What We Keep in Our Office vs. the Kitchen Desk

Desk clutter. It happens to the best of us! I've been working hard at organizing my office supplies throughout my home, and I think I've landed on a good system. Like many people, we have multiple "drop zones" in our house, but I've found that assigning a purpose to each space has made life easier for us.

Desk (similar) | Folding Step Ladder Chair | Vase | Faux Peonies | Bird Prints (similar) | Copper Cookware | Copper Canisters | Candlesticks (similar) | Picture Light

For instance, we collect mail and random supplies in two places — one in our kitchen, and one in our home office. Both of the spaces are near the entryway, but they have very different purposes. Today, I wanted to take you on a mini-tour of these two spaces, to share how I've made them work for us.

What We Store in Our Kitchen Desk

Our kitchen desk has basically three different drawers. One is dedicated to electronics, which includes our charging cords, air tags, electric lighter — that sort of thing.

Leather Desk Mat | Bowl (similar) | Bradley Beige/Midnight Runner

In one drawer, it's like stationary galore! I think of this as my out-going mail space: it has all my fun calligraphy pens, envelopes, stamps. Anytime I see a cute card, especially a birthday card or "thinking of you" card, I pick one up to have on hand. I'm always so touched by friends and family that send cards — I want to be more like that, and setting myself up with the materials means it's more likely I will. I also have a little note paper to write notes for the girls' lunch boxes.

The last drawer is a catch-all drawer for a bunch of things, like small bills (for the tooth fairy or babysitter), checks, Post-Its, sunglasses. It was my ribbon drawer at one point, but I had to upgrade to a larger box! I also keep all of our gift cards there because we forget to use them if we don't know where they are. I have some paper for grocery lists and our weekly menu forms for meal planning. Also the girls' job charts are in here — they love knowing what their chores are and checking them off. The one I bought came with so many refills. It's also kind of funny — one item is "self-disciplined clock-in." What?! I wouldn't say it's the best one, but it's the one I'm using. I'll usually fill them out on Saturdays.

One thing that i finally got rid? Manuals. I had so many manuals for every appliance in the kitchen. Guess where you can find those now? Online. I'm giving all of you permission to recycle those papers! Now warrantees are different, but many of those you can fill out online as well.

So the kitchen desk is really all the things to keep the home running more smoothly.

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What We Store in Our Office

Bubble Chandelier | Ceiling Medallion | Velvet Club Chairs | Polly Blue/Sand Rug | Pedestal Table | Desk | Desk Chair | Urn (similar) | Coffee Table Books | Vase | Marble Bowl

Funny enough, the office desk doesn't have drawers, it's a table! So we made it feel like a desk by adding stacks of books and a mirrored tray that holds a tape dispenser and pen cup with scissors.

Mirrored Tray (similar) | Acrylic Tape Dispenser | Acrylic Handled Scissors | Vase | Faux Hydrangeas | Marble Bowl | Still Coffee Table Book

Then we created a storage solution in the bookcases flanking the entrances. In those drawers in the office, we have samples we're reviewing for work projects, file folders that store vendor information, plans and other key information — more of the big hefty stuff.

This space is really the incoming business mail drop zone. This is where we store bills we need to pay. But it pays to keep it tidy — don't let desk clutter stress you out! All mail that's not bills is on my kitchen desk — things like invitations, cards, magazines.

So while the kitchen desk is more like "pleasure and fun" zone, the office is really more of the business center of the home. Having two separate home office organization spaces has worked well for us as a system! How do you keep your home office spaces organized?

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