The prettiest, most helpful products to spring clean your desk for tax time.

With tax time around the corner (eep!) it's spring clean your desk time around here, just in time to get it neater and more functional. With so many of us working from home, it's not just a nice-to-do, it's kind of a spring cleaning must-do, at the top of our lists. If you're ready to get organized yourself, we're here to help!  On behalf of our wonderful client Citi, and their #SmartisSimple campaign, we're sharing some of our favorite products--both smart and simple--to help you spring clean your desk and make it a place you actually want to spend time. Even if you are hunched over it, crunching numbers, and trying to remember just where that blank airport taxi receipt came from in the first place.

 POPPIN DESK ACCESSORIES Let's start with the basics. We are so smitten with the desk accessories from Poppin which come in 10 sunny, happy colors that actually get us psyched to sit down at our desks. Check out their design-a-desk feature (shown at very top) which makes it easy to get a whole suite in a single color or mix and match. But you'll find pretty much anything you need here, from colorful tab folders to modern filing cabinets.

 

PORTOLA DESK ORGANIZER Another super simple solution for organizing the basics is using a single organizer instead of lots of little containers. If you prefer neutrals and natural finishes, this wooden organizer by Portola at See Jane Work is a stunner. Just make sure it doesn't turn into your junk drawer!   KATE SPADE NESTING BOXES If you're a fan of tucking away items in boxes, these may be the prettiest we've seen.  They're pretty enough to keep right on your desk--but also ideal for storing old receipts, bills, and paperwork that you don't need access to everyday, on a shelf somewhere else. That way you save desk space, save closet space, and you get to display gorgeous boxes on your bookshelves.

 

BLUELOUNGE CABLE BOX The one thing that makes even organized workspaces look messy is a tangle of cords.  With all the devices we all have around our desk these days, we're always looking out for great cord management solutions. One of our favorites is this simple Cable Box from Bluelounge in white or black. It's large enough to fit even a dual-strip surge protector, then you just thread the cables through the single opening at the end. Problem solved!    

DOTZ CORD LABELS It's a great idea to label your cords, so even if you do have a cord nest, you know what cord connects to what device without having to feel your way up. (You know what we're talking about.) There are lots of ways to do this, from a simple piece of tape to colored pipe cleaners, but we love the cord identifiers from Dotz which snap right on, then allow you to add a preprinted icon to identify just what in the world is plugged in. Bonus: keeps other people in the family from stealing your phone cord and claiming it's theirs.  

WALLPOPS DRY ERASE BOARD BY JONATHAN ADLER We love dry erase boards for scribbling temporary notes on a wall, but we're not sure we've seen one as stylish as this dry erase board designed by Jonathan Adler for WallPops. There are a few modern colors, and it's actually a repositionable decal, so it goes up in a sec.  They also have some nifty dry erase calendars to hang on the wall if you like staring at a calendar in front of you in addition to the digital one you use. (You do use one, right?)  

  CHISEL IPHONE AND IPAD DOCKS There are so many  phone and tablet docks, it's not hard to find one that's the perfect design fit for you. We first found these beautiful wooden iPhone docks a while back, and since then, the collection has grown to include iPads and the iPad mini. If you use your tablet upright on your desk, it's a really gorgeous way to frame it like art, all while hiding the cord. (Gah, always those cords!)  

TAX FILER AND ORGANIZER FROM BUTTONED UP If you need something specifically to keep your tax stuff organized, this is it. The second we saw this simple Buttoned Up Tax.filer filing system, and read the description acknowledging how many forms, receipts and records "accumulate like weeds between January and April" we knew it was a perfect solution for receipt wrangling. Plus we're big fans of the Buttoned Up shop, and in fact founder Sarah Welsh has offered some great home organizing tips for our readers which we turn to often. Really often.

This post is brought to you by Citi. Learn more about the tools Citi offers to help simplify your financial life at www.citi.com/mobile.

Disclaimer: This content is not provided by Citi. Opinions expressed here are authors' alone, not those of Citi, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by Citi. (But we bet they want some of these products for themselves. Off the record. Just saying.) Come visit us during our Google+ Hangout on Air hosted by Citi! Our own Kristen Chase will be there sharing organization tips, along with Meg Favreau and Lars Peterson of Wisebread, plus Sarah Kaufman of Manilla. Wednesday 3/26,  3:30pm ET.