Claim Your Space: Make Your Space Your Own

November 2020: we are nearly ten months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Positive cases and death rates are increasing again. In this era of social distancing, many people spend more time at home than ever. Now, it is more important than ever to claim your space to make it your own.

Why You Should Claim Your Space

What does it mean to claim your space? Whether it is your work area, your kitchen, or even your bathroom, making that space your own is important. Being comfortable in your space makes that space more productive in whatever its purpose is. Your work area should be set up in a way that is conducive to whatever your work is. Likewise, you should setup all of the rooms in your house to optimize them for the activities you do in them. Doing this can make your time spent in those places more enjoyable as well as more productive.

Cleaning Up Your Space

It is important to have a clean space. Many people around the world subscribe to the teaching of Marie Condo of decluttering their lives. There are a lot of positives to this method, as you evaluate the personal value of everything you own. However, I also think that you need to be in the right state of mind when doing this. Someone suffering from depression may throw all of their possessions out because they find nothing that brings them joy.

An important first step is throwing out everything that is just garbage. Even that little step can help make your space more comfortable. Even if you don’t get rid of things, at least move things so they are out of the way.

Keeping Useful Things

As important as it is to get rid of clutter, it is also important to keep useful things. If you work from home, you may need a laptop, a computer desk, a filing cabinet, and a phone. Besides the essential things, it may be helpful to have a printer, a white board, and a large display or smart television. When setting up your personal space, be sure to consider everything that can help maximize the usefulness of the space.

Organize Your Space

In addition to keeping useful things, organization is another important aspect to claim your space. It is important to have an effective workflow. For instance, if your job requires heavy usage of printing materials to mail out, it would be important to have a printer near your computer. You also would want to keep your mailing supplies, such as stamps and envelopes, handy as well.

There is more to organization than keeping frequently used items in convenient locations. You also need to keep infrequently used items in out of the way places. You should keep these items where you can easily find them when needed. If your work only requires sporadic printing, then keep your printer in an out of the way place. Then, it won’t be in the way when you aren’t using it, but you can get to it easily when you need it.

Having A Comfortable Space

Once you organize your space, the final step to claim your space is to make it comfortable. Going back to your workspace, think about what position will you spend most of your time. If you will be sitting most of the time, invest in a comfortable desk chair. If you stand all day, get a good floor mat.

Claim Your Space In All Aspects of Life

These principles should not be limited to just your workspace, but in all of your space. As I mentioned Marie Condo earlier, I also think there is value in feng shui. We should try to apply these concepts to all areas of life. Making all of our spaces useful and comfortable can help bring balance to our lives.

Teaser: Next time we’ll explore ideas for gift giving.