The vertical space above your desk is the answer.

The best way to organize school supplies on a desk without a drawer is to move everything off the desktop and onto the wall or a slim shelf beside you.

A small desk with no drawer is really just a surface. The problem isn’t clutter — it’s that you’re trying to store things horizontally when you only have a few square feet to work with. So think vertical. A wall-mounted pencil caddy, a mesh shelf, or even a couple of magazine holders stuck to the side of the desk can hold pens, scissors, sticky notes, and chargers without eating your workspace.

The trick is to give every category a specific container and never let it overflow. Use one cup for pens, one tray for paper, one box for the stuff you only touch once a week. If you can’t see it, you’ll forget it, and then you’ll buy it again. Also, be honest about what you actually use. That half-empty stapler and the box of dried-out highlighters aren’t