Minimal Small Space Desk Tour & How I Organize My Desk

I’m so excited to finally share my desk walkthrough! I moved last year and have spent a lot of time setting up my desk space. While I definitely have a little more room than I did in my previous apartment, I still need to maximize storage space! It can be really difficult to create a minimal desk setup in a smaller space, so I hope this walkthrough helps give you some inspiration on how you might organize your own workspace, too.

Desk Walkthrough

Chair (or here; similar option) / Canvas Desk Light (code LINEUNFOLDING10 for 10% off) / Keyboard / Mouse / Desk Mat / Wrist Rest / Water Bottle / Desk / Bullet Journal (code LINEUNFOLDING10 for 10% off)

My desk basically has two “modes”: day job work mode and bullet journaling/creativity mode! When I’m working, it looks like this, with my keyboard and mouse (the quietest I’ve found—my partner hates keyboard clacking noises!) ready to go and my bullet journal at the ready.

I LOVE my desk itself: it is super sturdy for the price and has held up well over the year I’ve had it! The legs are metal and the top doesn’t bow under my desktop computer. They don’t seem to make it in white anymore, but I really like the natural wood option (it would look so good with a colored desk mat!) and it comes in other colors and lengths, too!

Water Bottle / Magazine Storage Rack / Similar Acrylic Organizer / Marble Dish (similar) / Similar Ceramic Jar / Frosted Pencil Cups

I always have my emotional support water bottle for hydration (if you know, you know) and in the morning there’s usually a big mug of coffee here too. On the right side of my desk, I keep everything I need for reference, which includes my B5 bullet journal, which I use for planning Line Unfolding, my Hobonichi that I use for daily journaling, my work binder with all my notes for my day job, and my official Bullet Journal Ed.2.

I also keep my favorite pens close by! On the left in the frosted cup, I have my current favorite accent pens (Zig Clean Color Dot—those pastel shades!), extra pens, and scissors. On the right in the acrylic pen holder (I got mine from Muji and it’s no longer available, but this one is similar), I keep all of the pens I use on the daily as well as any pens I use for accent colors in that week’s bullet journal spread, so they’re there for easy reference.

I journal at my desk every single morning and wrote down all my journal prompts from my Journal Prompts Packs so that I can pull some from this jar if I need inspiration!

Desk Mat / Similar Box / Adjustable Phone Stand / Hand Lotion / Cat Phone Stand / Himekuri Desk Calendar / Bullet Journal (code LINEUNFOLDING10 for 10% off)

On the right is planner mode. I keep my bullet journal to the side (usually it’s open!) so I can refer to events I have coming up as well as my weekly and daily task lists. Near that is my beloved Himekuri sticky note desk calendar, which I got from my favorite NYC stationery shop, Yoseka Stationery, as well as a phone stand, hand lotion, and another phone stand in the shape of a black cat (I have two black cats!). The black cat stand is more decorative now, but it makes me smile!

Similar Box / Adjustable Phone Stand / Coaster / Popsocket / Himekuri Desk Calendar

The grey linen box hides cords, lip balms, and other stuff that I don’t want out in the open, which makes it perfect for small space organization. More tips on that in a future post!

When I’m in create mode, I pull down my Canvas desk lamp to get a little lighting, or even to film because it has a handy phone holder. I LOVE this thing so much. I can’t believe how easy it makes it to film and create without being in the way. Before, I was so intimidated to film for Stories or YouTube because it was such a pain to figure out setting up a tripod, a ring light, where to put my head so I’m not in the frame… This solves all those problems, and since it’s fully articulated, even doubles as a ring light when I’m teaching in my day job and need to spruce up my lighting on Zooms. It’s well worth the price and has been a huge upgrade from my old Amazon desk light, since it has three different lighting temperatures and multiple levels of brightness so you can really make it look natural.

I bought a Canvas lamp a few months ago and loved it so much that I got in touch to collaborate with them—which means I have a discount code for you! Use LINEUNFOLDING10 for 10% off your order. I have absolutely loved this product and am so glad I found this small business! If you’ve been looking for something like this for your desk, I completely recommend this desk light. Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see a more detailed review!

Q&A

I put out the call on my Instagram to see if anyone had any questions about organizing your desk and you all delivered! Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions about my desk setup:

Is your desk naturally filled or cleaned during a regular week?

Honestly, it’s pretty clean! During the day while I’m working it can get messy, but when I wrap up my work for the day I like to do a quick tidy, especially when I’m working from home—kind of a ritual to signal to my brain to wind down from working. Since I have a place on my desk for everything it makes it easy and quick to clean things up.

How do you keep your desk so neat?

My biggest tip: Have a place for everything! If everything has a place, then you can put it back there when you’re done with it. Plus, when you don’t have to think too hard about where to put it, you’re more likely to quickly tidy up.

What do you do with cables?

Cable Cord Organizers

Ugh! Ongoing problems honestly. For me the best thing I’ve found is a combo of white Duck tape and these guys, above. I wish they were a little stickier, however, they work well with skinnier wires—I needed to use Duck tape for the iMac cord since it’s so thick!


Thank you so much for checking out my desk tour!! Let me know what you’d like to see next about my desk organization in the comments below. I’ve got a lot of ideas: Small space organization tips, my stationery collection organization, a Canvas lamp review, what I invested in for my desk setup and if I regret it, and more… Let me know what you’d like me to post next!


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