How to get a cute and tidy cubicle

Click here to view before and after images of Natalie's office makeover.

As a writer and editor, staying on top of paper -- from press kits to invitations to magazines -- has always been a challenge for me. In fact, calling my workspace a disorderly disaster would be kind. My home is a clutter-free, soothing sanctuary. There's not a thing out of place -- so how did my office turn into such a nightmare?

Why organizing is important
"Studies have shown that a disorganized person spends upwards of 20 per cent of their workday looking for things," says Estelle Gee, a professional organizer and director of Orderly Lives. "That's a tremendous loss of productivity. When you consider how much lost productivity there is in a day, because you can't retrieve what's important to you to do your job, hiring a professional organizer is an investment, not only in your peace of mind but in your efficiency."

The most obvious problem with my workspace, says Gee, was that I didn't have a built-in infrastructure. "You had storage, but it wasn't being utilized to its optimum capacity," she explains. "When you have a small space, you have to look at each individual component of that space as prime real estate. You don't have the space to spare, to waste it on things that are unnecessary."

But everything seems necessary. I hate throwing things out at the office for fear that I may need them someday. That said, if I really wanted to clean up the mess, I was going to have to adjust my thinking and follow Gee's four-step system to help get things in order.

Step 1: Purge
"Rid the space of anything that doesn't belong, that isn't necessary, that you've outgrown or that you don't need," says Gee. The purging process in my space was ruthless. If I hadn't looked at it in three months, it went into the garbage.