Situation: A very productive and active office with too many books and papers and not enough cabinets, file drawers  or shelves.

Challenge: No system was in place for all of the papers to land when they arrived into the home office. Also there was no specific place for them to Read the rest of this entry »

Some of my readers feel that they don’t have the proper office set-up to become super organized and efficient. They are over their head in papers and muck and want more information to determine the best way to set up their office space. This is what I recommend for all office set-ups in an excerpt from my upcoming book How To Master Your Muck:

Office Organization
The minimum furniture requirement needed in a home-
based office is a desk, chair, file drawer and cabinet
or shelf. A computer, printer, phone, and scheduling
device are the items that will round out a well-equipped
office.

Your desk can be a large table (think dining size)
or an actual office desk. Small folding tables are too
restrictive and won’t hold your computer plus other
necessary paperwork. Check your local thrift store for
office furniture if you need to save money as you start
your business. The best desk set-up leaves 60% of the
flat area empty. This is why you need a large surface.

The ultimate desk for most businesses will have an
L-shaped configuration. With computers, phones and
printers, an L allows you to position your computer
monitor in the corner and your work to flow on either
side. If you have a hard drive tower, it should be placed
below the desk, not on the desktop. The side facing the
door should provide the most spacious surface
with the least amount of collateral items, possibly
only a phone beside the monitor. If you have frequent
visitors, position a guest chair on the opposite side of
this section of the desk. The other side of the L can
hold your papers in progress (your Action files) using
the vertical, stepped file holder described in the “Master
Your Papers!” chapter. If you do not have a shelf to hold
your printer above or below the desktop, move it to a
side table or file cabinet within arm’s reach.

An ergonomically designed desk chair is worth more
than the money you invest. Your old dining room chair
will bring quick fatigue and leave your back tweaked at
the end of the day. You might also want to elevate your
monitor and check into ergonomic wrist and foot rests
if you spend over six hours a day at your desk.

File Cabinets
File drawers will protect your desk from overflowing
paperwork. Many of my clients have tried to use “pretty”
or decorative file baskets for their paperwork. File boxes
pose several hazards: You pile things on top because
you don’t take the time to remove the lid so that you
can actually file. Sound familiar? They also tend to fall
apart and don’t have rails for hanging file folders. If you
can’t or don’t use hanging files, your folders fall down
and slip around, making it impossible to retrieve files
without a time-consuming investigation.

Holiday Cards -- Consider not sending holiday cards at all this year. There is not a law that says you have to send holiday cards every year ~ year in and year out… Read the rest of this entry »

Before / After Case Study:

Challenge:

Too many supplies, duplicates and who knows what else? The client was unable to find any supply that she needed without pulling everything out of the closet first. The space was not used to it’s fullest potential and items were jammed inside. Does this look like one of your closets?

Solution:

We sorted the office supplies into containers and created a working storage closet for extra supplies. This saved money by eliminating the purchase of duplicate supplies. This also helped my client to quickly create custom portfolios for upcoming client meetings and keep on top of client follow-up with note cards.

Now everything has a home and is stored “like with like”. Items are easily identifiable because they are stored in clear boxes with marked with labels.

What Our Clients Say:

“Now I do not buy duplicate supplies and I know where to find the ones that I already own. No more hide and seek games, I can get down to business.”

D Severn

Before / After Case Study:

(Move mouse over picture for after )

Challenge Phase One:

This client was overwhelmed by papers that had overtaken her home office. Paperwork was overflowing into the dining. living and bedroom. There was no method or strategy for paper flow within her home before I arrived.

Her industry is extremely paper intensive so I devised a strategy to traffic paper in and out of her office. She and her husband share a home office and papers were mixed up between both work areas with no real separation of workspaces.

Solution Phase One:

We implemented and built a new file system using Freedom Filer.

Challenge Phase Two:

Work flow was not defined and file system was not completed. Notes were loose and piling up from numerous meetings and phone discussions.

Solution Phase Two:

I redesigned the office space and recommended a new L shape desk set-up and five additional file drawers. I also recommended separate spiral note books for each regular meeting and another notebook for client phone calls. After the papers were contained into drawers and action files were put into place on the desktop, we had a clear space for productive work.!

What Our Clients Say:

“Your enthusiasm and energy made this project very enjoyable. You were
really good with creating systems and finding the space for all of my
clothes. I love my new closets.”

Ruth Rinek, La Jolla