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Organizing a desk at home can pose some unique challenges. For one, you may actually be organizing a small desk area without a lot of space to spare. Maybe you do not even have a home office, and your desk is just pushed inside a little nook somewhere in another room. For another thing, you do not have the advantage of an office supply cabinet where you can put extra supplies you do not use often. That means you have to work extra hard to get your home desk organized.

Here are some tips for home office organization:

• Routinely purge what you don’t really need. It is helpful to have a few large plastic containers on hand so that you can go through everything. Figure out items you can donate, paperwork you can file, stuff that can go in other rooms or in storage, and what you can throw away. Also have a bin ready for items you will put right back in your desk. Get as much out as you can and put back only what you really need to use every day. Here’s a tip: When all your stuff is in the bins, this is the perfect time to wipe down all your surfaces and get everything clean!

• If you have a hall closet you are not using for anything else important—or you can move the stuff that is in there to the attic—use it the same way you would an inventory supply room at work. Put supplies in there that you only use a couple of times a week or less, so you can free up more desk space.

• If you do not have a filing cabinet but are tired of papers piling up on your desk or under it, the next best thing is to use a plastic bin filing system. Unless you file a lot of paperwork each day and need it all to be perfectly neat, a few alphabetized bins or bins sorted by year should be enough to keep your files in order.

• Also never underestimate the usefulness of binders! Binders are great for household organizing and not just for organizing paperwork. You can have a binder for scheduling cleaning tasks, budgeting, automotive paperwork, and much more.

• Your home office can be a great spot for your mail station, if you have enough room for it. If you are tight on space, though, consider putting the mail station in your entryway or kitchen or another location where it may actually be more convenient for the whole family.

Organizing any work area is difficult, but a home office can be even more challenging to keep neat and orderly than a work office for the simple reason that you do not have the same space, organizing tools, and resources that are available at your day job. Still, with a can-do attitude, some handy plastic bins, and maybe a free shelf in a hall closet, you can do it!