With home-based businesses and work-from-home options of “telecommuting” on the rise, many home offices have become havens for mounds of paperwork and misplaced clutter. The piles and disorganization can make digging out seem overwhelming to most.
It’s no surprise this area seems more out of control than others. Many home offices have to pull double duty. Your desk by day might be the family’s dining area in the evening. Your master bedroom may serve as your main business hub by day. Add children to the equation and you can bet there will be a “toy room” intermingled, whether it was intended, or not. These scenarios can make for a very stressful, disorganized work environment and a likely place for clutter to emerge.
Some simple steps can make a home based office run more efficiently:
- Arrange your office area into “zones”. Have a specific task in mind for each section; mailing, filing, computer work, reference, etc. This helps determine a clear home for everything and develops good habits of returning items to their proper place.
- Keep up with paperwork on a regular basis. Even if you have to schedule time with yourself to do this, make sure you’re diligent. Keep a “to be filed” tray, but keep it small so that you can’t pile more than you can file away in 10 minutes time. This will force you to work on paperwork more frequently and for shorter periods of time, so you don’t get bogged down with the task.
- If your office area is multipurpose, look for “trans-formable” storage solutions. By choosing a rolling file cart or a stylish cabinet that can conceal files and supplies or using a desk that closes up, you can easily transition the space for after hours.
The bottom line is, when you’re more organized, you are more efficient. Taking the time to organize and develop systems for your office area is not a waste of time. You are investing in your business by increasing your own productivity, and that’s not a bad thing!
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