I've lost my desk again!

"Help! I'm drowning in here and very overwhelmed!", this is a common statement I hear from so many clients. For many of us a home office doesn't have to be a room all its own. It may be as simple as a space in the kitchen to a larger room devoted to being a home office. As an organizer, I generally see the dysfunctional home office. 

Why is the home office such a challenge????

-It's the perfect storm of paper...

So many categories of paper ending up in this one place creates the perfect storm!

-You may not be alone...

Your office space may be in a high traffic area allowing access to everyone in your house. That's alot of extra paper!

-May have more paper than space...

Sometimes these areas end up overwhelmed by the amount of paper and the limited amount of space! Is a purge in order???

-No system in place...

The method of piling paper on a desk is the only "organizing" there is! How do you find what you are looking for??

Creating a system that works for you is not as hard as you might think. You want to start this as soon as possible, you don't want another day to go by where you can't find your desk!

To begin:

1.Make a date- put on the calendar the date and time you will be working on filing/purging in this space. If we don’t have it on our calendars it probably won’t get done. Very few people get a wild hair to organize the office!

2.The set up- 3 trash cans; Trash, shred, recycle and this is how you will sort your mail. If it doesn’t meet the 3 categories put it on the desk. This sets up the 1st phase.Sometimes just getting through the junk mail is a help!

3.Use an accessory - this is probably the only area you will hear me say to do this! It is imperative that you have something to hold paper in. I do recommend
an accordion file folder, letter trays and/or a file cabinet. You are free to set these up as it resonates with you.

4. Create a workflow for your system. Decide where to put the mail once it comes in until you look at it and decide what will be done. This is really important because it becomes a good habit once you do this and everyone has an easier time to follow it. The ever changing place to put the mail can be dangerous if you miss a bill…oops!!

5. Let’s talk about the calendar-I recommend 2!!!! One is on your phone and the other is on paper. Yep, I’m old school but it works as a system of checks and balances. As you update either calendar you will take one day a week to sync them and make sure all info is the same on both. Pen to paper is the best way to get the info to stick!!

Well, I think I’ve given you enough to get you started on keeping your head above water so you are no longer drowning in paper!!

For more organizational info please visit me on Facebook.
www.facebook.com/darlene.illig

Happy for you to send me pics of your before/after office space!!!

“From clutter and beyond….”
Darlene Illig