Welcome to the 30-Day Organize-athon!
In today’s 5 minutes we’re going to express-declutter your desk, den, study, or home office area.
Let’s start.
Day 15: Declutter Your Home Office
Step 1: Grab a large garbage bag.
Step 2: Quickly making your way around your desk, den, study, or home office area, toss these items into the bag as you go:
- School or college notes and texts – unless you just graduated they’re likely to be out of date
- Equipment you don’t use – such as a 2-hole punch if you use 3-ring binders
- Excess stationery you won’t use this decade
- Knickknacks that provide no meaning, beauty or inspiration
- Reading piles you’ll never get to – which, let’s face it, means most reading piles
- Books you’ll never read
- Old computer or software manuals
- Birthday, Christmas and greeting cards – unless they’re genuinely special to you
- Outdated printers, scanners, fax machines (check for disposal info with your local council)
- Defunct phones, computers, cells, PDAs etc. (ditto)
- Abandoned projects and hobbies and the various accompanying supplies, storage containers, etc.
- Old notebooks not needed for reference
- Old lamps, chairs and other equipment in poor condition
- Doubles of staplers, hole punches, scissors, rulers, etc.
- Any item you haven’t used in the past 12 months
- Anything broken, yucky, tatty, or inconsistent with your standards of professionalism, especially if you work from home.
Step 3: Put your bag by the door or take it straight out to the car. (Take it to the tip as soon as you can.)
Step 4: If there’s something genuinely valuable in there, put it into a separate charity store bag. If it doubt, don’t over-analyze – toss it.
And you’re done!
Got an Extra 5 Minutes?
- Return items that don’t belong in the home office area to the proper place – the kids’ bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen, etc.
- Neaten anything else that lives in the home office area.
- Straighten the desk and wipe it down.
- Pop a cushion on the chair to make it more comfortable.
Now don’t you feel like doing some work here?
The 30-Day Organize-athon Mantra
Move fast. Don’t overthink. Let it go!
Leave Your Comment Below…
Pleave your comment below to say you’ve completed today’s task.
See you tomorrow!
[Image by aussiegall]
tasks 1 – 15 complete
halfway to the finish line
I’ve tackled every mission & done my 10+ minutes, daily. I’ m thrilled at all the little victories over clutter.
thank you for the prompts
My back has been bothering me and I was told by the physical therapist that I have “an unstable disc” and yesterday it “went out.” I can stand, walk slowly or lie flat. Meaning that I can work on desk top level items but can’t reach down to or lift my file holders (clear plastic boxes with hanging files) What I could reach without bending or crouching still came to a full paper recycling container– which is now too heavy for me to move to the bin that goes to the curb
Now I’m going to see if I can get the laundry out of the top loading washer with the help of long kitchen tongs
Cleaned out files, organized bills, dealt with tax paperwork…felt great. I can see my clear desk. Thank you for motivating me. I can’t believe the month is half over. I’ve done all 15 tasks and can feel the organization transforming my life. Love, love, love it! Bring on the second half of the month!
Yes, it is fun!
Well, my house and I are still friends and I am all caught up with the Challenges. Howver, I don’t know if I have gotten all my comments and “done’s” done. Hope so. this is fun, isn’t it?
I needed this! No home office, but my desk was a mess. The top was cluttered & the drawers needed cleaning out. It looks a lot better now, & I can actually SEE the top of my desk again! Yay!!
Ah, finally my 2010 files put away and my 2011 files started. As my husband and I both work from home this is a continual battle but it sure is helping get some of the clutter out so we can be more focused.
Done so much “organizing’ in 15 days! Wow!
I’ve done this, quite a small job for me thankfully. That’s me done all of the first 15 and looking forward to the second 15 now.
done! — feels great to have so much getting done in just a few minutes a day, THANKS!!!
Done!
DONE !
I did most of this earlier this week, but I did a bit more today. I feel so much lighter!
done with all 15 🙂
My office/craft room has been a work in progress for years! I’m getting there, though. Less and less stuff «in case I might need it someday».
I need new shelves to finish my home office design as I had planned, and a new printer, for which I have no money right now.
But I love seeing a difference everyday! Thanks! Done all 15 tasks!
Perfect timing! My husband was out of town for a few days, and we used Skype to keep in touch in the evenings. Rather than just sit in front of the computer, I decided to do something. I have a couple cabinets above my desk in my home office. For about a year or so now, they have become a catch-all for anything I didn’t want to deal with at the moment. So, while talking to my sweetie, I pulled everything out of the cabinets and spread it out on the desk. I started to put it back in an orderly fashion…..but didn’t finish. Yesterday helped get some of the papers dealt with….and today I finished with everything else! I now have 2 tidy, organized cabinets above a cleared off desk!
Thanks! 🙂
Done. Thank you for the challenge.
Got a start on this …wrote check out to IRS, taxes completed & that paper work filed. Still more to do, but have good start. Just have to find room to store extra needed supplies.
Completed all 5 minute task challenges for this week. : ) Feeling good for progress made in these areas…keep on keeping on.
Done.
I devoted a very large chunk of my day to this — our home office is the catch-all space and it fills quickly and heavily. *whew* It was a lot of work, but I made a nice dent!