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Entries Tagged 'Organizing Products' ↓
Label Maker from Staples
I’m really not quite sure how this label maker photo turned out so big, but it’s fitting since it’s one of the most important home office organization tools around! This particular “brother” happens to be very similar to the one I use in my own home office as well as with my clients. No matter how nice your handwriting is, and I know mine is nice because my daughter’s principal told me so 
, you just can’t beat the look of a crisp, clear label.
When I bought my first label maker, I was trying out the labels in many places in my home to see how the labels would stick on different surfaces including inside my refrigerator. I never know what a client might want! After I labeled everything, including the pencil cup, we had a new babysitter come over. I had to give a disclaimer that my house didn’t normally have labels all over everything. So, there is a balance to be had when you get excited about your new toy!
Top 5 Benefits of using a label maker
**Labels make it easy for you to find what you need in your home office
**Labels make it easy for other people to find what they need in your home office
**Labels look professional
**Labels show off the fact that you took the time & energy to organize your home office
**Labels are easy to read
If you are a Costco member, look for the same brother P-touch that I use for under $30 with label tape & batteries. Costco also sells the refill label cartridges at a great discount, of course you will get four! Take some time to label your files & folders and have your home office looking fantastically organized-you can do it!
Tags: brother P-touch label maker, Costco, home office, home office organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, label maker, labels, professional organizer, Staples
Charging Station from Storables
An easy way to achieve home office organization, plus get the added benefit of getting out the door with everything you need faster, is by using a charging station. We all have our beloved gadgets & gizmos that often get set down somewhere and then we have to go on a hunt to find them, often by calling our own cell phones. Organizing gadgets is just like any other items we own, we have to give them their own home. A charging station is a home and takes care of the business end of getting everything all charged up for the next day. A charging station in a neutral place is also a good excuse to get teens to plug in and get gadgets out of their bedrooms for the night.
Keep your home office organized by eliminating random electronics from laying around on your desk and you’ll know right where to retrieve them every morning!
Tags: cell phones, charging station, home office organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Storables
File Cabinet from Storables
Well, yesterday I talked about using an open file cart if you are afraid of losing your papers in a file cabinet. Now today, I’m back to embracing the traditional file cabinet for home office organization. Most people that I work with are comfortable with a file cabinet so this is what I most commonly work with.
Here are my top 7 tips to create an effective file cabinet:
**Keep your file cabinet close to where you are working to make it easy to get papers into it that need to be filed. The further away you have your file cabinet, the less likely you are to file. Exception (there’s always one): If you are the type of person who likes to get up and move around throughout the day, you may want to place yours across the room.
**Choose a color that fits the room. Sometimes I have clients who have an office that is out in the middle of their home. Consider a black file cabinet or a wood file cabinet so it looks a little bit more like a piece of furniture.
**Place an attractive inbox, tray or basket on top of your file cabinet labeled, “To File,” so you have a temporary home for those papers until you have the time to file them.
**Purge your files at least once a year.
**Keep six inches of wiggle room in each drawer so you can get your hand in and move around freely in the drawer. I refer back to-purge your files at least once a year.
**Use a label maker to label your files-you cannot beat the look of a clear, crisp label.
**Place all of your tabs on the left hand side so you have a nice, clean line when you open the drawer.
Whether you you use a traditional file cabinet or an open file cart in your home office, having a clearly labeled file system that isn’t too stuffed will keep you on top of the paper game!
Tags: file cabinet, file cart, files, home office organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, label maker, office organization
File Cart for File Organization from Storables
What is the quickest way to scare some people in their office? Place a file in a file cabinet and close the drawer. Out of sight, out of mind. I can set up the best system ever in a file cabinet, but if my client is afraid to put papers in it, well, I have not done my job. What will happen is they will have a pretty file drawer but continue to create paper piles-that’s not good. 
When it comes to home office organization, always consider your own tendencies and comfort level when creating new systems; don’t fight it, embrace it!
Whenever I teach a class on paper organizing, I always bring along a photo of a file cart for those people who may shy away from a file cabinet. An open file cart can take the place of your filing cabinet. They come on wheels so you can actually wheel it right on over to where you are working so you can file quickly. You can use fun, bright colored hanging file folders if that makes you happy.
If having your files more out in the open is just enough for you to feel like you can place paper in them and find them again, then ditch your file cabinet and go get one of these bad boys.
Tags: file cabinet, file cart, filing, home office, home office organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, paper piles, Storables
Drawer Organizer from Storables
Do you have cups of pens/pencils/paper clips surrounding you as you work? One of the things I often notice when I am working with clients is that they hardly have any wiggle (or thinking) room around their computer. They often have a lot crammed into a small space, making it harder to think, work and spread out projects. A drawer organizer is affordable, easy enough to place in a drawer and will get you that much closer to your home office organization goals.
Since you can only place so much into each of the little compartments, it will force you to go through your supplies and choose just enough. Just enough pens. Just enough paper clips. Just enough tape. If you have copious amounts of supplies, separate them into Ziplock bags, place them into a storage bin and stash it on a shelf or in a supply closet. Whenever you run low, you’ve got your own personal office supply store.
Be sure to measure your drawer before you go shopping to get the right fit, then load up your drawer organizer so you will have office supplies at your fingertips while you give yourself some breathing room to work!
Tags: drawer organizer, home office organization, home office organization goals, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Storables, storage bin
Magazine File from Storables
Using magazine files is a great way to achieve your home office organization goals, heck, you don’t even have to limit yourself to your office! Magazine files do several things for you:
1) They give paper a home
2) They allow you to label the outside so you know what’s on the inside
3) They place a cap on how much you can store
Types of items you can stash away in a magazine file:
1) Magazines
2) Recipes in the kitchen
3) Children’s books, especially to separate out library books so they don’t get lost or mixed in with personal books. You can watch my short tutorial on organizing children’s books here.
4) Children’s homework
5) Mail for other family members
Round up paper, don’t forget your label and you’ll be closer to your home office organization goals in a snap!
What other uses can you think of for magazine files? I’d love to hear from you in the comment section!
Tags: home office organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, homework, magazine file, mail, professional organizer, Storables
Office Recycle Bin from Storables
OK, I really doubt you are throwing your recycle or garbage on the floor of your office, but, yes, I actually do recommend a garbage & a recycle bin as home office organization tools in my classes. The key is in the placement. Be sure to place your garbage and recycle bins closest to where you open your mail and right where you process your papers. This may even mean two sets. For example, when I come in from getting the mail, I stand in my kitchen where my garbage & recycle is kept under the sink. I quickly toss on the spot. I also have garbage & recycle bins at my feet under my office desk so I can quickly part with unwanted paper there too.
Yes, two recycle bins, remember I live in the northwest. The other major component is to make decisions quickly. Be honest about what you have time to read, order, look at. Are you really going to read that investment prospectus? I don’t think so, let it go on the spot. One less paper to move from place to place. For a quick tutorial on opening your mail, please watch my video. Make it easy to part with paper & make quick decisions to keep a handle on creeping paper piles!
Tags: garbage bin, home office organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, office, professional organizer, recycle bin, Storables
Letter Tray from Storables
The good the bad and the ugly of a letter tray for home office organization…
I’ll start with the bad and the ugly, it looks like this: You have a pile of papers and they’re all mixed up-bills to pay, things to read, coupons, papers from school and you shove them all onto a letter tray to get them out of the way. That, my friend, is organized disorganization. It’s a way of stacking your pile to make it pretty without solving any problems. Now of course if this is working for you and you know exactly what is in your pile and you can get the paper you need in seconds, then call it a day and don’t fix it if it isn’t broken. But for most of us, it still boils down to piles that are causing stress.
Now for the good side of letter trays… I think they are awesome for storing one type of paper for each tray with a label. Examples of great uses for letter trays:
- On top of your file cabinet labeled “To File” for papers that haven’t made it into the file cabinet yet.
- On the desk or counter for kid’s homework. One tray per child labeled with their name.
- Next to the shredder labeled “To Shred” to separate your documents until you have time to shred.
- If you are a “piler” and are afraid of file folders: Use a tray labeled for each “action” item you have. Examples: To Read, Bills to Pay, To Do, Upcoming Events, Coupons, Pending Items.
- To store office paper supplies: One tray each: Computer Paper, Envelopes, Labels, Colored Paper.
Letter trays are very affordable, come in all different styles for your taste and will make home office organization easy when your papers are separated, labeled and at your fingertips!
Tags: documents, home office organization, home office organization product, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, labels, letter tray, office paper supplies, professional organizer, shredder, Storables
File Box from Storables
Are you digging through piles of paper on your desk because you know what you need is ‘in here “somewhere?’ One word-”Stressful!” Oh, and two more: “time waster.” I zap paper piles by using a file box in my own home office for the papers I am actively working on as my “Active File System.” They come in many styles & colors: white, black, silver, metal & plastic and are under $20.
We often have papers coming at us that require an action, but we don’t have time to deal with them on the spot. A file box is a great organizing product to place next to your computer to use as a “temporary home” for the papers that require an action.The file box should be set up with clear labels according to the types of paper you are dealing with on a regular basis. This prevents ending up with paper piles that are all mixed up on your desk-yah! Piles make it difficult to think clearly and difficult to zero in on what you want to work on, so let’s fix that painlessly! Purchase a file box that matches your style and label hanging files inside.
Examples of labels you may need:
“Hot” for papers that need immediate attention
“To Do” for papers that require an action: forms to fill out, calls to make
“To Read” for articles, brochures, newsletters (not bulky magazines & newspapers)
“Pending” for something that is out there that you don’t want to slip through the cracks such as waiting on a rebate
“Upcoming Events” for itineraries, tickets, schedules
“Coupons”
If you have a home-based business, be sure to use two file boxes, one for home and a separate one for business papers which should have very different labels from your home folders. Another benefit to using a file box for home office organization: they are stable and mobile if you like to move to other areas of your office or home to work on your paperwork.
Make sure you look through your file box on a regular basis so you don’t miss anything and if any of your papers are time sensitive, make a note on your calendar!
Tags: Active File System, file box, folders, home office organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, label, paper piles, professional organization, Storables
Office Chair from Storables
OK, well, it may not exactly be an organizing product, but a good, quality office chair is a must as a start to home office organization and comfort! I was starting to have a lot of issues with my back and also my wrists. Fortunately, my chiropractor is also a personal friend and was open to coming to my house to see what was going on. Well, the list was long… My chair was too low for my desk and had zero cushion-and I hadn’t even noticed! I was just so used to my chair that I didn’t realize I was pretty much sitting on the hard, inner workings of my chair. Because my chair was too low, I was angling my arms up to get to my keyboard on my laptop. And the laptop screen was too low for my eyes. I was a mess!
So, bring in a new, comfortable chair, a stand for my laptop and an ergonomic keyboard. And, by the way, the ergonomic keyboard was very hard to get used to, I had to stick with it. My chiropractor also stressed drinking water and stopping to stretch all throughout the day. She said that sitting at a computer is actually very taxing on the body.
So, don’t skimp on a good chair on your quest for home office organization!
Tags: chair, ergonomic keyboard, home office organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, laptop, office, organizing product
