Organizing your office space to rid your life of clutter?

The life changes that come when you organize your office space often amazes people

Been thinking about organizing your office space? Last week we began cleaning up the small, temporary workspace of a renter. This person didn’t want to make large capital expenditures and the key focus was to get the space functional.

In looking at workspaces, there are several key aspects for productivity – functionality, inspiration and accessibility to necessary items.

In phase one we focused on paper – shredding, filing and organizing. Paper is usually the toughest thing to deal with and the area that people most often procrastinate on. It is a massive source of clutter.

After organizing the paper (see last week’s post on organizing a small workspace part 1) I suggest taking clear filing envelopes, with zippers or fold-over tabs, and labeling them as shown in the photo below.

As you go throughout your week, file your paper accordingly. Some sample files (though not limited to) are:

1. Unpaid Business Receipts – think food and beverage, mobile phone, etc.
2. Household Receipts – anything non-deductible.
3. Credit Card and Banking Statements – self-explanatory.
4. Kid’s Forms – anything that requires attention.
5. Shredding – anything that has your name, address and personal information on it.

These clear files are for items that require further management. For example, once a business receipt is handed over to a bookkeeper, or recorded, it can be uploaded to a cloud or binder filed.

Household receipts are either shredded or filed for future reference. Credit card and banking statements must be reviewed for discrepancies before being filed.

The bottom line is that you deal with the paper as it comes in, by putting it in the appropriate file, and then allocate one time per week to deal with each envelope.

The other benefit of the system is that if you only have a few minutes, you can deal with one or two items in a file and not have to worry about trying to figure out where you left off.

The office cleanup – organizing your office – is an ongoing process.

This is something I am passionate about and so excited that you are taking a moment out of your productive day to read about ways in which you can take it to the next level.

We would love to hear about how your efforts at organizing your office and how you organize your paper.

Please post on in the comments section of the blog below.

Next week, we will focus on how to make a small, temporary area much more inspiring and fun.

Susan is a balanced living expert.  She is an author, speaker and self made millionaire.  She has appeared on ABC Family, the CBN, written for Dianne Magazine, Oxygen Australia and many more.  Susan dedicates time to philanthropy and projects that benefit women and girls all over the world.  She is married to her best friend, Chris, and together they have five beautiful children.