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Making Your Home Office Work for You

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Take a good look around the area you keep your computer. What does it look like? Can you even see the computer? Are there papers, sticky notes, pens, and work orders running amuck along your work space?

Are your household bills, school papers, and to do lists mixed in with your business papers? In other words, does your home office look like a giant paper monster with sticky note teeth? Let’s get thing straightened around so you can work in peace.

Set aside one hour or more—depending on the size mess you have before you.

Make Piles
Go through your entire work space and separate all papers into piles.
Make one pile for your business papers, one pile for your household papers, one pile for your child’s school papers, and keep making a pile for whatever else you have milling around that desk!

Once you’ve made the piles, go through each and every slip of paper and decide what stays and what will be thrown away, make a trash pile until you’ve sorted through all paperwork. Get the shredder out and kiss that mess goodbye!

With the stacks of paper that are remaining, take them one at a time and organize them.
For instance:
If you have random slips of paper with passwords for email accounts, business accounts, websites you visit etc… Type them into your word processing system and print out.

Say you’ve typed all the passwords and usernames for your affiliate accounts, email accounts and any other business related accounts—print them out and put them into a binder specifically for your business. This will now become your business binder, filled with any important information ready to go right at your fingertips.
Do the same for your household papers etc…

Now that the paper mess is cleared, find a place to neatly store your binders close at hand.

Find a Home for the “Stuff”

At this point, pick up any other clutter that’s around your desk. If you have lots of pens, pencils, stationary, stamps etc… Get a nice basket and either hang it on the wall next to your desk or place it somewhere nearby your desk for easy access.

If you do not already own one, get a desk organizer to keep your bills, check book, and other household financial papers.

Do you have lots of CD’s and DVD’s hanging out around your home office? Let me guess, some CD’s are not even in the right cases and others aren’t even in the case at all!
Don’t be a victim of CD overload! Get a cheap wood crate or two at your local craft store. Go ahead and paint or decorate it any way you please if you’re in the mood to get creative! Go through all of your CD’s and DVD’s, put each one in its proper jewel case. If you cannot find the case, purchase some paper CD sleeves at your local office supply store and label the outside of the jacket so you know what’s inside the cover.

Once you’re finished organizing your CD’s and DVD’s find a home for the crates in your office. The next time you search for a program, movie, or song, you’ll find it with ease!

If you have loads of forms or other paper work to keep on hand, invest in a file cabinet. Keep the forms organized in folders.

If you are running a business that requires you keep inventory of product, try to get creative with how to store your things.

Look around the rest of your home—do you have an extra bookcase, cabinet, crates, or boxes? Think about how you could utilize the space under your bed. Could you store some of your product in some of those plastic under the bed storage units?
How about getting or making a deep and tall box—put a round (or square) piece of wood over the top and throw a table round cover on top of it. Use it for a side table and a storage unit as well.

If your home office is organized, it brings a sense of peace. It’s very frustrating to work in a cluttered home office, when papers are strewed all over the place and you have to search and stretch for that hidden slip of paper you might need at that time.

If you tackle the clutter monster in your home office, you’ll be well running your business like a well oiled machine in no time!

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