Spring Makeover for your Study- Clean up your Paperwork

Spring is a perfect time to put your best foot forward.

Forget those half-baked New Year Resolutions, plan on leaping into Spring with a fresh new look for a fresh new season - in your Home Office.

While most of us concentrate on spring-cleaning our houses, don't overlook your home work area. How much time do you spend in your home office? How much time do you spend looking for things?

I hate looking for things, I have to clean, cull and organise my paperwork!

You may have your home study under the stairs or tucked in a corner somewhere. Even more reasons to keep it under control.

I'm lucky enough to have a whole room, complete with a window overlooking the garden. My children have left and I've converted a former messy teenager's room into my home office but, I hate to confess, at times my study can be just as messy as it was before. There may not be smelly socks and muddy football jumpers but I can build up an impressive array of paper placed haphazardly in trays.

Oh, those pieces of paper ...

It's just so easy for paperwork to get out of control, I'm guilty of scribbled notes, phone bills and magazine clippings mixed up in a tray with important documents.

Often I'm downright ashamed of my home office. When visitors drop in, I shut the door!

Are you sometimes like me? Let's redo our home offices together - it's time for a complete spring clean.

Let's start with that paperwork!

Let's start with all the paperwork we have. Remember the old notion that the computer would lead to a paperless office? I don't know about you, but it seems to have created more paper for me.

To clean, cull and organise the paperwork takes time. Plan for a good three hours, uninterrupted.

1. Take everything out of each drawer. Take everything out from your filing cabinet.
2. Take some clean cloths, damp and dry, and wipe down all your drawers, cabinets and desk space.
3. Go through the contents of each drawer and throw out what you don't need or use. This is the hardest to do and also the most satisfying.

Have a look at your desk.

If there are no coffee cups, orange peels or other superfluous junk on your desk that doesn't mean it's clean.

Take away all those loose pens, boxes of paper clips, mail from last week and overstuffed trays or folders. If you have drawers in your desk they should have compartments like a cutlery drawer, why not pick up a cutlery organiser for your desk drawer? They're very handy for pens, highlighters, scissors and all the other bits and pieces that end up being thrown any old way into any old place.

How much time do you spend looking for these things?

It's easy to say clean and cull your paperwork but, if you start with a solid plan in mind, it can be done.

Let's look at those papers you've just pulled out from your desk, filing cabinet and/or those boxes of files on the shelf.

1. Is it current?

   Are you working on it right now? You have to keep all paperwork relating to current projects but they could probably do with some sub-folders. The last thing you need are miscellaneous bits of paper thrown in with important papers. Why not have a 'Miscellaneous' sub folder inside your Current Project folder?

File your family documents

Having a family means piling up document after document! I read once that Eleanor Roosevelt had a filing cabinet for each child but even though I had the same number of children, a filing cabinet for each one would be beyond me. Apart from the cost, I've never had the space all those filing cabinets would take. File boxes are just as efficient.

1. One file box should be enough for these records. Have a separate file for each child with birth certificates, school records, medical records and all the other important documents safely filed away. Have a file for your spouse and don't forget yourself!

Safely store all legal documents

Any warranties, licenses or any document that's legally binding has to be stored safely but not so safe that you can't find it quickly!

1. If you run a licensed/registered business from home a storage box is a necessity. All the legal documents have to be kept separate from any other documents.
2. You also need a storage box for the documents relating to your house such as mortgage or rent payments, tradesmens' bills and receipts etc. This storage box is a perfect spot to file bills/receipts (such as energy bills) for your home over the last 6 months. Think sub-folders, sub-folders.
3. Don't forget those warranties on your appliances!

1. Store your tax records safely. If you have a receipt or any document relating to tax requirements, lock it up! When that time of year comes around, you have to be able to put your hands on your tax paperwork straight away. If you think that a document should be in your 'House' folder, make a copy.

Lots of light, lovely atmosphere and documents filed in storage boxes!

I recommend the Clutter Diet. You know what they say, one day at a time ....

I try to make an hour once a week to review my files and to go through my sloppy in-tray. Sometimes that may be only once a fortnight but I know that the trick to organised paperwork is to review it regularly.

Weed out those files and papers you won't be using daily or even weekly. Only keep documents that you're currently using - retire the rest to a storage box.

Every six months (put it in your diary) review what's in your storage box. Some files can be transferred or thrown out altogether.

Go back to reading Spring Makeover for your study