Trouble with Clutter? Invest in a Co-working Space

Co-working spaces have been popping up all over in recent years to meet the needs of telecommuters and entrepreneurs. These spaces offer different-sized offices, WIFI connections, common shared office equipment, conference rooms for meetings, and business mailing addresses.

These spaces have varying levels of membership costs. The rates are typically associated with how often you’ll use the space and what type of office space you need. Those who need privacy can choose a private office with a door. Others can choose to rent a desk or work in an open space with other renters.

While there are a dozen benefits to working in this type of environment, one of the strongest is combatting your clutter issues.

Everything in its Place

With this type of open-air office setting, the clutter on one desk may easily affect the other workers in that space. Plus, do you really want these co-workers – basically strangers – seeing your messy habits or looking at your business papers? Probably not.

Even if you rent a desk that allows you to lock files away, you’ll still want the top of that desk to look spotless. If there’s a regular cleaning staff, they will have a difficult time keeping the dust bunnies at bay if your desktop is covered with clutter. And if that clutter is related to your business, do you really want to risk that type of liability?

Personal Items Stay at Home

Depending on how popular the co-working idea is in your area, you may have a full house of regular customers. Or your space may attract digital nomads who are just passing through your town. Do you want complete strangers seeing photos of your family or inspecting your other personal items?

Personal items – especially ones of any value – should stay at home. Not only will you get to admire them without work distractions, but you also eliminate the risk of theft. Most co-working spaces have rules about keeping the areas clear and won’t accept responsibility if things are stolen.

Improve Your Productivity

Productivity increases when distractions are limited. If you’re keeping your desktop clean and not displaying personal items, then distractions are severely limited at a co-working space. Turn off your phone ringer and notifications. Ta-da — you are distraction-free! You may run the risk of being distracted by conversations between other people, but some earbuds and music can eliminate that problem.

When productivity improves, your income improves as does your self-esteem. In a co-working setting, you’ll be motivated to keep your workspace neat simply because all the other members are. As a bonus, you may get inspired by some of the other workers and their business stories.

While renting a co-working space won’t magically make your clutter in your home office disappear, it can help you stay organized moving forward. By following the rules for your space, you’ll start to develop good organizational habits that will transfer over to your home office.