Guest Blog by Brandi Payne, Owner Neat Home Solutions LLC
It’s no secret. Working moms know it’s a challenge to manage the demands of career, family and home. It’s another thing altogether to be a self-employed, working mom operating a successful business out of a home office that’s being shared by the whole family!
Charlotte Bowman, owner of Muscogee Moms, invited me to help organize her family’s shared home office – which is also the base of Muscogee Moms’ daily operations. We talked about how they use the space, her work schedule, and what she needs to accomplish while the kids are at school. Charlotte, her husband, and their two boys all have desks and computers in the room and the guys like to play video games, draw pictures and watch movies there.
We needed to create a simple system to allow Charlotte to prioritize her work and maintain her files to keep everything running smoothly. To do this, we focused on winnowing down the clutter, maximizing the available space, categorizing the paperwork, and creating landing zones to keep mail, paperwork, and current projects sorted.
The family plans to empty and remove their four-drawer file cabinet very soon and upgrade to smaller more efficient wireless printer. For these reasons, we did not utilize the large file cabinet and we donated the older printer to make room for the new one. To make the office more functional, we concentrated on specific areas, tackled a hot spot, prioritized the to-do list and ‘customized’ a file box. We didn’t need to buy any supplies to get organized… we re-used and re-purposed everything Charlotte already had on hand.
Traffic Flow
We began by clearing floor space to open up the room’s traffic flow. We moved boxes of computer hardware to another room to be sorted later. We picked up bags and file boxes and moved them off the floor and out of the doorway until we could create a permanent home for them.
Having clutter on the floor visually alters the way you perceive a space, making a large open room look and feel cramped before you even step inside. Floor clutter also poses a dangerous tripping hazard.
Filing
Charlotte keeps files in lightweight containers so they’re easy to grab but they were scattered across her workspace. We sorted through each container, discarding old files, labeling new files, and filing away stray papers. We re-used her existing containers and grouped the remaining files by category. For example, contract files are in one box, advertising files in another.
Tailor your filing system to your personal style. Use labels that trigger your memory and you’ll be more likely to follow through and file your important papers – and much more likely to find them when you need them! Before you toss paperwork, shred anything that contains your social security number or account numbers.
We even ‘customized’ a plastic file box to make it work for us, i.e., we broke the plastic lid off the box to make it more functional – Hey, there’s no rule that says you can’t!
Work Zone Visibility
Charlotte has built-in bookcases beside her desk and only the lower shelves needed our attention. To free up eye-level space by her desk, we moved several stacks of books to an out of the way shelf. Our newly sorted file boxes found their permanent home on the most accessible bottom shelf, allowing us to keep all the files together in one space.
This gave us room to spread out the paper trays and opened space for a new ‘temporary drop zone’. Charlotte can use this open drop zone for anything she’s working on or as a place to drop her purse at the end of the day. We also created a home for her laptop bag on the shelf and hung her work bag on a door knob.
HOT SPOT: A Heaping Inbox
As we worked our way through the office, we put all the ‘to-do’ paperwork and unopened mail into Charlotte’s inbox. Before we knew it, the stack was a foot tall and ready to topple over! We opened and dealt with the mail first, and guess what… most of it went right in the trash.
The best tip I can offer for incoming mail: Don’t lay it down! When you bring mail inside, go straight to a trash can, sort the mail immediately and toss everything you can. Create a place for bills and things that need immediate action. Visit CatalogChoice.org https://www.catalogchoice.org/ to opt out of receiving catalogs and junk mail.
We prioritized Charlotte’s paperwork into special projects and basic categories. Everything related to Mom’s Choice Awards or Kid’s Camp went into their respective pile, and we used a 1-2-3 system to sort the rest: 1 – Do it now. 2 – Do it soon. 3 – Do it later.
Once the papers were grouped, each of Charlotte’s paper trays became home to a 1-2-3 category. We also created a ‘Financial’ category for receipts and statements to be processed and filed. We also designated a space for each of the large projects on the bookcase.
Did I mention Charlotte makes notes? Lots of notes? We all do! Mom’s and business owners are supposed to remember everything right! We gathered several partially filled notepads and stacks of sticky notes into a category 3 file we designated ‘Homework’.
Supply Zone
Charlotte uses a plastic storage cart to hold office supplies. We cleaned out the drawers, discarded used up items and donated unused items. We sorted the remaining supplies by type and re-stocked the drawers according to usage and accessibility.
How did we do it? We merged multiple packs of binder clips into a single container. We grouped multiple boxes of staples in a drawer and small electronics in another. My favorite change: Putting loose sheet protectors into a 3-ring binder, along with page dividers and colored folders. Now Charlotte can grab the binder and get what she needs. No more chasing slippery sheet protectors around!
Storage Zone: Business and Family Combined
The family is using a rack for overflow storage in the office. It holds computer hardware, items for business events, permanent business and personal records, promotional materials and stationary. We combined note cards and promotional materials into smaller boxes, and moved plastic containers and shipping supplies together to create a clean visual line.
As we worked our way through the office, we gathered and removed any items that didn’t belong in the room. Lego’s and kid’s books were moved to the boy’s rooms and school papers went to the kitchen where the boys do homework. All the other sneaky little items that crept into the office over time were put away in the rooms where they belonged. At the kid’s desks, we sorted papers and artwork, made room for a DVD movie case and cleaned out the desk drawers.
In just over 3 hours, we collected two full bags of trash, a couple empty boxes, and a bag of donations. We streamlined the home office to make the work/family division easier for Charlotte, while making the overall space functional for the family.
Most importantly, whether she’s working on family business or Muscogee Moms’ business, Charlotte can still connect and interact with her family and the guys can always hang out with mom.
Visit www.NeatHomeSolutions.com if you’d like to learn more about working with a professional organizer.
