Our home office is the place where we pay bills, organize recipes and photos, make schedules, design calendars, and quite often, make a living. Our home office has become the foundation of our household. With so much going on there, it is no wonder our home office often becomes disorganized, overflowing with papers, envelopes, cd's, coffee cups. It can get very confusing and overwhelming. When our desk is clean and organized our stress is lessened and we become more productive. If your messy desk is overwhelming you, it might be time to take a long, hard look at what can be done.



Mail is probably the biggest contributing factor to our messy desktops. You should make it a daily practice to deal with your mail. Toss what you can, place those things that need to be shredded into a shredding bin and shred them once per week, and file the rest away properly. This might also be the time to update your filing system and make folders for current years or months.

Another culprit of office clutter is computer storage media such as CDs, DVDs and floppy disks. Take the time to ensure each is properly labeled and placed in a protective file or case. Categorize and alphabetize them for easy access.

If you have an office area that is commonly used by all family members, it can easily become cluttered with glasses, coffee cups, food wrappers and dirty dishes. If your office area is small, a no food and beverage rule should be established to prevent damage to your computer in case of spills. This would lessen the clutter at the same time. If you are working in your home office for several hours a day and you have the space, you should try to have a separate area, away from your computer and work space, where you can set your food and beverage without fear of spilling on electronic equipment.

If you utilize a bulletin board, take the time to make sure all the items posted on it are current. Any items that are not current should be filed or thrown away. Make sure your calendar is always displaying the current month so you can see the month's activities and appointments in an easy glance.

Office supplies have a way of easily cluttering up our workspace as well. Taking time out to clean and organize desk drawers in order to have a place to keep your office supplies will eliminate some clutter off the top of your desk.

With some forethought, planning and discipline, your home office can become and stay productive, efficient and serene.