Does looking at the clutter in your home office exhaust you? Are
you so overwhelmed that you don’t even know where to start? Is your stack of
papers to be filed overflowing onto the floor?
When was the last time you were able to actually
find that critical piece of paperwork exactly when you needed it and on the
first try? Do your bills get paid late
because you can't even find them? Can't find that vital CD to fix your
computer when you need it?
Here are some simple solutions for getting your home office
organized in no time.
Paper Organization
Every home office has paper. So organizing a home office means that you will
need to find a way to deal with that paper. Having a filing
cabinet
to organize your paper is the obvious solution. But how do you organize all of
those files and folders? All you need to do is setup a filing system. A good
place to start is with the most common documents that you need to keep track of,
including: business receipts, charitable contributions, medical, dental,
mortgage, car and legal information.
But what if you already have a paper organizing system? How can
you make it work more effectively for you? One way is simply to make sure that
you organize the same kinds of files in the same drawer. For example, have one
drawer that has all of the house information in it. In that drawer put anything
related to the house. Use this same method for every drawer of your filing
cabinet.
Setup Work Stations
There are specific tasks that you use your home office for. Organizing your
home office means that you need to create a specific place for those tasks. For
example, every home office needs
some sort of bill paying center. In the bill paying area of your home office,
have everything you need to pay bills (checkbook, stamps, envelopes, return
address labels, etc). There will be areas that overlap but try to separate out
the major areas. Organizing your home office in this way is especially important
if you work from home and also use the same office for organizing your 
personal
life. Getting a compartment desktop organizer 
is
an easy way to organize your home office into different task areas. Organizing
each task in a different compartment or set of compartments makes it much easier
to keep track of all of the items you need for each of the different
tasks.
Organize Your Computer Files
A computer is part of every home office so getting the files on your
computer organized is part of every home office organization project. The
easiest way to get them organized is to separate out the different subject
areas. The subject areas that you used for your paper files often work for your
computer files as well. If you share your computer with others in your home,
having a separate file for each person and then having subfolders under that
can work well. If there are general files that everyone who uses the computer
will need to access, make sure that they are easy to find and named so that
everyone understands what is in the file. Part of computer file organization
is also organizing your computer software. There are many different kinds of CD
organizers out there from ones that fit over your door (good if you're tight on
space) to ones that you can put in a filing drawer. Find the one that works best
for you and the space that you have.
Home office organization, like any other area of
organizing
your home, is about being able to quickly and easily put your hands on
anything you need. Make the space you have work for you rather than feeling like
you need to work around the space you have.
