Cramped Workspace Blues?

When your cubicle mate yawns, does their hand hit your face ? The traditional workspace isn’t typically so much “space” as it is work, but by looking at your cubicle or office in a different way can help you take better advantage of the space you do have. Even if your only furniture is a desk, there is still plenty of room on your walls, unused portions of your desk, and on your door (if you have one) that may help boost your productivity and lead to a more organized workspace.

One of the best added resources for more real estate in your workspace are the walls. While they are frequently used for hanging decorations and pictures, when used as an area of your office, walls introduce an impressive expanse of new work space to your cramped surroundings. For starters, you could turn an office wall into a white board. Now this doesn’t mean just hanging a store-bought bored up on your wall — that would be a waste of space – but actually transforming your wall into a writable board. Dry erase paint like Ideapaint can be used to write on walls to add a large space for notes, lists, or any other information that you would otherwise find handy.

But hanging things on your walls isn’t all a waste. Instead of using space-hogging furniture such as filing cabinets to cramp your space, attach folder pouches to a wall or use cork boards for collecting necessary papers. Another option is to transform a wall into a magnet through the use of magnetic pain. And while you won’t be able to hang large items and several coats are necessary to hold even light items, it will be strong enough to hang papers and other items without the need for pinning and nailing.

Next, rethink how you use your desk space. Yes, the topside is filled with your computer peripherals, papers, and other office paraphernalia, but this is just one portion of your usable desk area. What if you could transplant your sticky notes to the underside of your desk? That way, anytime you need to write a note you can easily reach under your desk for the paper. If you are feeling extra crafty you could even drill items such as surge protectors, power supplies, and other items into the underside of your desk. If this type of work is too drastic, look to the legs of your desk for cable management. Just wrap any cables around the desk legs to save space and avoid accidentally yanking cords out of the wall.

Finally, if you have an office door you can use it for additional useful storage of items such as to-do lists and other reminders that you may not otherwise see on the walls. Since you must interact with your door daily, make it the place to find information for everything on your agenda. This will help you keep track of important memos and aggregate all of the unrelated, but important, papers that would otherwise get lost on your desk or in a filing cabinet.