Desks You Can Close Are A Recipe For Disorganisation

Fancy that antique roll-top desk? Think twice — having a lid you can close on your deskbound junk is often just an invitation to accumulate more junk.

In an article outlining an extensive series of home office makeover tips on Oprah.com, organising expert Peter Walsh raises an important point: any desk which you can cover (with a rolltop or other mechanism) is essentially an invitation to be disorganised. Rather than bothering to sort everything, you’ll just shut the lid and feel like you’ve tidied, while chaos reigns underneath.

An open desk might be harder to keep organised, but there’s a much better incentive to tidy it when you see it all the time. So save the rolltop until you’re confident that you’ll be able to open it to a tidy, organised space.

10 Steps To A Cleaner Office [Oprah.com]