized. Personally, I have a massive filing system in my desk, but I have completely stopped losing papers and important mail and banking information.
  2. As far as I have seen, most desks have a drawer with little ridges on the side to use for filing. USE THESE. These drawers with these accommodations are a very efficient way to keep track of the little papers that slip between that graded paper from last month and that important piece of mail from the IRS, but to organize these areas you’ll have to get a set of filing folders.

    Image result for filing folders
  3. If you’re the color coding type, stores carry the sliding file folders like the ones in the picture to the right. In my desk, my green folders are for unimportant things like extra loose-leaf paper while my blue folders are for less important things like my mail from Disney Movie Club. My yellow folders are for semi-important things like pay stubs and time sheets, but my red section is for important papers like insurance information, taxes, and mail from my doctor’s office.

    Image result for filing folders
  4. If you’re not the color coding type, there are other options like the ones pictured that do the same job but with consistent color. Filing folders can be labeled so there is no confusion about what paper goes where, but having a filing system is a great start to having and keeping an organized desk.


  1. Keeping dates organized is a given, but why not keep track of them several times? Even though I have a school planner that comes with me everywhere I go, I also have a dry-erase calendar for my desk and a desk calendar for important dates. Call me compulsive, but with a hefty schedule there are never enough ways to organize.

    Image result for planner amazon
  2. Having a calendar specifically made for your desk is useful in many ways like keeping up with birthdays, school holidays, and upcoming events/chores around the house. No need to clutter your school planner with your home life business.

Sticky notes

  1. One of my favorite office supplies to keep handy are sticky notes. Even though they can take up a bunch of room once they start getting plastered all over the desk, they are still extremely useful and important for jotting down quickinformation to remember.
Image result for sticky notes
Source: PC World


Image result for office drawer organizerDrawer Organizer

A desk can’t be complete without an organizer. As far as I know, no one likes to scramble through several items to look for a paperclip or a rubberband, so an organizer for your desk drawer is a lifesaving tool that can hold anything you can imagine. Some of the most useful items to put in this space are:

  1. calculator—Having a calculator in your drawer organizer is an awesome idea if you pay bills, do taxes or even have math homework to do at your desk.
  2. stapler—Staplers are good to keep in a drawer organizer for easy access to putting papers together for presentations, essays and more.
  3. hole punch—Organizing a binder is a completely different topic, but having a handy hole punch is great for helping to organize notes and important documents that have to be in a binder
  4. binder clips—Access to these via drawer organizer is extremely important! Ever had a stack of paper too big for a staple? Binder clip! Something to hold a planner in place? Binder clip!
  5. paper clips—The world’s most favorite messy organization instrument is a necessity to have in your desk drawer organizer. Otherwise you may never know where they disappear to when you’re not around!