OMG. Yesterday I began a somewhat overwhelming undertaking: organizing my office. Well, first I had to FIND my office. It’s been overtaken by oodles of obsolete and odd objects. The overtaking has made the undertaking obviously difficult. Oy.
Take one house, add two home offices and what do you get? I’d post a picture but OSHA would probably be on my tail. o_O
When we moved in, my husband decided he’d like to have a paperless office. Oh good for you, honey. That’s kinder on the environment. Well…his idea of “paperless” means working on his laptop in various rooms of the house and leaving tiny scraps of the white stuff with unidentified phone numbers and cryptic calculations on them. Semi-paperless, definitely fileless and certainly aimless.
When I met him, his “filing cabinet” was the floor. I didn’t dare touch anything – he had a “system”. He knew exactly how to locate what he needed. Off the floor.
Me, I was Miss Neat Freak. The librarian, remember? Organization was my middle name. I cataloged my CD collection by musical genre and sub-filed by ABC order.
Take one house, add two home offices, a Felix and an Oscar and what do you get?
$%(*# OBSCENITIES @!^&%
He claims this is the most organized he’s ever been. And I swear this is the most unorganized I have ever been. When there’s clutter on the floor, there is clutter in my head.
So yesterday, I tethered myself to a USB cord and hurled myself into the obstacle-strewn oblivion. One corner at a time. And when I’m done, I’m going to treat myself to a See Jane Work shopping spree. It will be Organizational Overload…and I will be overjoyed.
Today’s tip: Touch each piece of paper that comes across your desk ONLY ONCE. Make your decision at the time: file, take action, or recycle.
Any organizational tips to offer?
So last year, I wrote a blog post on home office organization & how I was accomplishing it.
A year later and I’m back at square one! Right now on my desk is an old under-the-cabinet radio (my husband was using it when he was outside putting the walkway in & it hasn’t made it back to the garage); a notebook and several booklets that I cleaned out of my purse this evening; folders of uniform info for tomorrow’s meeting; a small basket of crap; coupons for Michael’s crafts; a map of the Catoctin Trail; & my 4-year-old’s hoodie. *Sigh* It’s time to take your advice and touch everything on my desk once and find a place for it!
~Lynn
My office is starting to get way too cluttered for my taste. Part of it is the story board (index cards etc.) I have all over the floor. And the papers on my desk. And the ones on my extra table. And the ones in the drawer and in the in box and… SIgh.
I like the idea of a story board, but I am afraid it would just be more clutter! Paper seems to be my worst enemy these days. Thanks for stopping by!