Help! My Home Office Just Exploded

It finally happened. Your home office got to the point where you couldn’t even find or use the chair anymore.  There’s no longer any space under the desk for your legs and feet so you can’t sit down anyway.

Okay, don’t worry.  Take a deep breath…maybe three or more until you calm down.  This is fixable.  I can’t tell you how many clients call and tell me that their rooms have exploded.  How, do you fix this, you ask?  It’s all about having a good plan of attack which I will give you.  This is a photo of a beautiful and functional workplace that just needs a little help finding its way back to being usable again.  Organizing this workspace will offer exponential rewards to this homeowner and she’ll save untold hours of future work, will be less stressed and actually enjoy using her space.  There are a few different ways to declutter and reorganize this home office, and here’s just one of them:

1. Use a nearby table or folding table to relocate the desktop papers so nothing is lost. If files don’t already exist for these papers in the file drawer, use a plastic file box from Staples (see below) and start making and storing everyday files to keep these handy while the decluttering process takes place.  You don’t want to lose important papers while you’re working.
2. Free up space in the file drawers and overhead cabinets. Go through the desk supply drawers and throw out or donate anything that’s not being used. Only keep pens, pencils and desk supplies that are in good working order and donate or toss everything else. Use drawer organizers for your small supplies and clear all the items from the floor.  You can use small boxes as desk drawer organizers if you have some around the house.
3. Replace the circular trash bin with a rectangular recycle bin. It will be bigger and fit the space better.
4. Get a shredder and place it under or near the desk so you don’t have to get up to use it and use an electrical power strip.  Make sure you have a well-lit space or buy a desk lamp.
5. Post any small, important items like tickets or invitations to the corkboard to keep them visual and safe.
6. If you’re afraid to file any papers because of deadlines, you can create desktop project file folders, keep them in a desktop file step sorter at Staples (see below) and set alarms on your scheduling device to remind you. Try to free up as much desk space as possible.
7. Scan and toss papers when appropriate in order to free up space. Make sure you back up your computer to an external source every day.
8. Go to the Direct Marketing Association website and get off junk mail mailing lists.
9. Opt to go paperless with all your bills to cut down drastically on the amount of paper coming into your home.
10. Archive old tax and legal papers by storing them in the portable file boxes (below).  Keep last year’s tax return in your office and archive the rest.
11. If your desk file drawers don’t offer you enough storage, buy a file cabinet and locate it as close your working area as possible.  Relocate your everyday files from your temporary storage box into you desk drawers and nearby file cabinet.
12. Make sure your chair can easily glide on the floor or buy a floor mat.
13. Create a username and password notebook and store it inside the desk or cabinet or use a virtual service to capture this information.

It’s THAT easy.  You can’t do it!  If you want us to help you, just call us at 908.375.3108.  Let us know how you do – let’s see your before and after photos on facebook.

Get more organizing, redesign, home staging and productivity tips at http://staging.kirnaconsulting.com