How to Organize a Modern Cubicle with Low Walls

There has certainly been a shift in the construction of cubicles over the years. Lately there have been many cubicles that are built with low walls in an effort to supposedly allow coworkers to communicate more easily.

I’m also pretty sure it saves money for the companies due to the fact that there is less material to build the cubicles. I’m also not totally convinced that the real motivation is to improve communication within a company. As mentioned above, it may simply be cheaper to have less cubicles and more open offices.

Well, I recently received this email from Amy who was moving into what she called a Modern Cube.

Amy:
Our company just moved and we are now in the “modern” cubes that have short walls with a plastic/glass partition which makes it virtually impossible to hang baskets or hooks on the cubes. Do you know of any products that are being made for these types of cubes to help with organization; the hooks that we had to hold jackets won’t even work.
Thanks
Amy

She also sent along some pictures of her future new digs.

The main difference as you can see above is that the walls are simply not as high as my cubicle which you can see in the image below. You can click on the image and you’ll be able to view all of my cubicle accessories.

What is exactly the same as my cubicle is the cubicle wall material that you can see on the image above all the way to the right that Amy sent along. It’s hard to tell about the actual floor space in Amy’s new cubicle but it appears to be comparable to mine.

Anyway, this was my response to Amy.

Bob:
Hi Amy,
I feel your pain as I now have a semi-modern cube as I also have the glass/plexiglass windows but the walls are still as high as a traditional cubicle. Also, it utilizes a cloth material that is not your typical cubicle cloth but I can still use my push pins, T-pins, etc that go into the walls. This article will give you some ideas of what you can use in that type of cubicle. I know that the Fellowes Coat Hook and Clip shown under Specialized Hangers in that article will work for hanging your jacket as it is adjustable.

The Balt Cubicle Board Hangers also shown in 2. Specialized Hangers and if you click on this article can also be used in a cube like your for holding posters and you can even use it for hanging your jacket.

I think you can also use a lot of these items for your walls if you still have some type of cloth to attach to…

I then followed up with Amy with another email after she sent along the images above.

Hi Amy,
Thanks so much for sending these images along! Can you tell me about the walls if you have a chance. They appear to be exactly as my walls in that they don’t have the traditional cloth-like material but you can still stick a push pin in the walls, correct? If so, I have so many different wall accessories that you can see in the links that I sent that will allow you to store items on the wall. To be honest, this article is one of my most popular articles about a cubicle wall shelf.

There are so many specialized wall accessories that should work in your cubicle. Here is an article on a number of cubicle shelves that might work perfectly for you! Just peruse my site and I know you will find a number of items that will increase your productivity, keep you organized, and add a little fun as well.

So I guess the point of this article is that even though the size of the walls are diminished, that won’t affect any desk accessories you may want to use and you can even still store items on your walls with some cubicle wall accessories but there is just less real estate to do so.

I think it’s interesting that companies are considering open offices but I also know that anyone I know who has had to sit in an open office does not like them and wishes they had the small confines of a cubicle. In my line of work which pertains to software development, I need the privacy of my cubicle walls.  I’d love to have a novel cubicle privacy screen at the entrance of my cubicle to enhance that privacy factor but that might come down the road.

It may make sense for some departments within a company to have open offices with no walls where they have to constantly collaborate but it’s certainly not my idea of an efficient workspace environment at all.

I’d welcome anyone’s comments who work in an open office to get their take on not only an open office but in the modern cube that Amy shows us in this article…