Erin and Kristin recently wrote about creating a paperless office so today I will chime in with a great office before and after and introduce you to some clever products and great online shops that will help you organize your office. Erin and Kristin focused on creating a paperless office but after streamlining I realized that there are still many papers and things that I simply must keep. There is no need to have papers floating around your office when there are thousands of products out there designed especially for the purpose of pulling it all together. You can get so much more accomplished when you can actually FIND what you are looking for!

We all need a little inspiration right? So let's get started with a real life office makeover. This is from the fabulous blog S.HOPtalk. I love this lady, she is so smart and stylish. The first image shows her desktop before, then after, all on a zero budget! I love this fresh organized space. She decided to get organized and planned a one day/$0 makeover by repurposing items in her home to create a more livable, productive (and pretty!) work space. You can read all about it here.

Did that inspire you? If so, why not begin your own office makeover by looking around to see what you can use differently in your home office, you may be able to redesign your space with very little (or no) money. If you need some help though from the product fairies, there are so many of them out there. Here are some of my favorite items on the market for the workspace.I'm not going to bore you with loads of bulky items and office furniture but may I show you what I believe to be the world's best file cabinet?

The ALEX cabinet from IKEA is WONDERFUL. Designed by angels. I have 3 arranged exactly as shown (see my craft space below), beneath a long window in my workroom. I use them to organize my art supplies and crafty things, and I've never been so 'together' in my life. I even store my FedEx folders and labels in a drawer along with packing tape and envelopes, stamps, and return address labels so that when I need to mail something I open ONE drawer and it's ALL in there. The ALEX is sold as one unit with six drawers, the three bottom drawers are deeper than the top three. It has wheels which is wonderful for when you need to vacuum (or you can remove the wheels too), and it's very affordable at $119. Here is what they look like in my craft room.

This is my craft room in New Hampshire. You can see the ALEX cabinets on the right side. You can also see the IKEA PS cabinet in white ($99), also from IKEA. The IKEA PS cabinet is where I store all of my paperwork that I must keep but do not necessarily use often. For files I use daily, I store them on top as you can see in the blue file folder. I tend to move around my home a lot to work on projects so I needed at least one mobile filing system so it works well for me. I also keep white magazine holders for issues that I use frequently on top of the same cabinet. The magazine holders are from one of my favorite stores, The Container Store, but you can also find them at Target (the Real Simple brand is a good one at Target as they are quite sturdy) or IKEA. I also have transparent magazine holders that I store in a nearby closet on a shelf, I find transparent holders more practical because I can see the spines without having to remove issues so I always pull out the right one, very helpful in a hurry. I don't particularly like the look of them though, that is why I store those inside of a closet. The above photo was taken last year, I have a large work table in this space (where I sew and craft), and things are a bit more organized now. I'm currently in Germany or else I'd show you the space as it looks today. But you get the idea.

Product time! Perhaps you will find a few below that you can use in your home office?

1. Vintage Double Tray, 2. floral magazine files, 3. Hable Construction storage totes (I have these and love them), and a 4. Pocket Strip Wall Organizer.

1. Wooden Memo Board, 2. Stainless streel memo board,  3. Desktop Writeboard, 4. Open Sesame! password reminder book from Bob's Your Uncle, 5. White magazine holders, and some 6. Russell & Hazel Binders.

Looking for more organization goodies? Try: CB2 Office, West Elm (for desks and file cabinets), Cocoa Living, Umbra, Pottery Barn, Rock Paper Scissors, PBKids, even Etsy (where I find the best magnets, notebooks, memo boards, and cup holders)!

Want to further enhance your office, for free? Here are some lovely desktop wallpapers from Kindred featured the work of six independent artists that you may like.

(images: top 3 from S.HOPtalk blog, 4th image from holly becker, final 2 images linked below to sources.)