How to Make an Office Fit in the Smallest Spaces

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No space for an office, that’s no problem. A little creativity and some storage solutions are all you need to fit an office in even the smallest spaces. You don’t need a dedicated room or even a desk to have a space that keeps you organized and ready to work. Read on to learn how we created an office space in our small home for less than $60.

If you have followed the blog, then you know Brandon and I live in a 900 square foot home with four crazy boys and one laid back dog. There isn’t much space for anything extra in a 900 square foot home. Many items do double duty to help conserve space. Our home office is a great example of this. We don’t have space for a separate office or even a real desk. Yet Brandon and I do a lot of work from home.

Piles are Not an Office Organization Technique

The kitchen table works overtime as a team desk when we are working from home. It’s a great workspace and gives us plenty of room to spread out. The problem is having to put everything away that we just spread out when it’s time to eat.

There was no dedicated space to put our “office” away, so we were creating piles of work-related stuff throughout the house. Extra printer paper in our bedroom, business cards on the nightstand, files of paperwork on the kitchen counter or the “junk cupboard.” It was starting to get out of hand.

A Small Cabinet Becomes an Office

Brandon and I had the same idea at basically the same time. We both recognized the pile problem and agreed the “junk cupboard” would be a good office storage solution. The “junk cupboard” is actually a small cabinet we both really like. It stands twenty-nice inches high and is thirty-four inches wide.

We’ve named it the junk cupboard because we have used it as a big junk drawer. Random items that don’t seem to fit anywhere else have found their way to the “junk cupboard.” You can see in the picture below the smorgasbord of items hidden inside, from cookbooks and a butter dish to printer ink and DIY plumbing supplies.

It was time to clean out the “junk cupboard” to get it ready for its transformation to the office cabinet. It took about ten minutes for me to find permanent homes for all the random items inside. The end result looked like this. We had a lot of space to work with.

Storage Solutions that Fit the Space and Needs

We measured the shelves and found out they were each 12 inches tall, 32 inches wide, and 12 inches deep. I have learned my lesson in the past that it is key to measure upfront. Too many times  I have found something that looked like it fit perfectly, but it wasn’t even close. Then I have to go through the hassle of trying to return the wrong sized item. Now I measure before I buy and save time, money, and frustration.

Next, we went to Amazon and started looking for storage solutions that worked with the office cabinet measurements. We knew we wanted some smaller bins to hold things like cards, post its, staplers, and paperclips. We also needed something to store printer paper,  envelopes, and new file folders. Having a place to store files and folders being used was key, too. Finally, we wanted to be able to store and charge our laptops. Bonus points if we could find space to stash the printer when we had people over.

Amazon came through with everything we needed.

We were able to find these small, clear stackable bins. We chose the ten-inch size for our office cabinet. But they also come in bigger sizes. You can order them with or without lids. We have enough height to stack them four high, and because they are clear you can easily find anything inside. These work great here for our office supplies, but they would also work well to keep smaller items organized in the bathroom, refrigerator, or pantry.

We found this stacking paper holder to keep paper, files, and envelopes organized. Again, we stuck with the clear theme since the inside of the cabinet looks so nice. They come in many different fun colors, too, like blue, green, black and white. If you have a true desk or visible storage space, these are nice enough to display and add a pop of color to coordinate with your decor.

This clear standing organizer is perfect for files and mail. The clear acrylic material matches the other storage items and fits our dimensions perfectly. We had enough space for two of these, use a lot of paper files, and they were less than $6 each, so we went ahead and ordered two.

The final piece of the office cabinet puzzle was figuring out a place and way to store and charge our laptops. We really didn’t want to drill a hole in the back of the cabinet because the wood is so nice. But there was no way around it. We needed a way to be able to get the cords to the surge protector directly behind the cabinet.

Drilling the hole is pretty simple. Just attach the circle bit to the drill, place it where you want to drill the hole, let your drill do the work, and voila you have a perfect hole.

Brandon does a lot of work around the house and other properties we have owned, so we already had the correct attachment to cut the hole using a drill. We bought this kit a while ago and have used it often. It comes with multiple sized attachments from 7/8″ to 2 1/2″ which gives you enough variety in sizes to complete most tasks.

We decided to put the surge protector outside of the cabinet to save room on the inside, making it easier to take our chargers with us and keep the cord hole to a minimum. This let us get by with drilling a hole that was only a little over an inch in diameter. It worked out perfectly!

The New Office Solution

The finished product is an office cabinet that I like even better than a desk. We even have room to add more supplies if we need it. It also gives us enough space to store either our laptop bags and the printer inside. An unexpected bonus was being able to fit the router in to get it off the top of the floor.

We have a place to put everything away when our desk needs to become our dining room table. No more piles throughout the house for us. Everything is in one spot whenever we need it.

An office storage solution like this can work in any room in your home. You can fit a small cabinet in your bedroom, living room, or dining room. No space for a small cabinet? You could also create a space for your office in a bookshelf. Bins come in so many sizes and different styles now. Use a larger bin with smaller bins or storage solutions inside to keep all of your office supplies together and ready anytime you need them. Check out the Decorative Storage Bins from Amazon for some storage solution inspiration.

Is there an area of your home that is in need of some serious organization? Or maybe you have already used a small space to create your won office solution. We would love to see how you have turned a small space into your own office solution. Let us know in the comments below.