4 tips on how to bring order to your home office

CLEAN OUT YOUR STUFF

1. Create six zones: Look for six large bins or find six places to then organise all your STUFF. These six areas are labelled as follows: “shred”, “file”, “trash”, “donate”, “keep”, “other space”.
2. Sort the paperwork: Now go through all your paperwork. Everything that is lying around, everything that has accumulated in the filing system and, if you want to be very thorough, everything that has already been filed away in folders or drawers. Sort everything into the top six sections.
3. Sort everything else: Do the same with everything else in your office. This includes staplers, dried-up pens or the 83 USB charging cables. Be honest and as radical as possible – you won’t buy new refills and replace the nib to save the pen – rather part with it.
4. Remove the ballast: Now the shredding is done and the rubbish is taken away. Everything that belongs in another room or should be donated leaves the office area for now. You should now find only two piles: “file” and “keep”.

CREATE CLARITY

1. Wipe once completely through: Clean the cupboards, the floors, dust the compartments and shake the crumbs out of the boxes. Don’t forget the lamps. It feels much better right away!
2. Reorganise if necessary: It was already too crowded for you? Then throw out all the cupboards and shelves that are too much for you. What’s not there can’t be filled and forces you to stay consistent.

ORDER WITH SYSTEM – FROM THE BIG TO THE SMALL

1. Subdivide the room: Your office fulfils different tasks and there should be enough space and a fixed place for each of them. So create areas/spaces for the different tasks. Possible areas are: the work area, an area for mail, one for bills, for planning, for office supplies and one for books.
2. Find a place for everything – Part 1: First of all, assign everything that is not paper to the work areas. Put the laptop where you will use it. Organise staplers, pens and sharpeners in the office supplies area.
3. Tame the mountains of paper: In your two piles you have all kinds of former tree stock – mail, notes, newspapers, cards and co. Bring system into this too. Start with areas such as office supplies, bills, souvenirs, school/study/work, magazines and newspapers, things to do and – you guessed it – find a place for everything (next step).
4. Find a place for everything – Part 2: That’s right, sort the magazines on the shelf, set up a box for mementos and cards, file notes and study materials and find a permanent place for everything in your newly furnished home office. Boxes, folders, drawers, pigeonholes and binders will help. Remember to label everything so that you’re not the only one who knows where everything is.

ORGANISE DOCUMENTS – THE PRO TIP

1. Decide on a filing system: It’s partly a question of type. Maybe you like to flip through folders, maybe you work entirely on your computer anyway and prefer a filing system on your computer, and maybe you want to have access to it at all times, even if you don’t have your computer with you. Depending on the situation, you can choose between traditional file folders, filing on your computer or, for example, the digital filing system from memoresa to organise your documents.
2. Develop an instant routine: Whatever you decide, get into the habit of dealing with incoming mail directly. Check the documents, scan it if necessary, sort it in the appropriate place and file what you want to keep in the original.
3. Arrange the documents with a system: Who would have thought it, even with your documents and records it makes sense to create a thematically structured order. The following core areas have proven useful for this purpose: Finance, insurance, housing, mobility, income/work, health, memberships and subscriptions. Visual support, such as a colour system, can help you find things even more quickly. Digitally, you have even more options: you can search through folders or mark all relevant tax documents separately. Departing from the analogue order has its advantages in many places.