Feel overwhelmed with all of the clutter at your office? We completely understand. Thankfully, we have some help from home organizing Charleston-based YouTube (457,000 followers) star Nikki Boyd with tips on how to declutter your home office. In her upcoming book, she gives all kinds of useful and easy to follow tips on how to organize your home and today she is giving some insight on decluttering a home office. Check out Nikki’s tips below and be sure to share images of your offices on social media using the hashtag #blacksouthernbelle
Tips on How to Declutter Your Office from At Home With Nikki
1. CONTROL THE PAPER CLUTTER
One of the most significant clutter issues that I have found in most offices is paper. You would think, with being in the age of technology, paper’s reign in cluttering our spaces would be a thing of the past, but this is not the case. If your office is overwhelmed with paper, and you do not know where to start, divide the paper into five stacks and place a sticky note on each stack with the day of the week. For the upcoming week, commit to purging and filing one of the stacks per day. This breaks down a large project into mini projects which can make this task less overwhelming. When it comes to paper, understanding what you need to hold on to and what you should immediately release is key to keeping your office organized. In my book “Beautifully Organized” I share with you how to assess your paperwork to ensure that you are only keeping essential items. Because we often can’t control the paperwork we receive, it is essential to control where it resides in your office. By maintaining a shredder by your desk, you can immediately shred non-essential papers as they come in.
2. ESTABLISH AN EFFICIENT FILING SYSTEM
Once you have decluttered all of your paper, it is vital to ensure that you have a filing system that functions the way that you work. This may be as simple as having a box in your office that you place receipts as they come in, instead of placing them on your desk. Whatever filing system you create has to be realistic to how you work (or it will not work).
3. MINIMIZE YOUR OFFICE SUPPLIES
Being a pen and stationery lover, I can understand how our offices can get overwhelmed with supplies that we often will never use. To combat hoarding supplies, I think of my office as my special place where I only want special things around me. So rather than hold on to 15 pens, I will beautifully display my favorite four pens on my desk and limit myself to only those pens. The goal is to give yourself limitations that do not deprive you of your things, but help you to enjoy them more.
Many teachers have to pay for the supplies for their classrooms out of pocket. By purging your office, you can donate the supplies to a teacher. This can make the decluttering process easier knowing that your excess is going to great use.
4. REMOVE THE INBOX FROM YOUR DESK
If you are not one that is diligent in purging paper as it comes into your office, having a letter tray or inbox on your desk can be like having a black hole. Paper just stacks up until you do not even know what is in the pile. By removing the letterbox from your desk, you can encourage yourself to immediately sort and purge items as they come in.
5. GO PAPERLESS
I always encourage my clients to go paperless as much as their comfort level will allow. There are so many resources online which eliminate the use of paper, such as instruction manuals and guides. You can always access instruction manuals online, so there is no need to keep the bulky manuals in your office.
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