How to: Organize your home office

Take stock
Do an inventory of furniture you already have. If you're not logging multiple hours a day in the space, an unused dining chair will suffice for your workspace; a small table with shelves or wall-mounted bookcases above makes a compact and efficient desk area; a board over filing cabinets is an economical and practical desk. Whatever you do, look up -- few of us maximize the vertical space in our homes and you need all of it to make the most of your home office.

Get organized
Don't let drawers become a jumbled mess of inaccessible items. Consider a kitchen utensil tray to keep scissors, stapler, Post-its and other office essentials orderly and reachable. Pretty glass and ceramic jars work well for pens and pencils. For personal papers, mail, stationery and magazines, use magazine holders in a colour that ties in with the surrounding decor. Hang corkboard or a quilted piece of fabric on the wall above your desk, or on the inside of storage cubbies and between shelves: you can pin notes and papers to it, reducing the clutter on your desktop.

Accessorize
Colour affects mood, so give your workstation palette careful thought. If you need to slow down and focus on tasks, consider a soothing muted palette of pale shades; if you need to kick-start your creativity with a jolt, deep, vibrant colours may be better for you. You can add colour with paint and with desktop accessories. Besides the overall room lighting, you'll need task lighting, especially near the computer monitor (if you have one) and over the area where you write. If a desk lamp will eat up precious inches, consider a light with a clamp, which you can attach to an overhead shelf. Because the home office becomes part of your home decor, don't forget the small touches. Pictures and plants (a few short bamboo stalks in a small glass is low-maintenance and low-budget) go a long way toward making the space look inviting and flow seamlessly through the house.

Read more in How-To and DIY Decor