Keep Your Home Office Organized With The Help Of Empty Prescription Bottles

A well-organized home office is essential if you want to be productive. Clutter has been found to negatively impact a person's ability to focus, making it imperative to tackle it before it gets out of control. While you can purchase fancy organizers to keep your desk and office supplies nicely inventoried, you can just as easily (and more affordably) put to use something that you'd normally toss or recycle: empty prescription bottles. Designed to be sturdy and hold their contents extremely securely, the bottles can be useful for corralling various home office supplies.

If this is your first time thinking about using prescription bottles beyond their intended purpose, there's nothing to worry about. Smaller prescription bottles are wonderful for holding tiny items like staples and paper clips, push pins or thumbtacks, which could otherwise fall on the ground or get lost in a bigger organizing container. If you have any larger prescription bottles, you can place rubber bands and binder clips in them. In order to be as tidy as possible, dedicate one bottle to each type of office supply. Easily label the outside of each bottle by writing directly on the plastic with a permanent marker. You can also place a piece of masking or painter's tape on the side as a cheap but effective label. Beyond simply having the right resources, you can also read our exclusive on how to set up your home office for maximum focus.

While it's easy to see the value of reusing prescription bottles as office organization tools, individuals who like a more polished aesthetic might buck this idea. These bottles, however, can easily be made more attractive. Some personalization options include spray painting the caps a uniform color to cover up the often red text that embellishes the top. You can also spray paint the bottles themselves to hide the orange-tinted plastic body. Remember, whenever you're using spray paint it's important to work on top of newspaper, cardboard, or another material. You'll also want to spray paint, in a well-ventilated area and wear appropriate protection, like gloves.

One obvious downside of spraying the bottles themselves is that it will obscure your ability to see the contents of each container. In this case, it will be necessary to label each bottle so you don't waste time and energy searching for something in the wrong place. To keep with an appealing aesthetic, upgrade the aforementioned masking tape labels idea and instead use a label maker to mark the contents of each bottle. You can also try out this genius way to make chic labels at home without a label maker.

Lastly, if you don't want your upcycled prescription bottles getting knocked over or cluttering the top of your desk, keep things tidy by placing them in a basket or bin, or clearing space in a drawer to accommodate them. Those feeling inspired to add more organization to their home office can try this easy IKEA hack for under $10.