Project Organize: Home Office!

Since one of my goals for this year is to go through my stuff in storage, I decided to work on one aspect of that stuff each month until it is done. When Jen at IHeart Organizing issued a fun monthly challenge to get our home offices organized, I decided that was a great place to start! For me, this included paper storage, systems for dealing with various papers that come through my hands, and storage systems for those things I need to keep.

It is amazing how paper clutter can pile up. Y’all, I don’t even have a complicated life, but I still end up with so much stuff! There were several areas where paper and files were clearly taking over.

I started by attacking cleaning up my bookcase. Oh, I had the books and shelves pretty well organized, but the top - well, it was a disaster area if ever there was one. For years I had been using this big, ugly organizer that would work great behind closed cabinet doors, but not so much out in the open. I have never liked the look of it, but didn’t know what else to do with all that stuff! {You can kind of see it in the top of this picture from this project...but it actually doesn't look so bad in this photo}

Find a better system, thats what.

I got rid of a lot of things I didn’t need to hold on to, and moved the rest to the base cabinet of the bookshelf. That needed help too, but once everything was straightened up and organized, I had a nice, workable system.

I don’t need any of these things on a daily basis, so this is a great place for them. And now that there are less things in here to get messy, I think I will be able to keep it neat! {fingers crossed}

Directly above the bookshelf, my memo board was my next victim:

It is amazing how many little bits of paper you can shove on these things! I pared down to just a few simple things - like the Bible verses and motivational quotes on the cork board. One slot holds an envelope for receipts, which I plan to go through monthly and toss the ones I don’t need to keep. Another slot holds my supply of Gospel tracts where I can grab them quickly, and a stack of business cards. The other slot is gloriously empty. I’m still decided what would be the best use for that space! {its nice to have options}

On the white board part, I sometimes write more verses, quotes, or something I need to remember. And sometimes my brother writes crazy notes on there. It is a fun little space to have. :)

Here is a shot of the memo board with the cleaned up bookshelf:

Oh look, there at the bottom are my new Booktotes...just waiting to be shipped to some of you! {wink!}

One thing that I found while cleaning out the memo board was a couple of owner’s manuals - from things I received last year for Christmas. Yeah, they had been sitting there a whole year. For shame, Nicole, for shame.

I already had a system for owner’s manuals, but it clearly needed to be updated. I use a big ‘ol binder and plastic sleeves. Each owner’s manual gets popped in its own sleeve and labeled with a sharpie.

If something needs to be changed up, the sharpie wipes right off with a paper towel and a little Expo cleaner.

This is a great place to store important little items, like extra flashlight bulbs…

And it is also a great way to keep receipts in a place where you can’t lose them. Just keep the receipt for an item with the owner’s manual and any other important info, like warrantee/return information.

It is a great system...when I use it! {hangs head}

Now that I’ve created some better systems for dealing with the various papers that come through my hands, I’m planning to keep it that way! I’m looking forward to implementing some more paper organization as I need to. It is nice to keep the paper monster at bay!

Psst: I'll be sharing another little home office-related project tomorrow for our Home Improvement linky party, so be sure to come back then and check it out!


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