Winter Cleaning for Your Home Office

Every Monday, I share my thoughts on Working @ Home.

As we anticipate the crazy busyness of December, I'm looking at these last three bonus days of November as a chance to organize my life and my home office a bit before the hectic schedule kicks in. I recently relocated to a lovely new home office in the former dining room of our house. It's a larger space than I had before with room for floor to ceiling bookshelves, great lighting and easy access to my kitchen and laundry room. But because it is also easily visible, I want to do my best to keep the piles to a minimum and keep things looking nice for my family and visitors. 

I tend to be a "stacker" -- meaning that things that need doing or processing land up in large stacks on my ample desk. For the past few weeks, I've been looking at what falls into these stacks, and trying to organize them into categories. This will hopefully help me to develop a workflow and see what's causing some items to remain stalled in the stacks!

My goals for this week's office organization effort include:

• Better organize the shelving space in my office
• Decrease desktop clutter by devising a filing system for items that need handling -- eradicate stacks!
• Dust and clean the hardwood floors. Dust the blinds
• Go through the myriad "sticky notes" stuck near my computer and complete those tasks or remove them
• Organize my "reading corner", creating a tickler file for items to be read and a basket for daily reading items
• Clean up my computer desktop

This should be enough to keep me more than busy for these last few days of November. If you're looking for a helpful article on organizing your home office space, check out this great one from Real Simple that offers several great product ideas to help you regain control of the chaos.

What would you put on your office's "to do" list to help you get better organized?

Comments

[Ruby Badcoe]

I used to be a "stacker" too, not for want of space, but because of the rush of work. To avoid that, I try to organize while on the go, so to speak. I label my drawers and shelves, and keep the paper shredder ready beside my desk. That way, there won't be an excuse in keeping too many papers!

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[Blake Mitchell]

We actually have a routine general cleaning every November before Thanksgiving. On that day, we organize all the documents and clean up all the clutter. That way, we lighten up our hectic schedule for the holidays.

[Barb S]

Interesting ideas! I think a good idea right now might be to just write down what I would really LOVE, and exactly what it is I love about it. Then I can look at finding solutions that will work in the house I've got :)

[Lisa Hendey]

Barb, check out this photo gallery at http://www.hgtv.com/specialty-rooms/small-space-home-offices/pictures/index.html - supposedly "small" home offices -- I like the one with the red washer and dryer in it! Honestly, my desk space absolutely never looks so clean! The more space I have, the more mess I seem to make! Happy organizing!

[Barb S]

My "home office" is a small desk in the corner of the living room. Talk about right there in front of everyone! I would like to spend some time this month (before the Christmas tree goes up RIGHT BEHIND MY CHAIR) "decluttering" my desk. I'd love to move somewhere else, but there's really no place else for me to go.