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Is your office the epitome of a work station or a storage facility?  If your home office isn’t “working” for you, here are 10 Home Office Organizing Tips to help you get your office in efficient working order.

1.  Designate an incoming mail area.  We are all inundated with paper daily.  Do not just lay it on your counter, desk or the first available space you find.

2.  Have pre-determined and labeled bins or folders to sort your mail into.

3.  When you are ready to look through your mail be prepared to sort it to the appropriated areas.  Do not continue to pick up the mail, look through it and return it to a pile unsorted.

4.  Keep your trashcan or paper recycling container close by so as you sort, you can toss what you do not need.

5.  Keep your shredder close by if you choose to shred any junk mail that you feel has sensitive information on it.

6.  Keep as many items as possible off your desk and in appropriate files, drawers, containers or storage areas.  You cannot work at your desk if your desktop is a storage facility unto itself.

7.  Keep your “tools”: pens, pencils, stapler, paperclips, etc. together either in an easy to reach top drawer or neatly in desktop containers.

8.  Make a filing system that works for you, so you have a place to file or store paper information and documents in your office.

9.  If something no longer has a purpose to you, such as expired coupons, a broken stapler or anything irrelevant – dispose of it.

10.  Your office space should feel good to you.  If it’s cluttered and messy you won’t want to use it.

Remember: Organizing is an on-going process, just like laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc.

Mail, paper and clutter are incoming daily, so organizing what is incoming and maintaining organization is continuous as well.  With an organized system in place, maintaining an organized space is much easier and more time efficient!

You may have an entire room designated as your home office, but what if you don’t?  No problem!  You can create an environment that is well organized wherever you prefer to do your work, and with products that are easy enough to stash away when you’re done!

Do you like to work spread out on your bed, or on the sofa in the living room?  Or do you prefer to sit at the kitchen table?  Here are some inexpensive products that may help you:

• Decorative Photo Boxes – Great for storing small items of any sort, they can be stowed away easily in a tight space!  Find inexpensive ones, in a variety of colors and patterns to suit your style, at your local craft store!  You may even want to keep them out because they look so nice… which is a good idea because you don’t want to forget to pay your bills!  The boxes often have a label slot in the front for you to fill out so you can know what is stored in each box.

Box 1 – for all your workstation essentials like pens, pencils, sticky notes, scissors, a notepad, stapler and calculator.

Box 2 – for billing essentials like stamps, address labels, envelopes and your checkbook.

Box 3 – for stashing receipts.*

Box 4 – for incoming bills.

*Photo boxes often come with dividers – use them to separate receipts from different credit cards, ATM and deposit slips.

• Lap Desk – If you like to be propped up on the bed or on the sofa, this works great as a flat surface for your computer or for writing out checks.

• Folding Tray Table – Place it by your bed, sofa or living room chair for an extra surface.  Since it folds up, you can keep it flat when not in use, and you may be able to store it underneath your bed or sofa.

• Plastic File Box with hanging folders – Use this to file away your bills after you’ve paid them.**

• Small Paper Shredder – Use this to shred your bills after you’ve paid them.**

**This all depends on your preference.  If you are an online bill payer, then you can send your e-mail confirmations of your paid bills to a folder designated for each company.

Whatever you do, find a system that works for you and you could find yourself enjoying paying your bills each month…but probably not!