14 Things a Professional Organizer Says You Need to Have In Your Home Office

If you’re working from home full-time, having a clean, orderly place to get down to business is key to actually getting stuff done. We spoke with Erika Salloux, a professional organizer and the founder of Living Harmony, about the items you need in your home office to maximize your productivity and minimize clutter.

1. Desk

Stop trying to get work done from the couch: Typing away with your laptop on your lap not only makes it difficult to focus, it puts strain on your back and neck. “A really good desk is really important and it should be the right size for the space that you’re in,” Salloux says. And she recommends skipping the huge desks with tons of built-in drawers, dividers, and file cabinets—all of those can be purchased separately to best suit your needs. “Just a simple, table-top desk, and you can add whatever you want to it,” she says.

Buy It: Amazon

2. Desk chair

When it comes to chairs, go armless, Salloux recommends. “When you have arms on a chair, people don’t sit up straight; they lean on the arm. Then they’re leaning forward and they’re doing their body a major disservice,” she says. Also, for the most ergonomically friendly choice, pick a chair with an adjustable height—not one that belongs at a dining room table.

Buy It: Amazon

3. Paper trays

In order to keep clutter at bay, Salloux says you need to stay on top of your paper. She recommends using what she calls the FAT system—each time you find yourself holding a piece of paper (a piece of mail, an invoice, a report, etc.) decide whether you should file it, act on it, or toss it. Use desk trays to store papers you need to act on. “I recommend ones that stack on top of each other and that open the longer way, like the landscape way. The way where the paper goes deeper in,” Salloux says.

She recommends four trays: one for business-related papers, one for anything personal (your kid’s permission slip, a wedding invite you need to respond to), one for bills, and one for “pending” items—things you’ve acted on and are awaiting a response.

Buy It: Amazon

4. File cabinet

“People think we’ve gone paperless in this society but we really haven’t. That’s just a myth,” Salloux says. So you’re going to need a file cabinet to hold everything. Salloux cautions you to buy a full-extension cabinet so you don’t lose anything in the back.

Buy It: Amazon

5. Hanging file folders

These folders are a great way to store and organize documents. Use the different colors for various topics and needs.

Buy It: Amazon

6. Paper shredder

For the T portion of Salloux’s FAT system—toss—you need a quality paper shredder. “Use a cross shredder, not a strip shredder,” she says, and “shred right away” so papers don’t pile up.

Buy It: Amazon

7. Recycling bin

No need to put less-sensitive paper trash through the shredder, but you do need a good-size recycling bin. Don’t get a tiny trash can, Salloux says, “but a really big, nice basket that you could put the rest of the recycling in that you don’t have to empty out every day.”

Buy It: Amazon

8. Supply organizer

“The other thing that I also see that people don’t have in their office that they really need is some sort of supply organizer that’s within arm’s reach,” Salloux says. “Something where they put all their things like their stickies, their tape, their paperclips, stapler, scissors.” You can waste valuable time rooting through your desk for a paperclip or sprinting to the kitchen for a pair of scissors, so keep everything you need close at hand in one neat spot.

Buy It: Amazon

9. Computer

Having a computer to do your work is a given, but Salloux notes that you should work from one computer. “It sounds like a no-brainer, but I oftentimes am hired by people who have three computers, or they [hold onto] an old computer that has the old data on it that they’re not using,” she says. “I recommend that people get down to one computer where all their documents are backed up and stored."

Buy It: Amazon

10. Backup hard drive

Anyone who has ever lost a report the night before a big presentation or their whole album of vacation photos knows how important it is to back up your files. But here’s a friendly reminder that a backup hard drive is a necessity. “In addition to a hard backup drive that lives in your office you should have a cloud backup as well,” Salloux says.

Buy It: Amazon

11. Extra set of cables

We’d never heard this piece of organizing advice before and now can’t believe we’ve lived without it: Keep a second power cord and any other cables you need for your computer in a bag or case next to your desk. “You don’t want to have to unplug all your cords, go under your desk and pull them all out, every time you go on a business trip or go somewhere to work,” Salloux says.

If you work primarily in an office but bring a laptop home to work frequently, keep one set of cords at work and one at home.

Buy It: (Cords will vary by computer, but we found a cute organizer case on Amazon)

12. Wireless printer

Salloux tells us printing should be easy—so why add the extra step of having to plug your computer into the printer every time you need to?

Buy It: Amazon

13. Notebook (or notepad)

Salloux is a fan of making lists in order to help stay focused. “I think that it helps people stick to the most important tasks as opposed to the easy stuff,” she says. There’s no one right way to create a to-do list (here are seven ways experts recommend), but Salloux says it’s best to find a system that keeps you accountable for tasks that are important but not particularly urgent. “That quadrant is one that we a lot of times have trouble with,” she says.

Buy It: Amazon

14. Supplies

Your home office doesn’t have a supply closet you can raid, so don’t forget to stock up on all the fun little things! Salloux says they’re just as important as the others. “It sounds crazy, but it’s really super important to have the right tools at hand,” she says. “Those things like stickies and having tape—those items can be super helpful in an office so you’re not looking for them every time you need them somewhere else. That’s super essential.”

Buy It: Sticky Notes; Tape; Ruler; Stapler; Staple Remover; Pens; Scissors

A version of this article was originally published in 2017 and has been updated for 2024.