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Welcome to Day 1 of 7 Days To An Organized Home Office.
Today’s task will take 1-2 hours.
Future tasks will take about 1 hour for the average home office. Depending on your home office situation you may need more or less time.
The steps we’ll do today will transform how you think about your home office space – today, this week, and well into the future.
And they’re going to make the next 7 days easier and more enjoyable.
Let’s start!
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You know that feeling that you get as you are standing at the edge of the pool when you know you’re going to jump in, but the water looks a bit cold?
I know I’m going to do this week of organization, but I teach at a university and I am studying for my PhD… I have deadlines this week. Of course I have deadlines *every* week, and right now I have fewer.
The real issue is that I hate discarding things, and I find filing tedious.
OK, enough procrastination! I’m jumping in!! Going to go find those 5 boxes!
Debbie
Good luck, I will try to start this tonight too. I was watching a video on electronic document organizing with Evernote yesterday so I may start on that too this week.
Good luck MB!
Hi MB, how did you go? Have you made some improvements?
Evernote is a popular tool used by our members. If you do start with this let us know what you think.
🙂 Kylie, Community Manager
OK, after 3 hours my desk is nearly clear, and I can see the floor. I wasn’t so successful at throwing out anything. I found places for everything. 🙂
My office DOES look better though!
It sounds like progress to me, Debra! Congratulations. You can revisit #day1 again once you delve deeper into the program. Then you might be able to start culling items that you really don’t need or use. Well done!
🙂 Kylie, Community Manager
Well, I’m a disasterous, disorganised OCD newbie to this site…so wish me luck ! Though I won’t be able to comelete my tasks 6 days in a row ( yup, you guessed it, I work, ALOT… usually 9 to 10 hour days…..hmmm…could be the reason I am so disorganised at home ?!? So, tomorrow is one of my days off…since I’m writing this at almost 1:00 am, you KNOW the clutter has gotten to me ! So, day one begins….when I wake up
P.S. I happen to be a very organized finance manger at my job , go figure !! I think that may be one for a psychiatrist
Lol, you’ve come to the right place Kathleen!
Good luck with your clutter-busting!
Kylie
Community Manager
Well, I’d love to say I started, but alas, the flu bug caught hold of me…bad !! I ended up in the hospital for 5 days…got home on Tuesday , rested 2 days, so tomorrow is my last day to ‘start’ again before I return t work Friday….going to take it slow….day 1 begins…yet again
How are you doing Kathleen?
I hope you’re feeling better now and managed to get started with your goals!
🙂 Kylie, Community Manager
I started this morning. I may be crazy shortly! I have a large home office that I run a couple of businesses from and it has exploded. So I have now purged into bins. it looks better until i look at the bins and see the multitude of filing and work ahead. But it WILL be worth it!!!!
I didn’t get around to the purge, but I managed to move all the boxes back to the no longer flooded basement and I did my quarterly paperwork. So running 1 day behind on this on.
The following are our group responses:
Shred: your name & address from mail, sensitive documents, financial personal & statistical data, negative photographs
Recycle: aluminum cans, cell phones, computers, magazines, newspapers, non-sensitive papers & cardboard
Trash: junk mail, expired food, items: broken, dirty, rusty [except antique tools are collectible], tacky, tatty & yucky
Donate or sell at thrift shops: books [except 1st editions are collectible], magazines, clean wearable clothes, dust collectors & toys
Archive: legal documents, warranties that are still active, unresolved bills & documents, birth & adoption certificates, social security card, passport, marriage license, divorce papers, medical records including: prescription medications, diagnoses & names & phone numbers of your medical team; living will, power of attorney &insurance policies: car, home, jewelry & furs, life, medical, rental
Storing perishable document: magazines, newspapers & pertinent paper documents keep in metal cabinets or file drawers. We hope it never happens but in case of fire metal does not burn.
What to keep in your home fireproof safe: Property/renters insurance policies with agent contact information; passports & original birth certificates; a list of your medical team & contact information including medications, diagnoses & pharmacy; CDs or external hard drive containing digital copies of all family photos; safe deposit box keys; important investment papers, retirement plans, bank accounts along with contact information; information on your outstanding debts, due dates including contact information; original Social Security cards; copies of your important legal documents; copy of wills & all wills in which you are designated the executor; Valuables: Jewelry, coins, cash, small artifacts, etc. Spare keys & title to all vehicles including house & other unknown keys
What to keep in your safe deposit box [contents are not insured by the FDIC]: Last will & testament; deeds, titles & insurance papers for your home, car & other personal property; birth & adoption certificates; marriage & death certificates; custody & divorce decrees; military service records; passports; copy of your health information; copy of power of attorney forms; original Social Security cards; contracts & other legal papers; estate-planning documents; videotape or photos of your household items; & valuable heirlooms
Interesting to realize, I have to accept that later is never coming….I have always put off projects until later…that is why they are not finished. My office shares a room with my clothes closet and holiday decorations and photos in albums and loose. So these are some big projects I need to tackle. Focusing at least 1 hour a day on each and staying focused on that particular job, so a lot of paper has been sorted, but will finish that tomorrow.
I’m glad this overwhelming task is only and hour. I actually did an hour and a half so I feel like an overachiever. I have alot more areas in the house where I can purge paper but I’m keeping this small and manageble before I quit.
I wish I had taken a picture of my desk…before and after. I made some good progress there, but still have more to do. I also have piles to get through, but kept at it for 4 1/2 hours and then went back in for abour a half hour and shredded what I had sorted and put the trash items in the trash. I am feeling satisified with what I got done considering the scope of the job I have to do here. I will just keep at the purging and do a little more filing along the way too. Still need to go through files and piles, then on to the living room where I have piles that belong in the office or trash! So far I love the organizing plan. We will see what day two brings ;~)