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Starting a home business is becoming a viable solution for many people who are tired of the traditional 9-5 work schedule. But for this dream job to work, you need a well-organized office where you can find what you need quickly. Here are ideas to help declutter home office space so you can design your workplace to be comfortable and productive.
1. SORT THROUGH PAPERS TO REDUCE CLUTTER
One of the biggest problems with offices last century was lack of storage space, which resulted in paper stacking up in several piles. Luckily, digital technology has provided a solution, which is the paperless office. But your business might still be based on old paperwork, so it's essential to first go through old papers and decide what stays and what can be disposed of or recycled. The more you adopt sustainability concepts, the more you'll understand conservation and how to handle e-waste.
2. CREATE A COLOR-CODED FILING SYSTEM
One of the most eye-catching aspects of any visual experience is color. Not only can color be used for aesthetics, but it can also be used as a tool for locating objects in a room crowded with machines, books, and miscellaneous items. Bright and dark colors stand out and differentiate books, devices, and even labels for filing systems. An example of a color-coded filing system would be to use green for financial documents, red for medical reports, and blue for office manuals.
3. DEVELOP A MINI-MAILROOM
You don't necessarily need to devote an entire room to mail unless you run a big operation that involves sending and receiving packages. If you just run an ecommerce business, you might not need a space for physical mail at all. But if your operation is somewhere in between, find an area where you can keep correspondence organized in one place where junk mail doesn't accumulate. A simple solution is to create two folders or baskets - to separate incoming and outgoing mail. Any extra clutter can be stored temporarily in containers kept out of the way of your workspace.
4. CATEGORIZE YOUR BOOKS AND OTHER WORK MATERIALS
If you have a large book or magazine collection to draw information from your business, don't just throw books on a shelf. Take time to categorize them so that they're easy to find instantly. You might decide, for example, to devote one shelf to industry reference books and another to more current publications. Keeping your personal or business documents in a binder can be an effective way to separate them using different colored binders.
5. SET UP A COMFORTABLE WORKSTATION
Your choice for setting up your computer desk should be based on a mix of practical and aesthetic factors. From a practical standpoint, you should utilize wall space for calendars and pictures that create an atmosphere of knowledge and experience. Your computer needs to be on a sturdy table, ideally facing a window, but placement is entirely up to your tastes. The workstation should be placed near electrical outlets so that long extension cords that people might trip over are unnecessary.
CONCLUSION
You can declutter home office space as a significant step toward building a self-sufficient career that puts you in control of your environment and working conditions.
