by Susan M. Totman, MVA

Is there really any such thing? An organized home office? Yes, there is hope even for the self-proclaimed “hopeless cases”. Most of the self-employed entrepreneurs I know that work from home are incredibly disorganized a good part of the time (myself included). I wonder if it is because we are alone, it’s not a public place, so who really cares what it looks like, right? How many people do you know that keep an orderly home office? Not many, I’d bet.

The problem is that when we are really disorganized, most of us are simply not that efficient overall when it comes right down to it. There is no accountability. In a traditional office environment, there is an expectation of organizational skills that is lacking when you are the only person to account to. Yeah, you might think you know which pile that document is in – or maybe it’s in the other one – or the other one… you get it. So I’ve buckled down and become nearly obsessive about putting things where they go within my office, which is a very tight space – and it’s paying off. Here are ten steps to getting on the right track with getting and keeping your home office a little bit neater.

1) Organize your workspace – Really think about your workspace when setting up your office. Draw pictures of your layout. Measure. Think vertically and how you can use ALL of the space, particularly if you have a very small space like mine. I bought a desk that has a hutch that fits most of my envelopes, postcards, etc. that I use daily and the hutch was deep enough that I can fit two of my inkjet printers on the top as well as my modem, router, etc. The desk is an “L” desk with two workspaces, which has worked out beautifully because I operate not only my own business, but several others as well, and has room for the fax, scanner and telephones while leaving me considerable workspace.
2) Organize your supplies – Make a place for your general supplies that end up all over the desk, in the drawers, or wherever you drop them (paper clips, pens, pencils, staples, post-it pads, white out, binder clips, tape – you name it). I use a bookcase for my supplies and used baskets that I picked up for about $2 each at Wal-Mart to keep my supplies at my fingertips and out of my way when I’m working.
3) Organize different papers – I bought a kitchen cart for about $75 and just omitted the knife holder when I assembled it. It makes a beautiful wooden printer stand and has a drawer as well as a cupboard area with two shelves under it for paper/media storage. It is much more sturdy than many of the metal cabinets I looked at, much nicer to look at and significantly less expensive. There is plenty of space for all of my paper stock and the drawer is used for scissors, my rotary paper cutter, etc. and most of my paper is now hidden away behind the nice wooden stand that also holds my laser printer/copier on top. Did I forget to mention it’s on wheels? Very cool and allows me to move the cabinet around if I need to get to paper jams, etc, but otherwise fits into a very reasonably sized 30” spot on my wall.
4) Filing – If you have many clients like I do, I have found the best way to keep close track of everyone’s files (as I often have many files out at one time, while multi-tasking) is to color code them, either by the folders themselves as I do, or by the file folder labels, which can be bought in many different colors. I also keep an index file for each client and the colors of those cards match the color I’ve chosen for their folders. If I cannot find colored index cards, I just use a similar colored marker to their folder color and mark the top of the cards with that color so I can immediately see that the card is related to a specific company/client.
5) Temporary Filing – I use a temporary filing system that allows me quick access to files I use a lot of the time without having them piled on my desk or on the floor in stacks. I bought a rolling metal file cart from Staples for about $29 (very sturdy) that has enough room for about 100 files with reasonable amounts of materials in them, plus a shelf under and two sliding metal drawers. This tool has become an absolute necessity for my office. I can roll it around or hide it under the desk when I don’t need it.
6) Tracking – It is very important in my business to track every copy, print, telephone call or fax that I do. I keep a binder that has four dividers – one for each. Each section has a running log that I use to track the quantity, client, project and type of paper I used for example for printing or copying. The phone/fax logs are obviously focused on the number I called, length of call, who I talked to, related to what client or project, etc. This allows me at the end of the month to simply tally up what I used for each client and submit my billing and the binder is always at my fingertips. I also have a separate time log for each day in a separate binder that I simply jot down the client name, project, time started and ended. I have used time tracking softwares, have found that most do not multi-task (i.e., track several at one time) well, and find that doing it by hand is really much more efficient and is very quick to summarize at the end of the month.
7) Put stuff away periodically. Every time I leave the office, I take 5 items that belong somewhere else, such as my empty coffee cup, plate if I had lunch, etc. This helps me to purge the extra stuff that tends to clutter up my space.
8) Archive – Get the plastic file boxes you can pick up at Staples, Wal-Mart, etc. for about $8 or so and put away files and materials that you no longer use. I keep old files in the office about six months after a contract has finished, then I back up all electronic files, pull all paper files, write a summary of what the box contains, keeping one copy in the box and one in a file of archives I have, then storing the box away again. This helps to keep your file system current and ensures that periodically you have open file space again for new files.
9) Set aside specific time for organizing – you need to set aside a couple of hours a week at least just to do filing and cleaning of your office. No matter how diligent you try to me, it is most likely that you will always have documents that need to be filed or archived, and your space will need to be dusted, vacuumed, equipment dusted off, etc. Do it regularly and it won’t become the huge job that it can if you continue to put it off.
10) Last, but certainly not least, keep a detailed to-do list. Keeping a list keeps you focused on the tasks that you need to get done, save a lot of time, and help to ensure that you don’t miss any details of projects. I make my lists during “down time” when I am not frustrated or pushing for a deadline. My thinking tends to be more organized in the late evening or very early morning before anyone else gets up, so I make my lists then and am much more successful that way.

To begin organizing your home office and time schedule for your new business, I have developed a free tool for you to use. Get this tool at http://www.eliteofficesupport.com/articles/SOHO-Organize-TM.pdf.

©2005 Susan M. Totman, MVA

Susan Totman is Virtual-Professionals.com, and a Certified Master Virtual Assistant. Susan currently owns a document and web template business, Elite Small Business Forms and Templates (http://www.smallbusinessformsandtemplates.com) web design business, Elite Web Studio (http://www.elitewebstudio.com), a FREE Worldwide Listing Service for Virtual Office Assistants (http://www.eliteofficesupport.com) and mentors small business startups.

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