CLEAR THE CLUTTER

After being in business so many years, it's easy to accumulate a lot of clutter. Whether its outdated paper, craft supplies, computers parts, or anything unnecessary for your daily routine.

It's my goal for the year to organize my clutter and to keep clutter at bay before it gets to the point that I'm frazzled by all the junk! My main goal is to realize that if I haven't needed it for the past year - I probably won't need it tomorrow either. Of course, there are some things that don't follow this rule, but hopefully I can layout some guidelines for myself and maybe help some of you in the process.

My end of the year is always busy with filing my previous year's orders and expenses nicely away into bankers boxes. Now this is something that I'm very experienced with but I'll point out how I do this easily in case anyone is interested. I have a file cabinet with manila folders labeled throughout the year. For example, the first folder is January 2007, 2nd is February 2007 and so on through December 2007. I purchase an expandable folder at the beginning of each year that is labeled by months also. If the manila folders I place all orders as they are completed for any future reference. Each order is complete including the receipt of the day it shipped along with tracking information and anything that pertains to that particular order. In the expandable folder I place all my expenses by the month it was paid. All of this is then placed into the bankers box or boxes along with the dates of what folders are in that box. In other words, if you do this on a monthly basis, the end of the year process is very easy.

A big form of clutter in business is usually the actual products offered for resale. After carrying a product for a year or longer you should be able to know if it's a good selling item, profitable item, or if it just sits collecting dust and taking up space. If it's a good selling item, maybe you can expand on it or update it for the new year. If it's not profitable maybe you should consider how to best make it more profitable. This could mean a price increase or brainstorming on how to best make more money with it. If that's not possible then it may need to be replaced with a new product. If it's just collecting dust then it needs to be eliminated all together. This may mean taking a loss with the product by selling it for cost or less.

This BIG one is the desk! My desk is ALWAYS cluttered. I can totally clean, sort, and organize and by the next day (or sometimes the same day) it looks just like it did before. The important things is keep organizing areas within your arm's reach for papers you need, things to do soon, and top priority items. I have a paper organizer with slots that I keep orders I'm working on on top, expense invoices that need to be paid in the middle, and important future paperwork on the bottom like my quarterly state sales tax forms, etc. I also always have a current calendar that I can just glance at to see what dates I need to know or remembers.

I have several file cabinets that I utilize to keep manila folders of items that I need but don't need on my desk. Such as my checking account monthly statements, accounting information, credit card information and whatever else that I want handy but don't usually need immediately at hand.

All of these organizing techniques help me to be able to find things when I need them. Of course, some may walk into my work space and wonder how in the world I find anything, I do know that there is an underlying organization to my disaster.