&Straighten up

file right

Organizing your home office
can help your bottom line

Disorganization. Who knows when it began? It’s easy to imagine Thog, our prehistoric forebear, throwing up his hands in frustration and saying, “Where’s my spear? What are all these rocks doing here? How am I ever going to get this cave organized?” Many home offices are not used properly—their lack of organization makes it difficult to focus and affects the users’ productivity and efficiency. In addition to contributing to stress and delays, clutter and disorganization can cause feelings of frustration and anxiety and can even lead to depression. Getting organized, on the other hand, gives a home office more space, lowers stress, increases efficiency and productivity, and, ultimately, gives one more time and energy. We picked the orderly brains of three Costco members and professional organizers, Brenda Borenstein, Tami Reilly and Kathy Vincent, for ideas on how to put home offices in shape.—T. Foster Jones

RUBBERBALL

Get into the zone

“Organization is a skill that can be learned,” says Brenda Borenstein, owner of Toronto-based The Organized Zone (416-665- 2165; www.organizedzone.com). “The most difficult part is breaking a lifelong habit, like letting paperwork pile up. The key to getting more organized is to start with one small step and then take others one at a time.

“When you have been disorganized for a while, it is difficult to stand back and take an objective look at your surroundings. If you feel overwhelmed, it is hard to know where to begin. Here are some tips to get you started.”

Block it out. Address your desk problems in blocks of time. You may be able to straighten out the clutter in a few hours, or you may need a weekend. Sometimes it’s better to devote a couple of hours a day to the job until you’re done.

Be prepared. Have on hand a trash can, a pen, file folders, labels and other desk organizational aids that suit your needs.

Be clear. Clear the space you want to organize (the desk surface, one of the draw-ers, etc.). Then make a big pile of all the paper. Evaluate each item, categorize it and put it away (in the desk drawer, in a file, in one of the desk organizers, etc.), throwing out as much as possible.

Keep going. Even when you are feeling overwhelmed, just keep sorting and categorizing. If you devote the necessary time, your desk can be cleared.

Get help. Enlist the help of a partner, a spouse, a secretary, someone who can help you keep going.

Success is at hand

“There’s more room to think in a tidy office,” says Tami Reilly, president of North Vancouver’s Get Organized for Success (604- 903-2120; www.gogetorganized.com). “Often the clutter around you becomes a barrier to moving forward with your ideas for the business.”

Start with the obvious. Begin by taking a garbage (or recycling) bag and move around the office extracting the obvious things to be trashed.

Group like things. Start making piles all over the floor to group similar things—for example, unpaid bills, receipts, project ideas, agonizing pile (see the next tip), etc.

Don’t agonize. If you come across papers or things you have no idea what to do with, don’t get hung up on them! Make an “agonizing” pile, put them there for now and keep going. Get the bulk of the clutter dealt with now.

Don’t get sidetracked. Today is your organizing day only! It can get stalled easily if you allow yourself to start working on tasks as you uncover them within your paperwork piles.

Start on the future. Write down your goals and keep them where you can see them, using your “Do It” list as a base. Take one goal that can easily be accomplished by you in a week and accomplish it! Then write another goal for the following week, equally easy, but building on your first accomplished

THE COSTCO CONNECTION

Be sure to check Costco’s office-supply section for tools to help you get organized.

goal. Going slowly but surely will give you a model of success and the satisfaction of accomplishment.

Find a solution

“The reason our desks and dining-room tables get piled with papers is because we have no place to put them,” says Kathy Vincent, owner of Windsor, Ontario–based Organizing Solutions (519-981-2713; OrganizingSolutions. tripod.com). “We’re afraid they are going to get lost. Having a usable filing system will eliminate that worry. Remember, no piece of paper is worth anything if you can’t find it.”

Follow the FAT Principle. When shuffling papers: File it, Act on it or Toss it. Normally, 60 per cent of the papers coming into your office can be tossed immediately.

To move forward, back up. Printing files that should be stored on a hard drive or floppy disk just creates more paper clutter. It is important to maintain hard copies of some materials, but an electronic backup is sufficient.

File, don’t pile. Your desktop should be clear of papers and piles. Creating an effective filing system will allow you to find any file in just seconds.

Eighty per cent of filed materials are never referenced again. Before filing a piece of paper, ask yourself: Does that paper deserve to take up valuable storage space? C

Got a favourite organizing tip? Contact us at connection@costco.com, and you may make it into The Costco Connection!