Isn’t it frustrating when you’re trying to get work done and something interrupts you. You lose your concentration and focus. Now, your productivity has dwindled to nothing and you’re struggling to finish your work.  It isn’t just adults who are working from home who experience these distractions. Students are even more prone to being distracted!

1,000 top selling real estate agents participated in Homelight’s  Q3 survey and 7% of them said they have clients who want several home offices. Along with home offices, 1% of surveyed agents said some of their buyers wanted to have a place where they could create an at-home classroom!

If you’re someone who needs a home office or two, here are a few tips for creating a home office that’ll accommodate all of your family’s needs.

1. Figure out the room’s purpose

The whole point of clearing out a room or a little corner of a room to create a home office is to have a place where you can do work distraction free. However, some homes don’t have a spare room to do that. So you have to figure out if the room/space needs to serve another purpose.

2. Remove everything from the room

Once you figure out if the room needs to serve another purpose, now you’ll want to clear the room out. Take out any furniture (clean them as you go!), any odds and ends, nicknacks, wall hangings and so on. By removing everything from the room, you’ll have a blank space to create the home office your family needs. 

3. Sort through the clutter

As you remove everything in the room, you’re going to want to go through it and toss (or donate) anything you don’t need or use anymore. Let’s say you’re turning a playroom into a classroom for your children and you want to remove any distractions. You’ll want to remove the toy box, go through the toys, and donate what your children don’t play with anymore. You then can put the toy box in your kids room or somewhere else in your home.

4. Use an organization system

When you’re ready to start putting things back into the room, use some kind of organizational system. This could be bins, shelves, boxes, or anything else that’ll help keep things easily accessible, neat and tidy. For your desk, keep papers in a paper tray, use magazine files to keep documents you use regularly in one place. Use small containers for paper clips, rubber bands, push pins and the like. If you have a lot of files you need to keep, use a filing cabinet or a file box so you know exactly where those documents are should you need to access them in the future.

5. Store like-items together

This step is especially important for students, as they typically have a lot of materials they need to use for any given class. So you’ll want to use bins to keep all the materials they need in one spot. Let’s use math class, for example. You’re going to want to put a calculator, ruler, compass, notebook/workbook and textbook together in one bin. For art class, keep all art supplies together. You get the idea. Of course, you can do this for your own work, too!

Organization is key when you’re creating a home office! An organization system will keep your materials separated from your children’s, and your children’s stuff separated from each other’s. You’ll have a distraction free workspace and you’ll be surprised by how much more productive your family will be!