If you are running a home-based business, you must have a home office right at your own home. However, after some time, that home office could look and feel more like a storage room. The result: you go there seldom and you dread having to enter the room to find business stuff. You might be forced to work at the kitchen or at other places in your house. Here are several organization tips that could help you properly organize your own home office so that it could always be functional and presentable no matter what.
First, get cleared out. You have to categorize each item in the home office and decide which things should stay and go. Perform a basic de-cluttering activity. It would be advisable if you would classify items into things that you would: Keep, Trash, Donate, and Hold on while Deciding. The last could be given a six-month shelf life. After that, you must already be decided what to do with the item. If you are not able to do so, you could put it into your trash items. Items that are not useful anymore should be categorized at trash and should immediately go to the trash can. Keep things that are obviously and logically useful and important. Donate or recycle for other purposes things that could still have other uses other than its former function in the home office.
Then, clean the room to dust it off. It would be ideal if you would decide to paint or repaint the room. Prefer bright and stimulating paint color like bright blue or yellow so you could re-energize the room. Experts assert that a room designated as a home office could be more useful and cheerful if it would be painted or repainted with attractive colors.
Turn to the desk. It is a table you would be using most time of the day. An ‘L’ shaped one is most advisable. Put your computer, fax machine, phone, and printer in one wing. Assign the other wing for spreading out on. If you are right handed, put the phone on your left side so that you could talk and at the same time take down notes with your right hand (Do otherwise if you are left-handed). It would also be advisable if you would prefer to invest in all-in-one equipment, which combines phone, fax, printer, and scanner in one device for space efficiency.
Take out al personal things from the home office. Such items could only be a cause of distraction and could practically and visually clutter up the home office space. Have a box where you could put in all your magazines and print outs. If you think all your magazines and periodicals are just piling up and you do not get to read them all, get rid of those and cancel your subscriptions.
You could save a significant amount of money, too. Put into a drawer all light office paraphernalia like staplers, paper clips, notes, and scissors. These organization tips would surely make your home office better.
Paperwork is an ever-present part of most people’s work lives. Anyone with a position of any greater prestige than the burger-flipper at the local fast food restaurant most likely has to deal with paperwork at some level. And you may have discovered, as many people have, that papers have a tendency to pile up. Things get mixed together, lost, and jumbled, leaving you spending hours going through endless stacks of the stuff looking for that one lone order form or bill that you need right away.
Although this sort of frustration and wasted time is all too common, it is by no means necessary. There are simple ways to be sure you will not run into this sort of trouble with your documents. The first and most important rule is to put everything away and filing them in folders when you do not need them. The easiest way to lose track of papers is to leave them laying around where they can be shuffled together, slid under something, mistakenly thrown into the trash bin, or fall into a corner somewhere.
Once the documents are filed away, you need to be able to quickly and easily find the papers you need at any given time. Be sure to clearly label your folders to avoid confusion as to where a specific paper or document might be filed. Also, you should consider using a color coding system to organize your files so you can easily find something at a glance. A black folder, for instance, may be used for your professional documents, a blue folder for personal documents and a brown folder for filial asset documents, and so on. This will help streamline your filing and retrieving process. Keep a note posted somewhere nearby of what each color means, in case anyone else needs to find something in your files.
If you work at home, you may find that your desk is a catch-all for everything. You may work outside of the home and still have problems keeping your desk clean. How do you go from cluttered desk to organized files and keep your sanity at the same time? These ideas may be what you need to get your desktop cleaned off once and for all.
Start de-cluttering your desk by getting a box and putting everything from the top of it into the box. Go through each and every item in the box and decide what to do with it. Do you need to file it, throw it away, transfer information to a calendar, move it to another room, or does it requires immediate action? Your goal is to initially put things in one of those categories.
For non-paper items, you want to decide if the items are important to keep on your desk or if they should be stored elsewhere. Remember, keep only those things on your desktop that are necessary.
Get file folders and labels, and set aside some time. Setting up an organized filing system isn’t as hard as it may seem. Simple words you’ll remember are better than words you don’t use when trying to remember where you’ve put things. The goal is to file things as they arrive in a manner that will make them easy to access when you need them next.
Here are a few things to consider when setting up a filing system:
* Are you losing monthly bills and having to pay late fees?
* Do you have all of your receipts ready for tax time?
* What medical information do you need in case of an emergency?
* Do we have a home inventory of our assets?
* Can you locate warranty information when needed?
If at all possible, reduce the amount of paper you have to file before you start organizing it into files. Get rid of as much as you can into the shredder or garbage can. If you can’t toss it, try giving it to someone else to handle if it pertains to them. The idea is to get it off your desk so it won’t clutter it up. Then file what’s left.
Sort your papers into broad categories to begin with – for instance, auto, finances, health, house, insurance, money, and personal. Next break the broad categories into more precise categories: Finances could break down into banking, investments, and retirement; auto could include repairs and warranties; insurance could be broken down into car, health, homeowner’s, and life. You get the idea, but you may have to subdivide each smaller category even further. Banking could include checking and savings; investments would include 401K and stocks. Follow this line of thought until everything is filed.
Remember to use words that you would actually say. Ask yourself where you would look for something if you needed it six months down the road and use those terms for your categories.
Once you have your filing system in place you want to use it – every day. Don’t let papers start piling up on your desk again. If you get something in the mail that lists an important date, add it to your calendar and toss the paper. If the information needs to be kept, file it right away. Finally your cluttered desk will be replaced by organized files and you’ll be able to find what you need when you need it.
by The Organizer Lady dot com on December 28, 2008
More and more people are finding ways to work from home, either to replace a 9-to-5 job or to supplement the family’s income. One of the best things you can do to help improve your chances to succeed is to establish a home office. Not only is it a tax write-off (be sure to check with your accountant as to what you can and cannot deduct), but it is also a way to help stay organized and be more professional.
The type of business you are running will dictate the type of office you need. Will you be having clients meeting you in your office? Will it be your workspace? Will it be a multi-purpose room? For example, if you have a business based mainly on a computer and internet, then you won’t need as much space as you would for a craft production or product distribution business.
First, eliminate anything from the room that isn’t directly connected to your business (unless it is a multi-purpose room, such as a wall that serves as the family library). The fewer distractions you have, the better. It also helps reduce unnecessary clutter. Store things in boxes or move them to another room.
There are many nice filing systems – from the traditional filing cabinets, to hanging folders that can attach to the back of a door. Sort through all the papers in your office. Decide what you need to keep and what can be thrown away. When in doubt, set up another folder or box for things to look at again later. Once you establish a filing system, keep up with it on a daily basis. It is too easy to become overwhelmed if you don’t. Color-coded systems work nicely. One color for tax-deductible related items, another for invoices to clients, another expenses, etc. Then you simply place the papers or receipts in the appropriate color folder.
The workspace is often the most difficult to keep organized, but if you have a handle on the paperwork, it helps reduce one area of clutter. Make sure the workspace is large enough, and comfortable. Whether you have to sit or stand do to the work, make sure the surface is at the correct height. This will help reduce back strain and allow you to work for longer periods of time, thereby increasing your productivity.
There are many nice desk organizers that allow you to keep items close at hand but out of the way. If you only keep the items you need most often on the workspace, it will also reduce clutter. Keep the rest tucked away in storage units in your desk drawer, shelf or box. There are drawer organizers that can be customized to meet your needs.
If you use a computer, make sure you have enough space for the computer itself, the monitor, printer and any other hardware you may need, such as scanners and fax machines. Many companies produce multi-purpose units that combine those features into one machine, which takes up much less desk space.
Don’t forget to organize the computer itself. There are many organizational software programs that can help you track appointments, clients, and your work. By using these programs, you can keep on top of things and waste less time. Set up special folders in your documents folder, so you can file things away for easy retrieval. Databases and spreadsheets are also very helpful tools in tracking your inventory and other business related needs.
Getting organized is the key to making your life as a work at home mom efficient and, relatively, stress free. If you can get and stay organized, your business and your home life will flourish. Without taking some simple organizational steps you’ll be swamped with work and overwhelmed with laundry in no time.
One of the most important parts of getting organized as a WAHM is to establish business hours. Setting up specific working times during each day has many benefits. First, you’ll be more consistent with your work. Once you’ve gotten used to starting and stopping at a specific time each day you’ll work more efficiently. As a WAHM, you’ll manage your work time better and reduce distractions like checking your email or watching television. You’ll also be less likely to pick up things to do here and there, like laundry or taking time to errands. If you have set working hours, you’ll schedule those tasks around your work time so you’ll be more focused during your work time. It will help your family and friends understand that you are working while you are at home, and you won’t be available during those hours.
Next, you need to start delegating tasks to other family members. It may seem easier to do everything yourself, but once you have work duties on top of household duties you’ll realize how few hours in the day there actually are. There is nothing wrong with asking your children to fold the laundry, or having your husband cook dinner a few nights a week. By sharing the household duties as a family, you’ll have more time to get your work done and feel more rested. The important thing to remember when you delegate is that things won’t be done the way that you would do them. However, they are getting done.
Planning your work and family activities will make the whole house run smoother. If you don’t have a daily planner, then you need to get one. It doesn’t matter if it is a paper planner or a computer application. When you use a planner to write down everything that needs to be done, and then plan each activity for a specific time then you’ll have the opportunity to manage your time more wisely in and out of your home office.
Organizing your home at large will help make your business more organized. While it may take a while to establish some organizational habits in your house, your efforts will be well worth it. Don’t try to get organized in a weekend or even several days. Work up to a level of organization. Start small with your desk space. Organize the things in your desk and top of your desk. Make sure that everything that you need has a place, and toss or donate things that you don’t need. Then move on to another portion of the house. When something is out of place, it’s easy to put it back in its home once you’ve taken the time to organize your storage spaces around the house. If need be, take a trip to an office supply store or home improvement store and buy items like bins, cabinets and shelves that will help you stay more organized.
Getting organized as a Wahm does take some time and effort. Realize that with time your organizational system will get better. Work with your family to make your home run efficiently, and then you’ll be able to concentrate on your work when you need to.
