by Kate Thorn
As with any spring clean, the amount of junk and clutter you’ve collected over the winter is seriously panic-inducing. One of the biggest culprits of them all? The home office. Even if you managed to keep your workspace somewhat tidy all winter long, there are probably still a few things that you’re hanging on to that should be tossed. We turned to professional organizer Jeffrey Phillip to get the 411 on exactly what needs to be purged come spring. Jeffrey’s top tips — from getting rid of pens that don’t work (gasp!) to ditching the instruction manuals — will guide you to workspace bliss. See all of the must-purge items below, and get ready to tackle this office project in the coming week.
1. Pens and Markers That No Longer Work: Dump out your entire pen collection and get started on finding out which ones don’t work anymore. There’s nothing more annoying than reaching into a pen cup and scratching a note into the paper with a dead nib.
2. Blank CDs: Can you remember the last time you burned a CD? Probably not, because *no one* shares info with CDs anymore. Clear up some space by getting rid of those CD packages and stick to sharing photos via the cloud.
3. Rarely Used Cables and Wires That Come With Tech Gadgets: A person only needs so many USB cables. If you’ve discovered a drawer dedicated to cables, it’s time to start untangling. Decide which cables you actually use and which you can recycle.
4. Holiday Greeting Cards Received in 2015: Some cards hold sentimental meaning, but other cards are just a stock photo of a tree and you can probably ditch ’em guilt-free.
5. Holiday Receipts for Kept Gifts and Things Without Warranties: If you haven’t taken it back by now, you’re keeping it. Clean out your junk drawer of all those crumpled receipts and revel in the new space.
6. Old Phones: Jeffrey jokingly teases that we all have a flip phone in a drawer somewhere, and he’s probably not wrong. Make the world a little bit better and recycle those old phones.
7. Old Computers: Select > Move to Trash > Recycle Trash Bin. Just a little computer humor for you. If you have an old laptop or desktop gathering dust in your office, wipe it clean and recycle it.