Six tips to help you get started with Project Organize Cabinet in your home office

Most would agree that they usually start with the best of intentions to implement a good organization system in their home office. However, over time, the paperwork can pile up and the end result is that your filing cabinets begin to fill up with an overload of shambles. To avoid a big paper clutter problem, follow these simple tips to get you started with your home office project cabinet organization.

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The best thing you can do to reorganize your home office is to start with a priority task like decluttering your filing cabinet. It is best to empty the cabinet completely and start over from scratch. This includes deleting the folders and all content currently in your cabinet.

Classification

The next step in reorganizing your filing cabinet is to sort the papers. Remove unnecessary papers and throw them away. Set aside any important papers you need to keep. To save time, create separate piles based on subject when you’re sorting through paperwork. That avoids triple handling of each sheet of paper when it comes time to file the papers in the cabinet.

Try to select subject titles for your folders that are logical and easy to remember. That way, when you need to locate a particular document in the future, you won’t need to refresh your memory as to what category of subject it may be filed for. With a good filing system, you should be able to immediately remember which folder your document is in.

Labelled

Since you’ll be setting up a new filing system, do yourself a favor and buy yourself new color-coded folders. Label the folders clearly in bold with a marker pen. Using reusable label inserts is a good idea so that in the future if you need to change your labels, simply throw away the old one and insert a new label for your binder.

Presentation

Try to file papers in chronological order, with the newest document at the front of the folder and the oldest at the bottom of the folder. When you see your folders fill up with too much paperwork, start deleting the oldest documents first. Throw them away if you don’t need them or scan them and throw away the hard copy.

Exploration

To avoid accumulating too much paper in your filing cabinet, identify any document types that you can scan and store on your computer as an alternative. These days, many people are moving towards a paperless system and drastically reducing the amount of paper documents they keep.

Storage

Once you’ve got all your paperwork in order and essential documents filed and organized, assess your current storage requirements. If lack of storage is a problem, consider buying another filing cabinet. In most cases, maintaining one or two filing cabinets will meet the requirements of most home-based businesses. Try to avoid keeping unnecessary paperwork instead of having to resort to buying additional storage to file the excess.

Once you’ve finished arranging the filing cabinets in your home office, you’ll be so thankful that it’ll be so easy to locate the documents.