Questions for staying organized

The organizing process always includes purging your space of things you don’t need. However, many people do not realize that purging is ongoing. It is very important to continue qualifying items entering your home or office after the initial clean out has occurred.

However, letting something go can be confusing, hard and at times even painful. These are the questions you want to ask yourself whenever you are faced with the decision of letting something stay or go:

1. Do I need it?

2. Have I used it?

3. Do I want to take the time to choose a home for it so I know I will find it again?

4. Is it worth storing?

5. Does it have a function and can I use it?

6. Do I love it?

7. Would it benefit someone else more?

How to clean a buried desk

Tired of looking at a desk covered with papers? Afraid you may have lost important documents in a pile? Purchase manila folders and an ascending wire file rack from your local office supply store. Sort the papers on your desk by project and place them in a labeled manila folder. This will keep your current work visible and easily accessible on your desk.

An alternative is the Pendaflex PileSmart® Desktop Organizer Tray. This tray and divider system allows you to lay papers on the tray and place a divider over them, piling everything up in an organized fashion! The dry erase tabs on the dividers let you to reuse the dividers over again. Check it out at Pendaflex.com

Are you overwhelmed by papers?

Papers and documents seem to be in endless abundance these days. Whether in an office or home, the volume of paper we encounter on a daily basis can be overwhelming. For the information and paper that needs to be retained, we tend to rely on folders and filing cabinets. What about going electronic?

There are a variety of scanners out there designed to scan documents and business cards into a database on your computer. Files can be set up just as if you were sliding the paper into a manila folder. Many programs allow you to search by keyword or title, not just file name.

An option for those who do not wish to invest the time or energy of scanning documents can choose to use a professional company to scan the paperwork. Most company’s will then host the documents on their website, searchable by both files and keywords, just like a home computer.

Even though electronic document storage is a fantastic option for both personal and business papers, keep in mind there are a few documents out there that must be retained in hard-copy, despite being stored electronically. Check with your attorney or CPA for a run down of documents that must be retained in hard-copy.