Stress comes with every job, its part of being in the “working world” but are you adding stress to your life with a messy office? With the holidays being just around the corner, feeling stressed or under pressure seems to be a part of everyone’s work life these days but there is a way to help.

I’ve talked about having a no messy desk policy, studies have even showed you are being judged on a messy workspace but at the end of the day, its no secret that a messy/cluttered office is causing you stress. Here are 5 things to clean today (and quickly!) to get rid of some unnecessary stressful feelings and really enjoy the holiday season.

  1. Your Desk

Yes I know this is an obvious one but take a quick look around and see if you see a mess, pile of papers or stacks of things that need to be put away or thrown away. It’s the place you spend most of your time and the place where you do your most important work so keep it tidy and you’ll feel better too.


                                                                                                                                        Image via lazyhomesteader.com

       2. Your Desk Drawers

I’ve been there before, where you don’t have time but need to clear your desk quickly so you shove everything into a drawer. The only problem with that is that you forget to go back and organize what you shoved away and now you’re stuck with some drawers that won’t even open and some that you’re too embarrassed to open. An easy tip: tackle one drawer a day and soon you’ll find yourself feeling relieved when you need to look for something or put something away.


       3. The Things on your Desk

So you have your desk then you have all the pencil cups, desk caddies, letter trays and other storage solutions on your desk. If they are filled to the brim with broken pens or papers that need to be thrown away, for your own sanity-clean them out. If you want to make room for holiday cards then this is a great place to start since you won’t even notice anything other than the mess some of these items usually create

       4. Your Desktop on your Computer

This is a digital office clean out that I wish everyone would take the time to do. I go through this during the busiest seasons in my life (like right now) and I end up missing deadlines and getting stressed out because I have so much stuff on my computer desktop. The article I was going to send over to a magazine? Piled under a set of photos for a blog post. All of this leads to stress which is why you need to take some time and clean off your digital desktop too.

       5. Any other nook + cranny in your workspace

Not all offices are the same so think about other parts that may be causing some visual or mental clutter in your life. For most people the holidays are a time of fun, joy and being insanely busy. Make this holiday season a little bit easier by finding everything you need and keeping your office stress/clutter free.

Any of you planning to do some pre-holiday office cleaning?

-Sayeh, The Office Stylist

P.S. If you need help getting organized, be sure to check out some of Turnstone’s modern office accessories to keep things together.            

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