Clutter and Hoarding – How to Organize Your Home Office
Does your home office look disorganized? Do you have a bunch of papers taking up space in your file cabinet you no longer need to refer to from last year? It’s time to get organized! You can follow these seven simple ideas to help you get the job done.
1. To begin, collect the papers you no longer routinely refer to and prepare them for storage. Your storage method can vary depending on the number of papers that you have. You may decide to put different categories of papers in manila envelopes.
2. For example, you would put your electric bill receipts in one envelope. On the outside of the envelope simply write the words electric bill receipts.
3. Remember to write the year as well in the event you need to get the receipts out for some reason. You would put your telephone bill receipts in another envelope. Get enough manila envelopes to collect and organize all of your bill receipts from last year. Remember to include a miscellaneous envelope for things that just seem to have no category.
4. In your file drawer where the last year’s receipts used to be, simply reuse those hanging files for this year. Make sure that you have a file for each bill category you have. Remember to include a miscellaneous file for things that just seem to have no category to them.
5. An alternate way to categorize your bills would be by month. If you categorize your bills by month, this will be a less detailed way to categorize your bills. If you’re the type of person who rarely goes back to look at bills, categorizing your bills by month may be the correct method for you.
6. Another home office area to organize is your writing area. This includes the materials that you use to mail out bills, cards, and letters. The materials you use for mailing out include postage stamps, postage addressing labels, postage forms, envelopes, and tape. Sometimes a small plastic container can hold all of these things so you know exactly where they are.
Envelopes usually come in their boxes, so envelopes are usually excluded from your catchall postage supply box. You may choose to put stationery in this box as well so you know exactly where it is for easy access. You may also want to put a ruler in this box, a magnifying glass, and a pair of scissors.
7. Whatever it takes for you to feel organized, do that. In the long run, you reduce stress and more efficiently work when you know where everything is.
