Home Office Organization Tips

Does everything in your house have a home? This is a question you should ask yourself. Everything in my house does have a home and I try to stay organized. Being and staying organized is difficult and can be hard for many people, including me.


I am organized, for the most part. Everything has a place but getting those things to their place always seems to be my problem. My mail tends to pile up on my desk for months before I sort through it and put it in its place. I know that doing this just once a week would reduce the hours I spend putting mail away, when I finally do it.


Honestly, the piles and piles of mail on my desk make it impossible for me to use my office space as an office. Keeping your office clean and organized will lead to a more productive day. Find a "home" for all of your clutter. The less clutter you have the more productive your work day will be. Each day take five or ten minutes to keep your work area clean and organized. This will prevent the long hours it may take in the future if you don't keep up with the cleaning process.


Working from home is common in today's society. Having a defined space for your business tasks is essential to having a productive day. In this space you should have all of your files and documents together. Filing is important! I have a filing cabinet and it’s very useful. Make sure that business and personal documents are kept separate. Having a separate space for these items will make it less confusing and there will be less information you will have to look through later.


Filing is important but if the system that you are using is insufficient than you may be making it harder on yourself to stay organized. The system that you use for filing will vary based on your business. Finding a system that works for you is very important. It may take a while to "get it right", but when you do you will know that this system works for you, and staying organized should be simple.


Not only can paper documents make clutter, but digital documents can become cluttered on your computer as well. Having a folder for your work documents makes your work life easier. Have sub folders within your work folder. Label these based on what your projects are called, so that they are easier to find. Another great suggestion is to create a separate user account; this can prevent someone from accidentally deleting files and projects. Having a separate work e-mail address is a good thing to have, just to separate your work and personal lives. Cleaning out your files is important, too. At least twice a year go through your files and destroy any documents that you no longer need. Depending on how much you file you may need to go through your files more often.


Adding personal touches to your home office make the space more enjoyable like pictures, plants, or cool gadgets. Remember that your office should be a place that you enjoy. It may not be a place that you want to spend all of your time but you should feel comfortable there.