Close your eyes and think of your favorite indoor place—is it someone’s house? A business? A hotel? Take note of how you feel here—why is it your favorite? What does it look like, smell like, feel like?
Now, wouldn’t you love that feeling in your own home, where you go everyday? Of course you would! Especially in a room that you are in a lot (i.e. the office).
There are a lot of benefits to a great and that’s why we have come up with 7 tips to create a workspace you love. This applies to every workspace and every occupation; whether you have an entire room for an office or if it is a desk and a computer against a wall.
Humans have 5 senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. To create a workspace you love, you will need to incorporate each one.
Office Makeover Tip #1: Declutter
Which of the 5 senses does this fall into? Sight? Bingo. You need to get rid of the clutter—the random pens, pencils, sharpies, unopened mail, greeting cards, notebooks, business cards, etc. that are currently laying on your desktop.
Read on for tip #2 and you’ll learn that everything has a place so whatever is laying around needs to be thrown away, given away or put away. It is an eye sore and affects your mood, productivity, and is not conducive to the wonderful workspace we are creating.
Office Makeover Tip #2: Neat, Clean, Organized
Have you heard of The Home Edit? It is a company, owned and operated by 2 women who love to be organized. Or rather, hate clutter. They currently have a top hit show on Netflix and a department at the Container Store.
If you have heard of them, you know that their job is to help organize people’s homes because a neat, clean and organized home is a functional and visually appealing home.
When you finish decluttering, you will have more room for the essentials. We love the organization systems that The Home Edit uses—everything has a place!
“There is no such thing as a floating item.” — Joanna Teplin
Office Makeover Tip #3: Wall Art
When it comes to hanging things on your wall (given you have one in your workspace), you want 2 things: more organization and an art piece.
The art piece could be professionally made or a family photograph. It is up to you and your style! The organization piece needs to be a bulletin board, calendar, cubbies for incoming and outgoing mail.
We are not fans of a “junk drawer”. We find that too many things are deemed “junk”, thrown into the drawer and forgotten about. As tip #2 states, we take the NCO (neat, clean and organized) approach.
Office Makeover Tip #4: Lighting
Lighting is extremely important and the most commonly overlooked element in creating a 5 star room. Poor lighting is not only unwelcoming, it strains the eyes and if you are working on the computer, you want as much light as you can get.
Proper lighting consists of table lamps and floor lamps, even overhead lights with soft lighting. Think of your favorite place again. What lighting does it have?
Office Makeover Tip #5: Desk
Your desk must be big enough to house your computer or laptop and also have space for writing. There are many styles of desk to choose from. Some have storage built in for files and keyboards. Some, called writing desks, are simplified and just have 4 legs and a table top.
If you want a pair of speakers, external harddrive, CD reader, and lamp, your desk is going to be larger than someone who just needs a space to lay down a laptop. The size does not matter. It is what you do with the space that matters.
Office Makeover Tip #6: Chair
A good office chair is crucial. As with desks, there are hundreds of styles you can choose from, even within the normal rolly computer chair category. Not to mention the tall, wingback chairs or yoga ball chair. Choose a chair that you are comfortable sitting in for many hours at a time. One that fits under your desk and fits your space!
If you like to cross your legs, choose one that allows that with your desk height. The convenient feature of a rolly computer chair is that the height is adjustable. You can even find that feature on this upholstered office chair from World Market.
Office Makeover Tip #7: Signature Scent
Do you have a signature scent in your house? One way to make your home feel spa-like is to choose one scent and spread it throughout, in every room.
Say, instead of having multiple candle scents. Choose one and have that same candle burn in a couple different rooms so that when you walk around the house, you are enthralled with that one scent.
As smell is one of the 5 senses, it is important to choose one that you love and can tolerate for a long time. We opt for soy, coconut, beeswax or vegetable based candles, as opposed to paraffin wax. There is a debate that traditional paraffin candles (derived from oil) are bad for the environment, releasing more carcinogens into the atmosphere and are not biodegradable.
We leave that in-depth research up to you. To be safe, we opt for the alternative. They are more of an investment but they last longer and the scents are natural!
Keep reading! Here are some more blog posts that we think you’ll be interested in:
Fall Fashion: How to Bring Hygge To Your Wardrobe and Workspace
Organization at Work: Ditch the Digital Clutter
The Magic of Tidying Up: Spring Cleaning for the Mind, Closet and Workspace
Wellness Tips for the Workplace: 6 Ways to Stay Healthy, Physically and Mentally
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