Move It Out Monday: Home Office

Oh how I wish my office was this organized........Isn't this a lovely set up!

But alas I must work with what I have...and it's not a large airy room with a great window!

One of the biggest hot spots in my home is my office. It's a small room to begin with which always makes things a bit difficult. In this room are two desks...one contains the computer, printer and bill paying center! The other desk is the craft desk and it contains all sorts of art materials.  I try to keep the surfaces of both areas clear and organized. It is a never ending battle~!

Here are a few tips that seem to help me

1. Set up a regualr weekly time to purge, organize and just declutter your desk top. Mine is Fifteeen Minute Friday!

2. Limit your desk top to things you use frequently. Store other things out of sight in a drawer or cabinet.

3. Find a filing system that works for you. I have tried tons of systems. Mostly I have not been able to keep up with them!  Now I have file folders for January through December. I purchased these from Current and they are colorful with the month names printed all over them in different fonts. When papers come across my desk I decide if they are a keep...if so...They go into that months folder. If not, they go into the trash!  At the end of each month...I take a quick look through the folder and discard any papers that i no longer need. The rest stay in the folder and the folder is moved to the back to make room for the new month at the front.  When the year starts over I go through all the monthly folders and clean them out. If the papers need to be kept. I put them in a labeled YEAR folder...if not they are trashed.

From Current. Price (on sale now) 7.49

These are the ones I use from Current but they have a new style now.



These are 8.99

4. Invest in a nice sized trash can and use it often. I need one!!  The one i have now is too small and is often overflowing!

5. Add some "pretty touches" to your desk. A framed print, some flowers, something that has beauty and you will want to keep your desk clutter free to enjoy it!

Desk Organizing Tip #1

Gosh...you will have to forgive me...it is Wednesday already and I am just now getting around to adding some posts here at Month by Month. Sorry but life just sometimes gets in the way of blogging! LOL

I wanted to tell you that while I was working on the office last month I set up a little desk top organizing system...that is working pretty good...as long as I remember to check it!

It actually has a couple parts to it. Here they are in brief and then I will elaborate more if people want to know more.

• January through December files....these are kept in the drawer of the desk. I have had these for awhile but they never seem to work very well for me...so here is what I am trying now. Each month I file any of those papers that you just might need and don't quite want to throw away yet...in the current monthly file. You know the papers I mean...the receipt from your online bill payment, the coupons for that month at different restaurants, othe receipts, etc Really just about any paper from that month that needs to be kept at least for awhile goes into that file. Then every three months, I go through that quarter's monthly files and either purge...as they are no longer needed OR move to the main file cabinet down stairs into the appropriate file.
• Sunday-Saturday Files: These files are housed in a little wooden box on my desk top and are my actual "working files" for the week. If I have a form that needs to be filled out...I put it in the folder for the day BEFORE it is due. If I have notes about anything for that particular day into the desk top file. Any paper that needs to be handled in any way goes into the day that I want to TAKE CARE of it! It has certainly kept my "in box" and desk top a lot cleaner.
• Bill Files: I have a folder for each bill or type of bill (utilities, etc) These are housed in the desk drawer directly in front of the monthly files and contain NOTHING but the current bill and the previous month's stub or receipt. At the end of each month the older receipt is thrown away (or put in the monthly file) so the files usually just contain one receipt and the current bill. So far this is working very well. I try to immediately file bills from the daily mail and pitch the junk mail at the same time.