Home Office Organization Tips (Clear the Clutter Challenge Week 5)

This is week five of the Clear the Clutter Challenge. We are working on paperwork and office organization! Sharing my best home office organization tips for dealing with paper clutter and organizing a home work space.

 

Clear the Clutter Challenge 2020

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We are almost half way through the Clear the Clutter Challenge. Wow!

If you are just stopping by for the first time, Welcome! We are decluttering our entire home in 8 weeks. We are on Week FIVE of the Challenge and we are organizing our office and paperwork. For all the details of the Clear the Clutter Challenge START HERE!

Clear the Clutter Challenge Week-by-Week

Kitchen and Pantry Organization (Week 1)

Living and Family Room Organization (Week 2)

Bedroom Organization (Week 3)

Bathroom Organization (Week 4)

How to Join the 2020 Clear the Clutter Challenge

1.Sign up for the Clear the Clutter Challenge HERE. You will receive my Newsletter with additional VIP tips including a 5 Day Jumpstart Decluttering Plan! You will also receive two freebie printables: 28 Day Decluttering Calendar +50 Things to Throw Away Today Checklist!

2. Purchase the Ultimate Decluttering Guide.This 42 page Decluttering Guide is a compilation of all of the ideas and checklists from our Decluttering Challenges PLUS new additional resources. You can work at your OWN PACE. The Ultimate Decluttering Guide will give you the push you need to tackle the CLUTTER in your home for good. Order HERE. (CURRENTLY ON SALE $7 (normally $12) until February 8th.

3. Join our Clear the Clutter Facebook Group and follow along with us on Instagram!

 

Office and Paperwork Declutter Checklist

Are you ready to tackle your office space and paperwork? Whether you have a dedicated office room or small spot in your home for office work, it can become cluttered rather quickly. Between bills, school papers and work related files, you can have a messy desk if you do not stay on top of it. First, you will want to tackle the office clutter and then you will need to find a few effective organization systems to keep the clutter at bay.

First, declutter your office and paperwork following these simple steps:

• Sort all paperwork into KEEP, SHRED or TRASH piles.  Determine what papers you absolutely must keep. For documents that contain personal information, consider investing in an inexpensive paper shredder.You will be more inclined to get rid of old documents when you have a paper shredder to destroy the papers immediately.

 

• Clear all desk clutter. Tackle your desk clutter once and for all! The key to a clutter free desk is to have minimal clutter! Keep only the absolute minimum items you need on your desk. You can utilize desk organizers to store office supplies.

• Get rid of old books and magazines. If your office contains books and magazines, sort through these items. For some ideas on what to do with old books and magazines, check out this post on Decluttering Books and Magazines.

 

• Organize digital files including pictures. Clutter isn’t just what you see in the room, it is also stored on our computers and phones. Set aside some time to go through your computer files and pictures. Now is the perfect opportunity to clear pictures and unwanted apps off of your phone too!

 

• Sort kids’ school papers and art work. This can be another BIG task. Be ruthless on what you decide to keep. Will you or your kids really care about a particular project they did in 2nd grade 10 years from now? KEEP THE BEST and get RID OF THE REST!

• Remove items that do not belong in office. Is your office a dumping ground for everything that does not have a “home” in your house? My office doubles as our gift wrapping station, art and craft room, holding area for donations, you name it! Take the time to sort through everything in your office and get rid of things that do not belong. 

 

• Clean and refresh the space. Dust, vacuum and wipe down all surfaces. It is always good to do a good cleaning after you declutter. You will feel accomplished and your room will have a whole new look.

How to Organize Kids School Paper and Art

Organizing kids’ school and art projects can be an entire project in itself. This is another area that it is best to declutter often instead of once a year! Each week, go through your kid’s back packs and folders and throw away everything you do not intend to keep.

These Keepsake Portfolios are my FAVORITE way to organize kids’ school papers. You can use these file folders for art work or papers. Another similar option HERE.

There is one section for each grade. I keep a small sample of report cards, art and notes from teachers for each grade. It is a easy and simple way to preserve some of your kids’ best school papers.

            You can also read about the School Portfolios I made for each of the kids HERE. This is another way I capture some of the best memories from each school year. 

 

 

In addition to these two organization methods for school papers, this year I started using ArtKive to preserve my kids’ artwork. I can not say enough good things about this service. You send all of your child’s art work (drawings, paintings and even 3-D projects) to ArtKive and they take pictures of all the art and make it into a book.

You can elect to have the items returned to you, or if you are trying to declutter you can have them keep the art! It is so great to have a beautiful album of all the kids’ artwork while not having to store the actual projects!

The nice thing is that you can log into your account and see your child’s artwork. You can rearrange the pictures in the order you want or you can let them do all the work. If you use my referral code, you will get $20 off your first order.

For more ideas on organizing School Papers, check out these posts:

How to Organize School Paperwork

DIY School Memory Book

 

Home Office Organization Tips

My personal work space, unfortunately, gets messy all too often. I have found a few tricks to help maintain the clutter and keep my desk organized.

• Decide what you really want to get out of the space.

  We recently made the change make the room both an office and a craft room. It works because we added a new large table that is useful for both office work and crafting. Now, I am more careful to make sure everything that comes into the room has to do with office or art projects. Everything else has a permanent home somewhere else.

  

 

• 2 Touch Rule for Paperwork 

  Don’t let paperwork get out of control. Institute the 2 touch rule for all papers that come into the house. Every time you get a paper/mail, you immediately make a decision on it. Whether that decision is to file it, shred it, sign it and return, mail or trash the paper. Don’t delay those decisions on papers! As the saying goes, clutter is just delayed decision making. You accumulate clutter, because you put off deciding what to do with your stuff!

• Implement a few office organization systems.

          Invest in a few home office supplies to minimize your clutter. Some key office supplies include:

• • • File Folders (these ones are so pretty)
    • Desk Organizers
    • Drawer Organizers
    • Wall File Folder System (Wall filing is great because you clear off space on your desk!)

Related Post: Small Office Organization Tips

• Set aside each week to keep your desk clean and organized.

  Even with the best office organization strategies, clutter is bound to happen again. If you want to keep your desk clean and organized,  spend a few minutes each week going through everything on your desk. Do not let the paper clutter get out of hand. The best way to remember to do this office organization maintenance is to schedule it for the same time each week. You can write it down on your calendar or set a reminder on your phone. It should only take you 10-15 minutes each week to keep the desk clutter at bay!

Home Office Organization Supplies

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Declutter Your Office

Are you ready to tackle the paper and office clutter? Take a look at your schedule this week and set aside a few hours to organize your office. Remember, you can always break down this project into a few, smaller increments if you do not have a big block of time!

Now, head over to see how Keri organizes her paperwork. I love her simplified approach to school papers!

Next Steps

Next week, we will work on KID SPACES.

Would you like a detailed plan for Decluttering Your Home? You can get the Ultimate Guide to Decluttering for $7 right now (normally $12). This guide will help you tackle each room of your home at your own pace. There is a printable checklist for each room plus additional tips and support. Order HERE! The discount will apply when you add the book to your cart! Sale ends February 8th!

Join us on Facebook and Instagram for more bathroom organization tips throughout the week!