Where do you house your computer? Does it have a room of its own along with the books in your home? If you have a study, we’re going to head there next. This is another reminder to take these tasks in small steps—you’ll not accomplish this in one day, even if you’re born-organized (I know)! But this is a big step in organizing your West Cobb home.
How does your desk look? Can you see the top? Are you convinced it even HAS a top? If not, let’s start here. Take one small area of your desk—to the right of your monitor, for starters. Sort through the paperwork you have—determine what can be filed (in folders and then a filing drawer), what can be thrown away, and what you need on your desk (bills that are due). Don’t whitewash yourself here—be honest and figure out what you can do without. The less you have on your desk distracting you, the better you’re going to feel. Remember—small steps here! Now work on the area to the left of your monitor. Leave space to be able to adjust the volume on your speakers and get to your printer.
If you don’t have a bulletin board, this might be the best opportunity to put one in to use (Target has good prices on these – usually less expensive than the office supply stores). You don’t have to have a fancy bulletin board with ribbons—a standard corkboard with pushpins will do nicely. If you have paperwork that you don’t want to file away (yet) or things that you need to keep in front of you for memory-jogging purposes, a bulletin board is a great addition. On my bulletin board (really a bulletin “strip”), I have things that I don’t need cluttering up my desk, but I do want in easy reach when I need them.
Take a look at your bookshelves. Are they organized so you can find things? I’m not saying that it has to be by the Dewey Decimal system, but as long as you can easily find things, that’s what counts. My shelves are categorized and sized, but that’s me. Are your shelves dusty? You don’t have to take everything off of them to dust them—under the books is rarely dusty. Simply dust from the edges of the books to the edge of the shelf. Done!
How’s the floor in this room? Can you walk and not kill yourself? If not, use the laundry-basket method we’ve already discussed and sort through what you’ve got, what you need, and what you don’t need. Once you can see the floor, run the vacuum. Again, not the edges, just where you can walk and roll your desk chair.
Finally, dust the furniture in this room. Run your duster over quickly and pick up whatever particles spell out “help me” on flat surfaces. You’d be shocked how quickly dust builds up where your computer is involved and how effective the fans are in your CPU!
Here’s one area completely organized! Keep in mind that many small steps make one great journey!