Home Office Organization – April Household Organization Diet

Get all of your paperwork, work stations, and desks organized with these simple home office organization ideas and free printables.

Whew! April is flying by and I’m a bit behind on things!  We are almost finished all of the home renos that we were doing and I’m so happy to be able to get things cleaned and organized again. I’m excited to show you all of the finished spaces over the next few weeks so stay tuned for that. 🙂

Hopefully, you were able to get through all {or at least some!} of the tasks for the March Household Organization Diet last month and are enjoying your cleaned and organized bathrooms!  Always remember that these plans are just a guideline. Sometimes, you’ll be able to get things done quickly and sometimes it may take you a couple of months. The important thing is to continue moving ahead and not use incomplete tasks as an excuse to stop. 🙂

The Household Organization Diet Plan

If you’re not familiar with The Household Organization Diet, it’s basically a year-long plan to work on decluttering, deep cleaning, and organizing every space in your home. Each month we work on a different room. Some spaces may need a lot of time and others will be easier. Just work at your own pace, do what you can, and feel free to adapt the plan to make it work for you.  The key is to just get started!

At the beginning of each month, I post a free set of printables for the month including a task list, a blank task list for you to add your own tasks, a calendar, and a notes sheet.  I recommend that you print these out and put them in a binder for frequent reference.  You might even want to print two copies of the task sheet so you can hang one up on the fridge or other visible area of your home.  You can read a little more below about how to use them.

I also always post some helpful tutorials and tips to help you complete each of your tasks.  Be sure to pin or bookmark this post so you can read these over before you get started. I’ll be updating them throughout the month with any changes I’ve made and will be sure to let you know when I’m working on anything new.  Please leave me a comment or email me if you have specific questions or ideas that you would find helpful to complete the tasks and keep you on track. I love to hear from you!

The April Household Organization Diet – Home Office Organization

This month we’ll be working on home office organization and clearing out all of that paper clutter! I know not everyone has a dedicated home office {us included!}, but you should have at least one place in your home dedicated to paperwork, important documents, paying bills, storing basic office supplies, etc.  Since you are likely going through a lot of your paperwork for tax season anyways, this is the perfect time to set up some long-term organization systems that will work for you and get your financial situation under control.

I also thought that this would be a good time to talk a little bit about clearing out the mind clutter as well.  It’s definitely one of the things that I struggle with the most and can be a huge obstacle when it comes to living a more organized life. Honestly, if you can get your paperwork organized and come up with a scheduling system that works for you and your family (and stick with it!), at least half of the mind clutter will probably be cleared up already.

April Household Organization Diet Printables

The April To Do List

It’s always a good idea to have a plan in place for any organization task, so here are the April tasks and calendar for you. As always, you can use my pre-made plan or download the blank task sheet to create your own.

 THE APRIL TASKS HERE
DOWNLOAD A BLANK COPY OF THE APRIL TASKS HERE

April Calendar

I like to keep track of when I’m going to do what on a monthly calendar.  Make your {realistic!} monthly plan and stick to it! Some people like to do a little each day and others would like to block off a longer time period once per week.  Do whatever works best for your time schedule and personality.

DOWNLOAD THE APRIL CALENDAR HERE

April Notes Sheet

Keep a notes sheet {or two!} handy to jot down any projects, home improvement ideas, extra tasks, etc. that you would like to do.  You might want to use one for tasks that you would like to do this month and a second sheet for future projects that you would like to do.  Sometimes just getting it down on paper will give your mind a bit of a rest.

 

DOWNLOAD THE APRIL NOTES HERE

Home Office Organization Ideas

Are you ready to get started on your home office organization?  Grab a box each for garbage, recycling, and shredding, and let’s get going! Here are some tips to help you get you going…

Completely empty out the space.

When I am re-organizing a space, I always find that I do best if I completely empty it out before starting. Depending on the size of your space and how much time you have, however, you may want to divide your space into smaller projects that you can get done in a day so you don’t end up with a bigger mess than when you started!  For example, one day you may tackle the desk drawers while the next day you organize the filing cabinet.

Sort into piles.

Go through every item that you have emptied from your space and sort into piles: items to keep in the space, items to donate/give away, items that actually belong somewhere else in your home, and items that are headed for the garbage/recycling.  Be sure to shred any documents that have any personal information on it and recycle any paper products when able. Really be honest with yourself when you are deciding if you should keep an item or send it off to goodwill or recycling.  If you are having trouble decluttering, read this post to overcome your decluttering paralysis.

Group your “keep” items.

Now it is time to focus on those items that you are going to keep {and USE!} in the space.  Group the remaining items into similar categories and come up with a plan for how you would like to store/organize your belongings.  If your organization method wasn’t working before, you either need to significantly declutter or change up your organization system.  When it comes to your desk space, keep only your most frequently used items out and try to store the rest away {but still easily accessible}  A rolling cart  or a floating shelf above your desk work great if you need a little extra storage space.  Use drawer dividers or small bins inside of larger drawers to make it easier to keep your items where they belong.

Shop your home for creative storage ideas.

Be creative in your storage and look around your home for other items that could be repurposed to meet your needs. Kitchen items such as spice racks, ice cube trays, and small muffin tins are great for keeping smaller office items in check. Bathroom items such as caddies and shower organizers can also come in handy. Recover small cardboard boxes or tin cans with pretty wrapping paper or use clear mason jars for an inexpensive storage solution.

Keep things simple.

The easier your organization is, the easier it will be to actually follow. If you have a lot of items stacked on top of each other, it may look pretty at first, but it will likely lead to a cluttered space in the future.  Make things easy to put away and use labels as much as possible so everyone knows where things belong. Try to keep items stored as close to the place that you will be using them as you can.

Favorite Home Office Organization Ideas

I’ve put together some of my favorite home office organization ideas for you.  Be sure to read these over before you get started!

How to Declutter and Organize Any Space.  This is a good post to review before organizing any space in your home.  The more you practice these tips, the easier they will become!

Free Budgeting Printables.  Even if you’ve done these before, your budget should be reviewed and modified at least once per year (or sooner if there are any signficant financial changes).

How to Organize Bills.  If you’ve ever missed a bill payment or have no idea when your automatic payments will be coming out, check out this simple, fool-proof system…

How to Get Rid of Paper Clutter.  Paper clutter is often one of the biggest elements of clutter in the home.  In addition to the visual clutter, this can also become a big source of stress and lead to missed bill payments or appointments, lost documents, and poor daily organization.  Get a system in place that works for you, and the paper clutter will be a thing of the past!

Simple Storage Solutions for Items You Don’t Know Where to Put.  We all have those little items that you’re not quite sure where to put.  If every item has a home though, it’s so much quicker and easier to clean up!

Kitchen Command Center. This is the heart of our home and the main area that all of our papers are sorted.

Simple Tips to Organize Your Desk.  If you don’t have a dedicated home office {like me!}, creating a functional and organized desk space is essential.

Office Organization Inspiration.  These are some of my favorite home office and desk organization ideas from around the web.  Check them out for some beautiful home office inspiration!

How to Organize Your Life with a Notebook.  If you have difficulties keeping yourself on track, this is the plan for you.

And there you go!  Hopefully that will provide you with a ton of home office organization inspiration!  If you have any questions or other topics that would be helpful for you, just let me know.  My book, The Home Decluttering Diet, is designed to go along with this plan with extra tips, ideas, and simple DIY projects to help you along.  It’s SO helpful having the information right at your finger tips, so order now while it’s still on sale!   You can purchase HERE in the US and HERE if you’re in Canada.

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This post is part of The Household Organization Diet.  If you need some organization inspiration, check out THIS POST  to learn more about the plan and THIS POST for all of the 2018 updates.

It’s updated on the first of every month with the new plan so don’t forget to bookmark it! You CAN get that house cleaned and organized once and for all!  To see all of the previous posts click the Get Organized tab at the top of the blog and go to The Household Organization Diet.  I also have all of the posts pinned to my Household Organization Diet Pinterest Board.  Start at any time and make sure you are following along so you don’t miss out…

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