5 Cost-Effective Ideas for a Workspace Remix

Is your desk a disaster? Does your cubicle feel cluttered? You don’t have to use complicated organization tools to get your workspace in order. In fact, you may just need to look at common household items in a different way. Check out these five unexpected organization tools for effective storage on a budget.

1. A dish organizer keeps binders upright and easy to grab (for best results, use 1.5” capacity binders or smaller). Great for keeping frequently accessed documents organized and protected on your desktop, the dish organizer keeps the spine in view and prevents annoying binder avalanches if one tips over.
2. Are you taking the term “junk drawer” to new extremes? A kitchen utensil tray is the perfect way to divide them, especially when storing pens, pencils, highlighters, etc. Prefer smaller sections? Use a jewelry organizer, empty fiber egg cartons or small jewelry boxes to section up the space. You can even use silicone muffin-pan liners for keys, rubber bands, beads and more.
3. Make use of vertical space by hanging a shower caddy on the wall. At home, this is the perfect wrapping paper center or stationery hub. If you’re dealing with a cubicle, use an over-the-wall hook and store frequently accessed notebooks and sticky memos in each section. The built-in hooks are perfect for hanging scissors or masking tape.
4. Use inexpensive pegboard to create custom hanging storage for a clutter-free workspace. A packet of S-hooks will be your best friend with this organization hack; hang small buckets to store writing utensils, paper clips, extra staples and more. Hook up a binder clip and hang clear poly viewers with active projects instead of creating piles on your desk. You can even clip up your calendar!
5. Constantly on the go? If your “home office” really means wherever there’s a flat available surface, use a dish drying rack to keep essential binders, notebooks and file folders together — you can probably even fit your laptop. The utensil section is ideal for holding pens and pencils, and the limited space means packing up only your essentials.

Put one of these organization tricks to use, or try all five for an organized office that works for you and your bank account. You might just find that repurposing these items inspires you to look at storage in a whole new way. Need to refresh some office products before you store them? Get started with a few Cardinal® ExpressLoad™ Binders and some Pendaflex® Color Tab File Folders.

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