January 11 is National Clean Off Your Desk Day.
Today is a great day to not only clean off your desk but to start preparing for your taxes. Carefully separate bills, statements and receipts…then you can add your W-2′s and 1099′s to them as they come in this month.
Here are a few tips to get you going on cleaning up and organizing your desk:
- Don’t get overwhelmed. Since many desks get overrun with paperwork, notes, office supplies, etc. so quickly, it can look like an insurmountable task.
- Trash the trash. Get rid of any junk: notes you don’t need anymore, broken items and/or garbage.
- Check your supplies. Do you have too many boxes of staples or paperclips stacked on your desk? Is your pen supply more than is necessary for a small country? Or are you always looking for a pen because you set one down somewhere and just can’t find it? Minimize the extra amount of supplies you carry on or in your desk and store the rest. Replenish any office supplies you find you are lacking.
- Tackle the paperwork. This can be the biggest issue when organizing your desk. Paperwork seems to pile up quickly. Separate paperwork into workable piles so that you can file them where they need to go. You may want to invest in inexpensive wall file that allows you to separate and easily organize your paperwork.
- Don’t forget the drawers. Drawers are easy receptacles for trash, broken pencils and little bits of paper or junk that we forget all about. They are also usually the most cluttered parts of our desks. The first thing to do is to take all the contents out of the drawer and place them on your desk. Empty the drawer of all little pieces of trash (pencil shavings, broken paperclips, errant staples) in a trash can and put it back in its place in your desk. Then, place all usable items neatly inside. Get rid of anything you don’t use or have no need for anymore.
- Organization is key. Create folders for current projects. Start a new accordion folder for 2010 and tuck all receipts, statements and paid bills here for easy access for next years tax preparation.