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Welcome to Day 1 of 7 Days To An Organized Home Office.
Today’s task will take 1-2 hours.
Future tasks will take about 1 hour for the average home office. Depending on your home office situation you may need more or less time.
The steps we’ll do today will transform how you think about your home office space – today, this week, and well into the future.
And they’re going to make the next 7 days easier and more enjoyable.
Let’s start!
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Forgot one thing. I ended up having a pretty big box with Archive in it, but then started putting things tht just needed to be filed in there too. Hope that isn’t going to be a big mess, but got lost along the way!
Took some before pictures – so I can remind myself later how far I have come. Got to work and (avoiding the tendency to get one little part of a shelf looking pristine – whilst the rest waits) went through everything in sight plus 7 drawers. Purged/Shredded what I needed to and organised the rest into their boxes. I have two rooms in our loft and am focusing on the home office (one of them), but being honest much of the home office contents (that I didn’t want to deal with) has ended up in the other room in the loft. So I will do this cycle twice I think rather than make this task seem so big I don’t start it. It’s amazing how you take one pile of stuff and before you know it you are half way through and finished! Still have the filing cabinets and 3 more drawers to do, but the floor, walls, surfaces, shelves, noticeboards were a good start!
Its going to take me longer than 80 minutes to purge – so feeling a bit discouraged and behind now! 🙁
Two times in our marriage, we have gotten rid of half of everything: once when we moved from 4400 square feet to 1400 square feet (with seven children!) and last year when we were moving and most everything we had stored in outbuildings and the attic garage had been ruined by the elements. (Got the huge dumpster that builders use to gut a house and threw it all in there.) I was sad that my girls’ American Girl dolls were ruined and that my “school boxes” for each child for each grade would never be looked into again in my golden years, but honestly, those two times were so freeing for me. I move a bag, box, or tub of clutter out of my house every week now. I will never have a lot of “stuff” again! That said, I do need to get in my office and get rid of some books! 🙂 Thanks for all your help! I share your posts on my Character Ink and Raising Kids With Character FB pages and my blogs all the time!
The following are our group’s responses: Analyze & make a list of the types of paper that you handle every day. This would include the following: Mail; school, projects or work papers; magazines; catalogues; coupons; receipts & newspapers
Sort paperwork & purge into: Keep file into an expanding folder with the following categories: education; financial; medical/health history; insurance; paid receipts/bills; personal property; project 1, etc. tax papers; unpaid bills; vehicle records. Recycle or Shred into individual boxes. Sort mail daily!
Here’s a guide to understanding what financial records & other important papers you should keep & for how long:
Toss after one year:
Monthly bank and credit card statements (if you don’t itemize deductions)
Monthly or quarterly brokerage statements after reconciling! You do need to keep any buy/sell statements and reconcile with the year-end statement.
Monthly mortgage statements but keep the year end statement which shows all interest & taxes paid.
Paycheck stubs once you’ve reconciled them with your annual W-2 or 1099 forms.
Keep for seven years:
W-2 and 1099 forms
Year-end statements from credit card companies.
Any business expenses that you claim.
Annual mortgage, property tax or any tax-deductible expenses
All papers that support your tax return for the past seven years. You can then purge the supporting documents & just keep the return.
Keep forever:
All annual tax returns
Year-end summaries from financial services companies!
Information on the purchase price of all investments!
Home-improvement records!
Receipts for major purchases as long as you still own the item!
Beneficiary designations
If you’re claiming a home office on your tax return, you’ll need to keep everything that relates to those expenses, such as utilities, rent or mortgage payments & office, phone & computer expenses. Keep a file for each category that you list as a deduction.
If you are not claiming a home office deduction, you may toss the following each month:
Bank deposits and ATM receipts after recording them in your check register.
Credit card receipts after you have checked for accuracy on your statement.
Sales receipts for everyday purchases if there is no warranty!
Utility statements when the next month’s statement arrives.
I found this confronting and overwhelming at first. Then I asked myself two questions, ‘Am I using this?’ and/or ‘Does it belong here?’ My five baskets of redirection started to fill quickly and the purpose of my office became clearer.
Move fast. Don’t’ overthink. Let it go! I really believe in this mantra. How did you go today?
i can’t seen to let go of my Notes from old seminars, courses, professional development programs. But i totally get why I should….
The following is my group decisions:
Shred: destroy all sensitive information including junk mail & paperwork that includes:
Account numbers, Birth dates, Passwords & PINs, Signatures & Social Security numbers
The following is based on US Government laws. To protect your privacy, you should also consider shredding items that include:
Names, Addresses, Phone numbers & E-mail addresses
How long should I keep sensitive documents?
Here are some guidelines to help you determine how long to keep records:
Tax Records: Seven years, to be safe. The IRS has three years to audit your return if the agency suspects you made a mistake & up to six years if you likely underreported your gross income by 25 percent or more. If you failed to file a return for any year, keep records indefinitely.
Pay Stubs: One year. Match them up to your W2 form, then shred.
Bank Statements: One year. But hold onto records related to your taxes, business expenses, home improvements, mortgage payments & major purchases for as long as you need them. Many financial institutions now provide the option to receive your bank & credit statements online instead of by mail.
Credit Card Statements: At least 45 days. The rules here are similar to those for bank statements; hang on to those you may need for your taxes or as proof of purchase. Shred the rest after you’ve confirmed payment.
Medical Records: At least a year, but often longer. Keep medical bills for at least a year in case of a dispute over a reimbursement. Some experts suggest keeping other records for five years from the time treatment for the symptoms ended. Hang on to information about prescription information, specific medical histories, health insurance information & contact information for your physician.
Insurance Records: Keep policy information for the life of the policy plus an additional five years. Additional records such as statements, hospital bills, car repair bills, copies of prescriptions, etc. should be kept up to five years from the date the service was provided.
Utility and phone bills: Shred them after you’ve paid them, unless they contain tax-deductible expenses.
IRA Contributions: Until you withdraw the money. You can shred quarterly statements as soon as you match them with your yearly statement.
Home Purchase/Sale/Improvements: Until six years after you sell. Improvements you make & expenses such as your real estate agent’s commission are factored in when you sell your home, lowering your capital gains tax.
Warranties: As long as they are current. Expired warranties can be recycled, unless they contain personal information.
Below is a list of specific items to consider shredding for your safety, privacy & Identity Theft:
Address labels from junk mail & magazines, ATM receipts, Bank statements, Birth certificate copies, Canceled & voided checks, Credit & charge card bills, carbon copies, summaries & receipts, Credit reports & histories, Employee pay stubs, Employment records, Expired credit & identification cards including driver’s licenses, college IDs, military IDs, employee badges, medical insurance cards, etc. (If your shredder can’t handle plastic, cut up cards with a scissors before discarding them.), Expired passports & visas, Legal documents, Insurance documents, Investment, stock & property transactions, Luggage tags, Medical & dental records, Papers with a Social Security number, Pre-approved credit card applications, Receipts with checking account numbers, Report cards, Résumés or curriculum vitae, Signatures (such as those found on leases, contracts, letters), Tax forms, Transcripts, Travel itineraries, Used airline tickets &
Utility bills (telephone, gas, electric, water, cable TV, Internet)
Recycle/Shred: What can I recycle in paper products? Shred: envelopes (without windows) and paper & Junk mail
Trash: Newspapers, magazines, leaflets, brochures
Donate: Outdated magazines can be donated to local art classes to make collages
Archive: Family papers, legal documents
Digitize: Photos
Scan: Important documents & photos into your computer for safekeeping
I thought I wouldn’t have too much to do with the day one decluttering as I’ve already done so much of that but it’s amazing what you find when you’re really looking and in the right mindset. Just the trash alone weighed 20kg! Plus there’s lots to recycle, give away, etc.
Purge purge purge! Good luck with Day #1 everyone, let me know if you think you’ve made a good start! 🙂
I worked through these 7 days before school started and got to about day 4. Today (4 months and a big messy office later), I spent much of the day going through my office and a few downstairs areas – donating, trashing, recycling, shredding. My office is absolutely closer to being at a peaceful calm state now than it was before I started today, and closer even than it was after day 4 several months ago.
So there were several realizations. One: I am not just cleaning my office or my pantry once, I am learning a process that will serve me well in the future. Two: I am allowed to do this again, and again. Each time it will be easier, and I will get something from the process. Three: I can let go of needing to do this perfectly this time. Or any time. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and in fact it likely will not be.
The first realization occurred when I rearranged the downstairs pantry and cabinets…. often when I rearrange and weed out clutter I expect things to somehow stay that way – for me, my husband and son all put our “toys away” when we are done. I get frustrated and give up when I see my beautiful efforts start to fade. Rather than jumping in and restoring order, I let it all go. Now I can re-start that process of rearranging and purging, or I can leave it be for the time being, but the fact that it doesn’t stay that way doesn’t mean I failed!
The second realization occurred when I realized that cleaning my office is much easier than it was 4 months ago. I am getting to parts of my office I ignored last time. And every year there will be a new year of tax material that I can shred!
So, I am now looking forward to the next few days – as much of it as I get through. And I am giving myself permission to do it “imperfectly”. Whatever I do is better than the way my office was yesterday 🙂
Yaa me have cleared out my stuff and created a new working pace I like.
Yeeeaahhh. Feels so much better I’m going straight to day 2 now!
Great start Sara! And you’ve picked perfect weather for it. 🙂
The following is our group decisions:
Shred: documents, mail with your address, financial data, personal data and statistical data.
Recycle: cans, cell phones, old computers, newspapers, magazines, plastic grocery bags, non-sensitive paper and cardboard.
Trash: junk mail, tatty items, expired food, tacky items, broken items, dirty items, rusty and yucky items.
Donate or sell at Thrift Store: books, magazines, clean clothes, dust collectors, and toys.
Archive: legal documents, warranties, unpaid bills, unresolved documents, birth certificate, social security card, passport, marriage license, divorce papers, medical records: prescription meds, diagnoses and medical team, living will, power of attorney and insurance policies.
I am finally getting started on this! I believe I finished half of the purging yesterday. Still have lots of stuff in easily accessible file cabinets that I don’t even need or needs to be archived. I feel lighter already! Got rid of many outdated software and manuals. I’m finding most of the things in my desk/storage areas have not been looked at or used since I put them in there.
This is a fantastic start Lynette! You’ll find the work you’ve done for day 1 will make the rest of the process so much easier.
So I have been purging every day a little bit for the last month! It is taking much longer than even I thought it would. I have found it incredibly difficult to let go as there is sooooo much stuff that has been around for years. My head knows that it needs to go but my heart has been attached too much. However, over the last few weeks I have slowly cut emotional strings from books, projects, files, articles, magazines, things, things and more things….and I think soon I will be ready to move onto step 2. The space is not organised yet but so much neater, lighter and larger 😉 Phew…glad this step is done soon.
This is by the far the hardest step, Vesna, and because you’ve taken the time to let your stuff go, you’ll find the rest of the program much smoother and easier. Looking forward to seeing how you go… 🙂
Ok, quite purged now and wow, it feels pretty amazing. I even managed to fit all the books that were strewn around the house to fit neatly into all the shelves in the study. I did have to let go of quite a few of my books, not easy for a book-collector like me, but they really were only just collecting dust anyway. So, onward and upward to the next steps….
Ok, all on board now and finished this task. Phew.
Well done Briana! – Kylie, Community Manager
I have to admit I found a few important things I was procrastinating. You can hide when you are forced to deal with your papers. On the other hand, I could also see where I was doing well so it’s a balance.
That’s why I think people feel so good when they do this kind of program Nancy. You take control of your space sure, but you also take control of your life. 🙂
I’m doing this too only in the whole house!
I found a $75 gift card to hone depot going through my office piles of stuff so it was rewarding and profitable!!!
Nancy Lester Anderson Love it!
I just started today since I have been traveling- Wow! I had two big boxes of trash and shred as well as a good sized donation box. I can’t believe I had a whole bunch of keys that didn’t fit anything and a variety of cheap pens and other junk that just took up space. I rearranged my office and it feels totally solid now! Looking forward to see what it will look like in day 7!
Great work on getting rod of so much, Nancy! More space and less mental clutter too.