Organizing, Redesign & Staging

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Simple Home Office Organizing Tips

I came across these simple tips for organizing your home office or work area, and thought I'd share:


1. Separate business from personal
If you use your home office for business purposes and for personal purposes, try to separate the two as much as possible. Definitely make sure that you separate business receipts from personal receipts. If you don't, be prepared for an accounting nightmare at the end of the year when you try to get your taxes in order. When organizing a home office, try to keep all of your business items in one area and all of your personal items in another area.


2. Create a home office file organization system
As with just about anything related to home organization, you will need to create a plan for organizing your home office files. A good way to start is by making a list of all of the files that you currently have. Then take a look at that list and see what are natural groupings. A little home office file organization tip: Do not have a miscellaneous file. Too many things end up in there simply because you don't want to have to think about where they really belong.

3. Use some sort of scheduler
Whether you prefer your computer or paper to keep your schedule, make sure that you have one to keep your home office organized. All important dates should go on this schedule. For home office organization purposes, this means things like when certain bills need to be paid and when you will balance the checkbook (this should be at least weekly).

4. Schedule a time for home office organizing
At least once every week you should clean out and organize computer files (including email) and paper files. Schedule this into your week just like you would a regular appointment. Part of home office organization is making sure that you keep on top of all of your filing. And the computer files should be part of this too. Don't forget to delete those files on your computer that you no longer use or need access to.


5. Easy access to things you use most frequently
Make a list of everything in your home office that you use on a daily basis. All of those items should be organized in the same area. You want to make sure that how you organize your home office works for how you are going to use it. If you're getting up from your chair in order to constantly go get a certain item, move that item to within easy reach of your chair.
Getting your home office organized just takes a little time and planning. Take small steps and before you know it, you will know how to organize your home office with ease.