How To Organize Desks Without Drawers?

It becomes difficult to work with less space and zero drawers at your desk. Here, organized utilization of the desktop and keeping things in the right place may help to ease your work. So, we have enlisted some ways to organize desks without drawers easily.

Purpose Of Having An Organized Desk

People often think that organizing things isn’t necessary. They believe they can work effectively even on a dirty desk. But, psychologists around the world deny that. So here are a few points that explain why it is so important to organize a desk. Especially when you don’t have enough storage.

a. Reduces Stress Level

Believe it or not, an organized desk reduces stress. We don’t realize it but our environment has a great impact on our mental well-being. Do you observe that people with messy desks are often more stressed and panic easily? It is because In the back of their mind they see the mess. Even though they don’t seem to care about it. Their conscious mind keeps talking about it.

b. Increases Productivity

An organized desk makes you more productive because your focus improves. You will not be distracted by the mess on your desk anymore. All your attention will be on what you are doing. Also, you will be able to find things quicker. It will shift your focus from unimportant to important things.

How To Manage Storage?

Let’s say you have organized all the things on your desk and now it’s time to store the things. But you have very little storage because there are no drawers. Now what? Managing desk storage without drawers can be a pretty daunting task. But it’s not a big tragedy. Given below are some points to help you manage storage.

A. Use Walls

Is your desk placed next to a wall? If yes, then take advantage of that. This trick doesn’t work if your desk is placed right in the centre of the room or near a window. In that case, I recommend moving your desk near a wall as it helps with storage. Now that your desk is near the wall, these are some things that you can use to enhance storage.

Shelves – shelves are the most common solution when it comes to storage. You can attach shelves above your desk. Just make sure you can easily reach them. Don’t put them so high that you have to stand every time you need something. One golden rule of organizing desks is to keep everything that you need frequently at arms reach. Along with wall shelves, you can also use under shelves. They can be used for storing loose papers or files.

Pegboard – Pegboards are awesome to hang small things like chargers, headphones or connection wires. The best feature is that you can always rearrange a pegboard according to your needs. It helps you to keep your tiny things organized.

B. Use Trays For Storage

Trays don’t look like they are of any help. But trust me they can prove to be helpful when you know how to use it. You can use it to store your paperwork, stationery, memos, or writing pads. Trays can help you to be super organized. They increase your storage vertically. They add 2 or more layers to your desk. You can also label your trays to find stuff more easily.

C. Desk Organizers

Desk organizers are like trays but with small compartments. They help you organize small items like paper pins, staplers, stamps etc. Instead of buying desk organizers, you can DIY it. Simply use a tray and place small bowls on it to make the compartments. It will do the work.

D. Use Of A Cable Management Box

With the world digitalizing, cables are a part of our lives. Be it chargers or headphones, there are always cables on our desks. It makes the desk look very messy and cluttered. Instead of hiding them, you can use a cable management box. You can find it online. What it does is, it brings all your cables together in a box and makes it look neat. It also prevents your cables from tangling. So if you have a lot of cables on your desk make sure to use one of these.

E. Use Of Hooks And Rails

Another technique to organize wires is to add hooks along the side of your desk. Hooks make it a lot easier to hang wires like headphones or chargers. Just glue or nail some hooks along the side and you are sorted. Rails or tension bars are a good idea to solve storage problems.

Simply attach the tension rod to the rim of your desk and hang containers. These containers come in handy to store pens, markers or highlighters, etc. These are very useful as you can easily see what you are reaching for.

F. Keyboard Tray Instead Of Drawers

It is not compulsory to use only the topside of your desk. Especially when you don’t have drawers and there is a shortage of storage. You can use the space that was about to get wasted. Use the underside of your desk. It can be really helpful if put to good use. If you’re someone who uses a desktop computer and you have a separate keyboard.

Then go ahead and install a keyboard tray to keep your keyboard. There are several different kinds of trays available in the market. You will find desks that already have a keyboard tray attached to them. You will also see attachable keyboard trays that you can attach to your desk without the use of drills and stuff. You might be wondering, are keyboard trays really worth it? Well, the answer to that is simple, YES!

Keyboard trays are helpful for health, efficiency, and storage reasons. Keyboard trays prevent issues like arthritis or pain in your hand, arm, or wrist. They leave more space for other essential items that you need on your desk. Keyboard trays are said to increase productivity because with them you can type for longer hours without feeling pain.

G. Monitor Stands For Better Management

A monitor stand or riser does wonder for your health and storage shortage in your desk. It increases the height of your monitor and makes space below it. You can use that space in different ways. It can be used as another way to declutter your wires. You can just stuff all the wires in there. Some stands come with additional storage cabinets built in them which you can use to store paperwork or stationary.

Like I said before, they are a blessing for your neck and back. Especially when you’re working long hours as you don’t have to slouch anymore to look into the monitor screen. A monitor stand helps you in different ways. Even if you have drawers and no storage issue, you should consider getting one anyway.

How To Organize Everything?

For organizing your desk without drawers, you have to master a few steps. These steps will probably make you the organizing king/queen. Read the article further to know in detail about these steps.

1. Keep Necessary Things

Believe it or not, drawers contain a lot of unnecessary things. Still, we keep those things because we have enough space. But now we don’t have that extra space. So we need to get rid of anything that is not necessary. Doesn’t matter what it is, review everything before finding a place on your desk for it.

2. Thorough Clean-Up

This step is like a part of the first step. After you are done sorting out all the unnecessary stuff. Clean your desk thoroughly. Make sure you clean your desk every day. If possible, make it a habit. Don’t keep any waste paper or rough paper on your desk. It only decreases your desk space.

3. Write Down Everything You Need

I love making lists. And trust me it does help when you are organizing things. So make a list of everything that you need to organize your desk without drawers. Some of the things that are common to all desks include a junk tray, pen stands, a computer, writing pads and paperwork.

4. Layout

• It is one of the most important points when talking about organizing a desk without drawers. The way you will organize things depends a lot on the layout of the table. The layout of the desk here means the size of the desk.
• If you own a very narrow desk. Make sure you limit storage on the desk. Also, consider the fact that you have to leave an open space for yourself to write or place books.
• If you own a directorial desk i.e. there will be another person sitting opposite you with whom you need to communicate. In that case, you have to leave open space for both of you. To make room on your desk you can keep your things nearby your desk but not in the actual desk space.
• Keep in mind the things that you’ll need on your desk. For example, if you need a scanner. Then place them in such a way that they are not in the way and easily accessible as you work.

5. Digitalize

I love using physical calendars. But when you don’t have enough space you have to opt for other options. So I suggest you digitize your schedules and reminders. Store everything that you can on your computer. Like memos, schedules, or important reminders. It saves a lot of space on your desk and makes it decluttered.

6. A Junk Tray

This sounds silly and doesn’t seem to be very important. But when it comes to organizing a desk without drawers, it is one of the most important things. When you are working, you receive a lot of things throughout the day. Some of those things are important while others are not. But when you are working you hardly get time to sort it. So that’s when you use the junk tray. You just simply put everything that you receive throughout the day in the junk tray. Later at the end of the workday, take 5 mins and put everything in place. Throw away the unnecessary things and keep the important documents.

Final Thought

Hopefully, the points mentioned above will help you to get organized. Lastly, I would like to say that stop seeing ‘not having drawers’ as a disadvantage. You can do a lot with your desk even without drawers. A desk can have a lot of storage facilities with or without drawers. You just need to know how to utilize the space.