Tidy Your Desk Using Only Your Stationery

Whether at home or at work, everyone's desks eventually gets cluttered with notepads, loose files and sticky notes. But I found some helpful tips on the Viking blog to keep things tidy, just by using what's around you!

Step 1: Get Your Power Cables Tidied

Grab a few of those sticky notes and put them to work. Cut them into thin strips and stick them over your power cables to make sure you don't lose a full day's work just trying to disconnect a fan! Either write down which plug is which, or grab different coloured sticky notes for each plug you have.

Step 2: Clear Out Your Keyboard

Keeping your keyboard clean is no easy task, particularly if you always eat lunch at your desk. But if you unfold a paperclip and carefully wrap some sticky tape around it, you can get in-between those gaps in the keys and cut down on the dust and crumbs that find their way in there.

Step 3: Binder Clip Everything for Ease of Use

Binder clips are really useful for a quick and easy way to keep USB and charge cables connected but not strewn across your desk. Store them in the ports at the back of your computer, and loop them through binder clips so you can grab them when needed. Clip the binder onto the edge of your desk, or if it's too wide, blue tack the bottom of the clip onto the desk's edge.

Binder clips can also be used to keep your headphones nice and tidy by wrapping them around the metal legs in a figure eight. Ready to use, but not cluttering up your space.

Step 4: Use Your Desk-Side Food

If you start your day with a bowl of cereal at your desk, keep the boxes. These cardboard boxes make great makeshift file storage for any loose documents you have lying around. You can separate 'To Do' and 'Urgent' files to make sure you aren't swamped.

And if you're enjoying a snack at break-time, you can use the lid of a pen to reseal it and keeps things fresh for later!