Organizing Your Home Office

 by: Samuel Murray

When organizing your office, you’ve got a couple choices. Write a list of all the little things that need to be done and work on them a few minutes each day, or dive straight into the deep end and do it all in one fell swoop.

If you’re sick of your entire office, box it all up like you’re moving, and set the boxes in a different room. Then unpack one box at a time and organize from the bottom –up. Make sure to file papers as you go along.

I like the “little at a time” approach. My first step would be to take all the papers that are scattered about and put them into one box. You can file these now, or clean your desktop and surrounding area further. I like putting all the filing together, all the books together, and then working on one pile at a time.

If several folks in your home are receiving mail, you can use wall-mounted acrylic holders and just label them with each person’s name. That takes care of the mail lying around.

A friend of mine keeps all her bills on her refrigerator with a magnet. As soon as they come in, they go straight on the fridge. That way, they can’t get lost underneath piles of papers. I’ve adopted this idea and it’s saved me a huge headache. Now I don’t have a bunch of envelopes and bills lying around on my desktop, just waiting for payday.

Decide what your office needs and designate a spot for each item. If you make calls from this area, you’ll need a phone, phone book, message pad and pens.

You’ll need a place for the computer and accessories, plus a spot for copy paper.

Set up the basics first, and then decide item-by-item what else you want to place in your office. Do you have room for personal items? Pictures can be placed on a bulletin board or hung on the wall. You ability to focus and accomplish is affected by a messy desktop, so make it a priority to keep it decluttered.

Once you’ve set up the office and filed your paperwork, you can buy some colored folders or stickers and color-code your files to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.

If you take just 15 minutes every other day to clean off your desk and surrounding work area, you’ll find your home office a much more pleasant place to work! And your personal efficiency will skyrocket as well!