Clean Your Clutter
 – Clutter Zone: Home Office

The home office is a place to get things done. But it’s hard to concentrate when piles of bills and files call for your attention. Here are a few tips to improve the productivity in your home office.

Empty your Email

Between spam, advertisements and legit emails from friends and co-workers, we have a lot of mail to sort through on a daily basis. If your inbox is getting out of control take a few minutes every day to go through old emails and delete or file them. Start from the oldest emails and work your way to the most recent. If your email hosts provides features such as labels or folders, create a digital filing system that works for you.

Beat the Bills

Forgetting to pay a bill can lead to steep penalties. Develop a simple filing system such as an Inbox for new bills, and an Outbox for bills that have been paid. Marcia Ramsland, author of Simplify your Space, suggests getting a 13-slot accordion file to store all your bills and receipts for the year.

Also, consider online billing. Not only will e-bills save trees but owed amounts will be withdrawn from your account automatically so you’ll never miss a bill again.

Mail Melodrama

Take a little lesson from MOMeo expert Karen Turner and apply O-H-I-O (Only Handle It Once) to all your mail. Either deal with your mail as soon as you receive it or leave it until later, but don’t waste time partially handling it. Practice the four T’s: Tackle it, Task it (designate it to someone else) Toss it, or Transfer it (to the right recipient).

File it Away

Overstuffed filing cabinets are a point of stress in most offices. The problem is it’s difficult to know what financial records you should keep and for how long. Bankrate.com offers a quick chart to answer that very question allowing you to clear out that filing cabinet with ease.

The Big Picture

Between birthday invites, social events and soccer games it’s difficult to plan your week if you don’t know what’s happening. Keep a large calendar in the office to keep track of everyone’s obligations. Designate certain colours for certain actions such as red for when bill payments are due, blue for play dates etc. Invite your family to participate to help keep everyone organized.

Wacky Wires

Computer, telephone, and printer wires can be unsightly and can clutter up your desk. Get some cheap cord ties and group your wires together for a neater look. Try to keep the front two-thirds of every countertop or desk clear, says Ramsland.

Trash all the Post-It Notes

Post-It notes with little reminders often multiply and before you know it your desk is a sea of yellow. Scrap post-it notes for a little notebook or day planner. Write all your daily tasks in the notebook and begin each sentence with a verb such as “Write,” or “Call.”As you complete these tasks take pleasure in crossing them off your list.

Go Through all the Desk Drawers

Test all your pens, highlighters, markers and other writing materials and toss out ones that don’t work.  Look for duplicate items lurking in desk drawers, like calculators, rulers etc and throw away items you no longer need or use. Purchase desk trays to organize all of your supplies.

Say no to Schwag

Free stuff is hard to resist, but you must resist. Cheap corporate schwag is a home office’s worst nightmare because it ends up littering your desk. Instead of gathering corporate schwag write down the company name and contact info in your address book.

Assemble one Address Book

Collect all your business cards, important numbers and other information and put them in one address book as opposed to several small ones. Not only will this allow you to recycle excess paper, but it’ll make it easier to access the information you need when you need it.