Do you want to make your office desk more functional? The desk drawer may assist you, thereby complimenting your desk setup.
Adding a desk with drawers may seem needless and ineffective to most of you.
After purchasing a desk with drawers, I realized a valuable addition to my previously overlooked home office.
A desk with drawers is usually an excellent choice for your home office. In general, a desk drawer may aid in managing your home office by allowing you to assemble office supplies and secure important documents quickly.
So, let me guide you with a piece of much-needed information regarding how adding a desk drawer could lighten up your desk setup.
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Benefits of Having a Desk With Drawers
Desk drawers assist you in completing your home office desk setup by adding a variety of benefits.
The following are some of the most compelling reasons to invest in a desk with drawers.
1. Keep your Important Documents Safe
A normal home office setup requires the preparation of important files, and financial documents.
Everyone has a habit of losing or misplacing critical files in a home office.
Desk drawers provide you with a significant amount of storage space for your important documents.
It provides a secure storage area for your papers, preventing them from being misplaced or destroyed.
Furthermore, it makes your file more ordered and structured.
2. Safeguards Other Office Supplies
Your home office desk stores several workplace essentials in addition to files.
Storage devices, hardware components, and even everyday office necessities can be stored in their desk drawer.
The desk drawer offers great storage for your essentials.
Using a desk drawer reduces the possibility of losing small hardware components of your home office and any prior office records saved in printed format.
Here is the list of 20 Essential Things to Keep in Your Home Office Desk Drawer.
3. Minimizes Use of Extra Cabinets
There are several office equipment particularly designed to keep files or documents, such as file cabinets.
However, a small home office with less administration may not require such cabinets.
Hence, having a desk with drawers enables you to keep your documents.
Moreover, it avoids using hefty cabinets or any extra equipment that covers your home office area.
4. Increases Efficiency
With safekeeping, the essentials of your home office, a Desk with drawers also provides a huge hand in increasing one’s efficiency.
It’s simple to find what you need when you have a desk with a drawer that holds all of your home office’s items.
You don’t have to waste time looking for office materials; instead, you can get right to work as soon as you open your drawer.
The arrangement of your workstation and even drawers in your home office may help you be more productive by giving you a clear image of where to look for items and where objects are kept.
5, It Makes your Desk Setup Look Clean
Another perk of using a desk drawer is it makes your desk setup looks clean.
Unfortunately, everyone using a desk has a frequent habit of leaving stationery items or other items on the Desk itself.
Keeping a bunch of items on your Desk makes your desk setup unmanaged and unpleasing.
However, if your Desk has a drawer, you will keep your item on the Desk, making it more pleasing.
A clean desk also increases one productivity, reduces stress, and boosts creativity.
Read More: 10 reasons why your desk is always messy
6. Increases Space of your Desk
As previously said, a desk drawer allows you to store all your essentials and extra items.
More space in your workstation encourages comfort while working and provides space for a coworker.
Moreover, It also fits all of your computer’s hardware components perfectly.
If you put your other stuff in your desk drawers, you can accommodate your bulky gear, such as printers and a large monitor.
Which Side of the Desk should the Drawer be on? Left or Right?
The drawer’s side also determines the drawer’s comfort, utility, and efficacy.
As a result, many people consider the drawer’s side to be one of the significant aspects when selecting a desk drawer.
Having your drawer on your dominant-hand side is a good idea. For example, if you’re right-handed, you should have a drawer on the right side, whereas if you’re left-handed, you should have a drawer on the left side.
Here are the major reasons to keep your desk drawer on the dominant-hand side.
1. Your Body Favors the Side
The majority of people have the habit of frequently using their dominant hand.
For example, one can achieve better reflexes by placing your desk drawer on your dominant hand side.
Furthermore, using a non-dominant hand might make you feel uncomfortable, making your movement clumsy.
If you place your hand on the non-dominant hand side, your non-dominant hand joint may get overstressed with regular use.
2. Allows you to Grab Things Quickly
Another advantage of having your drawer on the dominant-hand side is that you can easily access the contents of your drawers. Your dominant hand is mostly active.
As a result, it enables you to grab items throughout any task rapidly.
3. Drawer Becomes More Organized
Several instances have proven that your drawer will look more organized if you place the drawer on your dominant-hand side.
According to organization experts, it’s always a great idea to keep items on your dominant-hand side to make them more orderly.
People rarely glance at the non-dominant side, which is typically awkward on the non-dominant side.
As a result, individuals have a habit of not cleaning their drawers.
But on the other hand, the dominant-hand side is where people often look and utilize their drawers, cleaning and arranging them regularly.
Should Your Home Office Desk Have Drawers on Both sides?
Desk drawers on both sides are largely popular. Different large drawers currently offer the functionality of drawers on both sides.
In addition, some desks with added returns also provide multi-side drawers.
However, many office workers prefer different L-shaped desks with drawers on both sides.
One should purchase a desk with drawers on both sides as it provides a lot of perks and benefits.
Advantages of Desk with Both-sided Drawers
Some of the notable benefits of a desk that has drawers on both sides are:
1. Fits Many Items
The desk drawers on both sides indicate the presence of additional drawers. More drawers allow for more stuff to be stored on the Desk.
A desk with drawers on both sides typically contains 6 to 8 drawers.
As a result, every necessary and additional item may be stored in those drawers.
2. Keeps the Drawer in Order
Increasing the number of drawers in your drawer also helps keep it organized.
Since there are more drawers, one will keep less stuff in each drawer.
With fewer items, drawers become more organized, and your items are less likely to be damaged due to controlled settings.
3. One can Utilize the Drawer on the Non-Dominant Side
People usually pick the drawer on their dominant hand side in a one-side drawer.
It encourages them to be more active and at ease. However, if the drawers are solely on the non-dominant side, the non-dominant side is usually overlooked.
In the case of the both-sided drawer, the non-dominant side drawers are also used properly.
On the dominating side, office items used frequently on a day-to-day basis are placed, whereas items that are important but not used frequently are stored on the non-dominant side.
Disadvantages of Desk with Both-sided Drawers
Drawers on both sides have several significant drawbacks. Following are the major disadvantages of drawer on both sides.
1. Expensive than Single-side Drawer
A desk with drawers on both sides is typically more expensive than one with only one side.
More furniture and raw materials are used when preparing both-sided drawers, resulting in a higher drawer price.
A single-sided drawer will be sufficient for a budget since it will function identically to a two-sided drawer but with a smaller number of drawers.
2. Occupies More Space
A desk with drawers on both sides is generally large. Such desks are meant to be larger than conventional desks due to extra drawers.
As it takes up more space, your workplace will be able to contain fewer pieces of office equipment and will appear congested.
3. Difficult to Search Items
On both-sided drawers, generally, more drawers are available. Hence, people will keep things in any drawer as the number of drawers increases.
People can find a variety of alternatives in both-sided drawers. As a result, you’ll develop the habit of keeping your critical office materials in whichever drawer you want.
Hence, you may have difficulty finding that product while searching for it.
You may also lose track of the office files causing problems with file management and organization.
What to do if your Desk has No Drawer?
Can an office worker handle the Desk without a desk drawer? This question is pretty common in everyone’s mind.
The general response is yes. Without desk drawers, a person cannot manage or utilize their Desk.
Desk drawers are merely additions to a desk to store office materials.
Its main goal is to make your Desk seem more organized and secure your workplace supplies.
There are several ways to organize the Desk or keep your material even without a desk drawer.
Some of the major ways to organize your Desk without a desk drawer are mentioned below:
1. Purchase a Large Desk
Purchasing a large desk will solve the problem of unmanaged desk setup and its proper organization.
With a large desk, you get a large surface area that will hold all the essential products in your home office.
It can also accommodate your large hardware equipment. For example, you might add desk returns or buy a desk with returns to larger your workstation.
If you want to know more about desk returns. Do check Desk Returns: Everything You Need to Know
2. Use Different Trays, Side Rails, and File Holders
Your home office consists of different stationery items, storage devices, and other wired devices.
Investing in separate trays or containers for these gadgets will guarantee that they do not clutter your Desk.
One could also use a vertical file holder to keep their files and trays to keep your materials.
The file holder and trays organize your file and office materials.
3. Use Stands for Hardware Devices
The monitor of your desktop, laptop and other hardware devices such as printers and CPUs takes up a major portion of your Desk.
Using a stand for those gadgets allows you to store extra stuff beneath them.
As a result, you’ll have more room on your Desk, and your setup will be more organized.
4. Buying a Separate File Cabinet
The principal function of the desk drawer is to store your office materials.
However, you could purchase a separate file cabinet to store material without using a desk drawer.
Those cabinets allow you to keep every office material, organize it, and safeguard it.
The downside of buying a separate storage cabinet is that it covers extra space in your room.
If you are thinking of purchasing a file cabinet of the appropriate size for your home office. Do check our article on A Complete Guide on Lateral File Cabinets Sizes.
5. Organize your Workspace Regularly
The lack of a desk drawer allows you to keep your work materials in any random location on your Desk.
Unfortunately, one will also develop the habit of leaving the mess, dust, or torn papers on the Desk itself.
Hence, one should organize and clean your Desk frequently. Keeping a dustbin or trash can near the Desk will also help you throw dust items without leaving them on the Desk.
Organizing desks frequently will avoid the use of desk drawers.
6. Use Walls to Store Materials
The walls of your room could also be very useful for storing material. You can use different hooks, and wall shelves to hold the material.
One might potentially drill large hardware devices into walls.
Consequently, it frees up space on your desk, allowing you to work more efficiently.
Can you Add Drawers to your Existing Desk?
Most of you may be using an old desk in your house as an office desk while setting up a home office.
Using an old desk to save money is a good way to go. However, the distinctive old Desk lacks a desk drawer.
However, one could add a drawer even to the existing Desk.
Step by Step Guide to Add Drawers to your Existing Desk
Following are the steps to add drawers to your existing Desk.
Part One: Measuring and Cutting the Parts
Step 1: Measure the desk dimension with measuring tape.
Allocate the number of drawers you want to place on your Desk. Also, determine the leg clearance to fit your leg perfectly.
The general size of the drawer in a desk is 12 inches wide and 14 inches deep.
You can customize the size as per your need.
Step 2: Use material similar to your desk to construct the desk drawer. Woods or plywood are generally used to construct desk drawers.
Most drawers are 1/4 inch thick plywood, although larger drawers might be 1/2 inch thick.
Step 3: Cut down some of the plywood and fit that beneath your Desk to know the size of woods required for your drawer. You can cut them using a jigsaw.
Step 4: Use appropriate drawer slides so that the drawers move perfectly. The drawer slides should be the same length or slightly shorter than the depth of the drawer.
For example: If your desk drawer is 14 inches deep, the drawer slides length should be 14 inches or slightly shorter.
Step 5: Mark the plywood for drawer space and the bottom of the drawer.
The bottom of the drawer should have a length equal to the width of the Main Desk.
Step 6: The front, back, and side pieces of wood should all be measured. The drawer’s frame will be made up of these four components.
If your drawer has to be 10 inches wide and 12 inches deep, the front and back parts should be 10 inches long.
The breadth of the side parts should be 12 inches less than the front and rear sections’ width.
Part two: Attaching the Desk
Step 7: Cut out the pieces and attach them with wooden glue. Screw the frames after using the wooden glues.
You can even color the Desk. The front and back parts of the drawer should have equal dimensions. Attach a metal or wooden handle to the front of the drawer.
Step 8: Attach the drawer slide to the Desk.
Before attaching the slide, trace a line or mark the space to fit the drawer slide.
Place the drawer slide on both sides of the trace line and fit them with the screw.
Fit the drawer to the slider, and your drawer will be ready to use.
Final Verdict
Desk drawers play a huge role in workplace management and the safety of your office supplies addition. In addition, with desk drawers, there is the ease in your home office work.
There are numerous perks to using a desk drawer, from rapidly retrieving office supplies to preserving sensitive documentation.
Whether buying a new desk for your home office desk or customizing a desk, you should always consider installing the drawers.
