To setup a minimalist home office and maintain it over time is a dream of any (aspiring) minimalist. A home office with minimalist set up not only looks clean and aesthetically pleasing, but it also boosts your productivity by helping you focus on your tasks with clarity of mind. The trick is to incorporate only essential items in your work space so that the clutter doesn’t build up quickly over time. With lesser items in the first place, it is easy to clean and organize on a day to day basis as well.

When it comes to minimalist spaces, clean lines and monochrome color palettes come to mind. While most minimal spaces are color contrasted with white and black/grey, you can be creative and curate your space as per your personal style.

If you have already established your home office and now want to make it look minimal, then with few modifications you can achieve your goal. Of course if you are planning to set up your new space, then you have more options to design it in a sleek and minimal way. Let’s discuss both scenarios.

IF YOU ARE SETTING UP A NEW HOME OFFICE

There are certain things which you can choose right from the very beginning of the office setup process to get a clean and minimal look of the final design.

ROOM COLOR SCHEME

The color scheme plays an important role to give the overall work space a desired look. If you would like your space to be upbeat and funky, then you can go for brighter shades like yellow or bright green (its preferable to have 70% of the area in the lighter tone of the color and the remaining with the popping hue). If you are inclined towards simple and clean outlook, then the good old all white will work for your desired minimalist look.

FURNITURE COLOR SCHEME

If you are setting up a new space with addition of the new office furniture, then making it color coordinated with room color scheme will give a very polished vibe to your space. Usually people opt for oak, grey or black colored furniture with the white painted room for a sleek and minimal look. You can be creative and look for inspirations. Pinterest is full of innovative ideas!

ERGONOMIC FURNITURE

Buying an ergonomic piece of furniture such as office chair (the best comfortable chairsnullare discussed here), office desk (check out these minimalist affordable desks), etc, will not only be good for your health, but it will also be a stylish addition to your minimal office setup. By default, most of the ergonomic office furniture items are very sleek and minimal in design. Since you will be using these items for a long time hence it’s a smart thing to invest in a premium quality and modern design item.

LIGHTING SET UP

It is best to choose a room for your new home office that have plenty of natural light. Of course not everyone has that option (I personally have a small set of windows in my home office with not ample lighting). So if abundant natural light is not a possibility, then you can go about having ergonomic lighting in your office space. A properly lit space will motivate you to work for long hours without causing any strain on your eyes. You can also include a modern desk lamp for your minimalist home office.

FOR ESTABLISHED HOME OFFICE : HOW TO SETUP AND MAINTAIN THE MINIMALIST LOOK?

If you are already working from home for quite some time, then you must have set up your space accordingly. However, if you are thinking to give it a clutter free, clean and sophisticated look, you have plenty of options to turn it into a minimalist home office. By following these tips, it will be easier for you to maintain the minimal look of your work space.

MINDFUL PURCHASING

Whether you have an established home office or are setting up a new one, be mindful of your purchases. Buy only items that are absolutely necessary for your workspace. For example, if you work full time on your laptop, then having a PC-monitor setup does not make sense. This way, not only you will be doing a favor to your own pocket, but will also keep your work space minimal with functional and useful items.

Also, try to minimize on office equipments by choosing one with multiple functions. For example, instead of buying three different equipments like printer, scanner and photocopier, look for a printer that has the functionalities of scanner and photocopier as well. I have HP Pro Laser Printer All in one M125NW in my home office. It’s a monochrome printer (I hardly ever need a colored printout) which has a built in scanner and photocopier feature in it, so it works perfect for me.

BE KIND TO ENVIRONMENT

Going paperless will not only be safe for the environment, but will also keep your office free from paper clutter. If you have large volume of paper that is not much useful for you in your day to day work, then try to gradually scan the papers and save them electronically. I had a huge pile of paper in the initial days of my home office setup, which I couldn’t just discard. So I started to scan all the documents in my free time and now they are stored in my e-Drive.

Another environment friendly practice that I have adopted over the years is to print as less paper as possible. Printing unnecessarily has detrimental impact on the planet and it also adds to the paper clutter which gets difficult to manage over time. Hence print something only if it’s absolutely necessary.

DECLUTTER REGULARLY

Go Marie Kondo on all the old, unused and unnecessary stuff piling up in your workspace! 🙂 A monthly or quarterly decluttering drive is good to keep your office clean and clutter free. Toss out the items that are totally not functional anymore, while you can donate the ones that are damaged but can be repaired or those that are in good condition but of no use to you.

I go a step further from physical decluttering, I perform quarterly electronic decluttering as well. I clean all my computer folders and email from junk items. Unsubscribe from any newsletters/magazines/websites that you no longer read to minimize your mental and visual clutter. A cleaner desktop screen with minimal useful icons is easy on the eyes and is also helpful for arranging your folders and files in a proper manner.

USE ORGANISATION HACKS

Who likes to work on a messy office desk? No minimalist would!

Even if you have a good number of items placed on your office desk, you can give off a minimalist vibe by organizing them efficiently. For items that don’t have use in your day to day work, keep them in a designated drawer. A reason why I like office desk with drawers is that it keeps additional items securely within your arm’s reach and keep the surface area of the desk clean. (You can read about the best desk organizers that will keep your work desk clutter free).

If you work with physical files, then only keep those on the table that are required during work hours and the rest should be stacked neatly in compact designed filing cabinets or drawers. Similarly, keep all your stationary in the stationary organizer.

If you have not gone wireless yet, then stack away the wires neatly and securely under the desk or where appropriate. It gives a clean spacious look to your work space, and reduces any chances of stubbing or tripping over.

DECORATE WISELY

If you are a minimalist that doesn’t mean you can’t have the luxury of decorating! You can add a decent plant pot in a corner of your room. This will be beneficial to your health, and it works as a good minimalist decorating item.

Another elegant yet useful item is a mood board. You can utilize it in a multiple ways like vision board, mood board or just a board for placing photographs of your cheerful memories. You can practice your goal setting with your vision board. In a similar way mood boards are helpful to express your creative side. This way instead of cluttering your work desk with photographs, to do lists, etc, you will stack them nicely on a board which will serve as a way of decoration as well.

CONCLUSION

Setting up a minimalist home office is not as much of a daunting task as it seems. With a few right choices while doing the new set up, you can achieve a sleek and minimal look. For work spaces that are already in use, a few tweaks and continuous smart practices will keep your home office retain the clean, polished and modern vibe in the long run!