The office

The office..

For the month of January, the home office is the focus of organization.
I started this a few weeks ago and a few things have taken my attention away. However, we still have time to take care of our home offices, for those who are following a long with me month by month for home organization or re-organization.

Here are the suggestions from the magazine:

Organize or set up mailboxes on a desk, bullentin board or wall. Label areas for each family member

Check to see if all writing utensils work and if they do not, throw them away.
Group items that are a like in canisters

Organize or outfit a desk drawer with tray dividers or multiple small bins with compartments labeled.

Hang or place a large calendar or dry erase board version located where everyone can see it and use it

My personal additional suggestions are:

First take about three garbage bags and 3 boxes or storage containers. Label the storage containers with shred, garbage, and sort through to pack away. The garbage bags can be used to toss old and unwanted materials within the office.

The storage containers can be used to hold items that may be confidential that need to be shredded and not thrown away. The other storage containers can be used to hold bulky items such as old magazines, catalogs etc that can be thrown away as well. Remember to black out or rip off your mailing address etc. I keep a permanent black marker on hand for these instances, or either we just rip off the back and shred the mailing labels. One suggestion for those who are near elementary and middles are to donate your magazines which are family magazines to a school. Many art departments and classes use them for different activities and projects.

The sort through storage container or box can be used to house materials that you may need to sort through to file in another location or scan to put it into your computer. There are a number of devices available to scan business cards and documents that can be organized into software onto your computer.

I would also recommend purchasing affordable containers to organize small things within the cabinets. Many office organization stores and discount stores have these items for affordable prices. Designate drawers for specific things so that you can get into the habit of putting those things into that area. For instance, home documents, home business documents should have their own separate area.

Within those specified areas, I would purchase dividers that label the folders, depending on whether or not you have a file cabinet with a hanging file system in addition to a cabinet. These dividers are a life saver and many of them come pre-labeled in a pack, or you can label your own by purchasing your own filing system and having a folder for each area of your home (Health, insurance, daycare, legal documents, taxes, utility bills, mortgage, donations, etc). If you need some some suggestions of where these organization items can be purchased, leave me a post and I will respond and give you a few suggested places that are very economical.

Additional recommendations would be to make a list of pertinent office equipment that you may need that you do not have that will come in handy. Such as a small fire/water proof vault for your important documents, a small two drawer file cabinet, and a shredder. Just having a designated space assists with organization if you do not have a designated home office or organized area to place these things. I highly recommend having a small vault for small important documents easy to access, even though I know that most people can get safety deposit boxes at the bank. However, it is helpful to have these things close by when needed.

I also recommend having one basket on your desk to put things that you need to tend to or sort through that week. This keeps the desk from being messy and you can place the small items in the desk. It has assisted me with keeping my desk from piling up with different papers. I know that when my little wooded basket on my desk is looking full, it is time to shred and go through some things.


I will definitely show some before and after pictures of me re-organizing some of my home office cabinets and space. The sad part is that I have all of the organization stuff, however, I did not finish taking the time to put everything into their places with the items that I purchased. This organization by month will definitely assist me with finishing reaching my goals each month because I will be focusing on one room at a time. I will also show some of my favorite and great finds/buys for cute and savvy organization on a budget that I have found. I think some people may think that it costs so much to organize areas, however, if you take your time, you can really find some chic items at a bargain price at the right places!

I can't wait to hear about everyone's home office or office area organization. We still have about 8 days left this month to organize and clean this area. I think it is possible, even if you are just starting. Just do a little each day and focus on one thing in the office for 30 minutes to an hour. It is amazing to see what can be accomplished if you can just stay in one area and re-organize.

Let me know your thoughts and let me know how your office organizing is going. The month of February is the kitchen, so we will get to that on February 1st.