How to Organize the Home Office

Keeping the home office organized means being able to manage your materials, papers and projects and not just cleaning your office when it gets out of hand. It's key whether you're running a business from home or just making sure the family bills are paid on time. Taking the time to set up organizational systems for your home office will help your time spent there to be used more efficiently.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Set aside time, whether it's a few hours or several days, to devote to organizing the home office.

2. Purchase organizational tools, such as paper sorters, file stackers and a catchall to hold pens, paper clips, and sticky notes to help keep your desk neat.

3. Vow that the only things on your desk will be items that are currently being worked on, with everything else put away in it's proper place.

4. Invest in a good planner and jot down all notes in your planner instead of on random pieces of paper, so you'll always know where they are.

5. Consider purchasing a wireless keyboard and mouse, as the absence of wires snaking all over your desk will make for a neater home office environment.

6. Strive to walk away from your home office at the end of the day with a clean desk. File any papers that were pulled out during the workday, throw out things that are no longer needed and leave it neat and tidy to start the next day off on the right foot.

7. Take time at regular intervals, whatever works for your business, to spend a few hours purging files, both in your file cabinet and on your computer. Schedule the time and write it in your planner so it doesn't become something that continually gets pushed to last place in your priority list.

[bothfeetin]

on 1/3/2009 5 stars: forcing myself to try each and every step in this process will really enable success for me. Thank you for sharing these tips.