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I keep all of my "eBay stuff" covered
on this pallet racking. I keep all of my books in clear
plastic tubs to keep them clean and to make them easy to move around.
Below: The clear
tubs are great for books because you can stack the books so you can see
their sides. This makes them easier to find when it sells and its time to
ship. I actually sell most of my books on Amazon instead of on eBay.
Organization is a skill that can be
learned. The most difficult part is breaking your lifelong bad habits (like
letting your paperwork pile up). The key to getting better organized is to
start with one small step and then take others one at a time. You may find
that what you've put off for years takes only an hour to do. And once you
see the benefits in one part of your life, you'll be motivated to go on.
What Being
Disorganized Costs
A moderately disorganized person
loses about two hours every day due to disorder. If your income is $100,000
per year, based on a 40-hour week, you're costing yourself about
$25,000 every year. When you enlist the help of others to help you find
something, the cost goes up.
If your income is
$25,000/year, you lose $6,000
$40,000/year, you lose $10,000
$50,000/year, you lose $12,600
$125,000/year, you lose $32,000
Here are some
Organization Tips that you may find helpful.
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Try to Eliminate
clutter
Eliminate clutter one pile at a time (get some
garbage bags so it will be easy to throw things out). You’ll have to make
very brutal decisions about every piece of paper in those piles on the
desk, on the floor, in the cabinets, etc....
In deciding what to keep and what to throw out, a good rule of thumb is if
you haven’t referred to a document in six months or if you can get the
information somewhere else, or don't need to keep it for legal reasons,
dump it. Trust me, 90% of all that paper you insist on keeping just in
case will probably never be referred to again. STOP KEEPING ALL THAT
STUFF!
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Assess Your Location
Before you start organizing, make sure your office is in the right place.
You're going to spend most of the day here. Don't banish yourself to a
room you don't like. "Often, people plan to put their office in a spare
bedroom they never use," Julie says. "Except they hate that dark, isolated
room and wind up doing all their work on the dining room table." If you
like working in the dining room, put your office there. You'll find
creative ways to organize your things -- such as putting containers in the
credenza -- to free up the table for dinner.
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Use Morgenstern's
Kindergarten Classroom Model
Once you've established your office area, divide it like a kindergarten
classroom into activity zones. Each zone has everything needed for that
activity. In kindergarten, zones are arts and crafts, music and reading.
What are your main activities? Client contact, research, writing and
mailing assembly? Divide your office into these four task areas and put
everything related to each task in its own zone.
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Organize for Retrieval, Not
Storage
When deciding where to put specific
items in each activity zone, focus on finding them, not storing them. Ask
yourself, "Under what circumstance would I be looking for this?" and
"Where would I go to look for this in the future?" not, "What box would
this fit in?"
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Create a User-Friendly
Filing System
Take the kindergarten approach to filing too.
Ditch that old A-Z system. It tends to separate related materials, putting
accounting under "A," financial plan under "F" and tax records under "T."
Instead, create separate filing drawers or areas for the categories of
your home business: finances, clients, administrative and marketing, for
example. Put all related files in the appropriate drawer in alphabetical
order, if you wish.
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Complete One Section at a
Time
That coffee cup on your desk belongs in the
kitchen. You bring it to the kitchen and realize you need to organize your
cabnets. Don't do this. Focus on one room at time. Within that room,
complete one section before moving to the next. You need to see results to
feel inspired enough to continue.
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Don't Give Up!
Organizing is such a huge task, people often
quit before finishing. Invariably, those remaining little piles of clutter
take over the office, reducing it to chaos again. Plan strategies ahead of
time to keep yourself motivated. Write a list of reasons to get organized
and post it where you can see it. Take before and after photos of your
space to track your progress. Work with a buddy who will keep you inspired
and serve as a sounding board. For your new system to stick, you need to
see it through to the end.
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