Organize home office tasks can seem unbearable at first. Start with end in mind and make it happen:
Organize Home Office Tip #1 – File or process the paper clutter.
If I look around my office the biggest issue I have is there seems to always be the mounds of paper. They range from bills, receipts, reports, etc. they all need to have a home and ideally a filing system to go with them. In organizing anything, everything must have a place and once it has its home you can better manage to keep it where it belongs going forward.
I personally organize my home office paper clutter with file folders for each of the various types of paper that I receive. I know some business owners who have baskets for each. It is entirely up to you. But have some way of moving the paper out of sight and storing it for easy retrieval when you need it. Nothing is more frustrating than looking for that old receipt because the printer just broke, but the warranty states that you need the receipt in order to make a claim. Boy, is that frustrating.
Determine the storage requirement. How long do I need to keep this piece of paper?
Example: Keep IRS papers 7 years, receipts until the warranty on the product expires, bills – for me unless a bill is a taxable item, I don’t keep all of the bills from all of my service providers. I typically ask for paperless billing on most of my accounts, so this isn’t a problem. Clean out as much as you can based on these new requirements, and store or put away the things that aren’t needing attention right now.
I have one basket of “To Do” papers on my desk, and when they are completed or I am done they go into the “storage place” that I have already determined for them. Everything has a place.
Organize Home Office Tip#2 – Organizing your writing utensils
Organize your writing tools or accessories (paperclips, staples, etc). Usually these can fit nicely in the drawer of your home office desk, but in case they don’t — you will need to find appropriate storage for them (plastic bins work nicely to organize the different writing utensils and accessories).
Organize Home Office Tip#3 – Arrange home office furniture
Arrange your home office desk and its location to minimize distractions. If you can help it don’t use the kitchen coffee table, where you might be having dinner… find a space that will only be used to conduct your business.
Organize Home Office Tip#4 – Keep your business away from personal space
Separate your business from your personal – if you have personal bills mixed in with business bills, and various other types of paper and information, it can be overwhelming to deal with both types. So keep them separate.
Organize Home Office Tip #5: Create an Office Filing System
Creating a filing systems for the papers will organize a home office. Filing systems can be used for your most important or needed types of paper.
Organize Home Office Tip #6: Organize your Email
Organizing and keeping emails straight and in a manner in which you can easily recall them if needed is necessary to keeping your “data” organized.
Organize Home Office Tip #7: Organize a Closet
Ideally you have a home office closet that can be used to store items out of the way like paper, staples, paper clips, etc. This will be your space for home office supplies…
Organize Home Office Tip #8: Organizing Desk Drawers
We all know about “junk drawers” and everybody is entitled to having them.. A place to just stash “stuff” that doesn’t have a place that has been identified. But your desk drawers should be neat and have places for items that need to be accessed daily or weekly. If it is something that is only accessed once a month, use the closet in the previous tip.
Organize Home Office Tip #9: Organizing Computer Cords / Cord Clutter
Cords, Cords and more Cords. When assembling your home office desk with computer, monitor, printer, scanner, etc. You will have access cords that will need to have plugs and need to be organized in a way that you know what cords are for what. This can easily be organized in such a way that if a unit has to be replaced or moved, it is not a complete disaster.
These are just some Organize Home Office Tips that I use to keep up with the clutter in my office and organize home office space (which is small) so that I can at least function and be productive.
In a hurry for instant information, here is a video de-clutter series that has immediate step by step details for getting your home office organized.
Organizing a home office does take work and it can be time consuming. The best advice I can give is to take it one station or area at a time. At least begin to sort through the office to see what you have and where it can go. Then once a place for everything has been established you can being to organize each area.
How to organize a home office is not easy but the rewards to having a system in place will far out weigh the work involved to getting it there.