Get Organized!

Tis the season for Spring cleaning! Whether you are cleaning out your closets, pantry or office – it feels so good to get rid of clutter and feel organized. In fact, experts on the topic of organizing will tell you that ridding your life of clutter can greatly reduce your stress level!

I recently undertook a major clean out of the office that I have occupied for the last eight years for a move to a smaller office. I spent weeks going through drawers of files that had accumulated over the years and tossing about 90% of the paper in the recycle bin. The effort was worth it! I feel “lighter” in my new smaller office and less stress working in a neat and tidy space.

For many of us who are juggling very busy schedules - it takes something major like having to move to really dig in, clean out and get organized! Now that my new office is organized - my goal is to keep it free of clutter by making getting organized part of each and every workday. We all know that once an organizing project is done the challenge is keeping it organized.
Lifeorganizers.com offers these daily steps to organize and then maintain your office.

1. On Mondays, de-clutter your office. Remove at least one item which you don't use at least monthly. Remove all personal items from your desk. Throw away pens that don't work. Reduce your ketchup/salt/napkin supply by 90%.

2. On Tuesdays, take inventory. Review your supplies and make a list or place an order. Take a few minutes to look through an office supply catalog. You'll find a myriad of useful organizing items.

3. Think on Wednesdays. How can you make better use of your computer? Can you develop a spreadsheet to help organize some aspect of your job? Do you need to find and register for a computer class? Do it today.

4. Thursday is sorting day. Go through all those business cards and small pieces of paper which have accumulated throughout the week. Put them where they belong. Also put away any reference materials you've been using.

5. Have fun filing on Fridays. End your week by cleaning up all the paper lying around your office. Purge your files. Have a mean and clean filing system which you can actually use.

The key to maintaining an organized workspace is to make it part of your daily work routine – not a once a year activity or when you are forced to do it!