5 Tips to Organize Your Home Office
5 Tips to Organize Your Home Office
Organizing your home office is not something that most people do willingly. The average person will wait until they are buried under a mixture of bills, calendars, Tonka Toys and the random stack of books before they realize they must do something. Home offices are tougher than an office at work because it is not only your mess, but others that are in the way. Fortunately there are plenty of easy steps you can take to eliminate the messy home office. You can organize your home office quickly and efficiently and keep it that way on a regular basis. Here are five awesome organization tips to get you off and running in no time flat:
Relocate the clutter
This does not mean that you take the clutter and move it to the other side of the room to stay. When I say relocate the clutter, I mean to gather it in one central location. Take everything off of your desk and put it in one spot along with any other clutter in the room. This is centrally locating the mess and going to make it much easier to deal with.
Sift and Purge
The most awesome part of organizing your home office is the purge. It feels so good to get rid of the stuff that has been sitting there forever. Pick up every single piece of paper and every item and ask yourself which of the following categories it falls into:
- Eliminate
- File Away (Short Term)
- File Away (Long Term)
- Relocate
- Every Day Use
Every single thing you put your hands on can fall into one of these areas. Having things placed in small piles like that will be extremely helpful and make it quick to deal with.
Clean Up
What good is a desk that is free of clutter if it is nasty and dusty? Get out that Pledge and start cleaning out every square inch of your office. The more finely detailed you can get, the better. This is your initial cleaning and you want it to be as thorough as possible. Give everything a good dusting and make it all shine!
Assess What You Need
Now that you know what is going to be used and where, it is easy to see where your home office is coming up short. Look at the files that will be put back and determine where they will be going on a permanent basis. Take those items that are going to be used every single day and make sure they are in arm’s reach. Once you have a good idea of where you want to put things, decide if it is time to buy some home office storage items. Although you can often get away with a desk, it does help to get extra storage. The best part is, much of it can be rather stylish and fit right in with your decor. Here are some of my favorite home office organizational items:
Rolodex Mesh Collection Oval Supply Caddy
Safco Products Onyx Mesh Desk Organizer
Rolodex Mesh Collection Stacking Sorter
Smead Cascading Vertical Wall Organizer
Write up a cleaning/maintenance schedule
This is absolutely vital if you want to keep a clean working space. Taking the time to organize your home office is rather silly if you plan to obliterate it a few days later. Have a list of daily activities and a list of monthly activities to refer to.
Here are a couple of basic lists to work from:
Daily:
- Clear Desk
- Empty Trash
- Wipe Down Desk
- File Daily Papers
- Update Calendar
Monthly:
- File Monthly Papers
- Pay Bills
- Vacuum Area
- Wipe Down and Dust Entire Room
- Computer Maintenance (Defragment, clear cache, etc)
- Re-shop for supplies
These five tips to organize your home office are far from everything you should do, but it will get you off and running in the right direction. Doing the basics and doing them well will ensure that your area is at least workable and that you will not be found buried under last year’s tax return. Master these five tips and then think about more advanced home office organization tips.
