Keeping Your Home Office in Order

Among the fastest growing additions to homes across the country is a home-office.

In some cases, its an actual office that has been built into or onto a house. In most instances though, its simply an extra bedroom, a secluded part of the basement, or an attic thats been transformed into a place to store and work on insurance papers, mortgage documents and other household records.

Chances are, you have some kind of office in your home. Here are five simple tips for organizing your home office.

Stay on top of bills to be paid.
Mark the outside envelope of each household bill with the date that the bill is due, providing a visual signal that will help prevent you from missing a due-date. For further organization, place your bills in a step-file designed to hold envelopes...these files have graduated design and are divided into compartments. Put the bills that are due first in the first compartments, also remember to remove paid bills and update with new ones as they arrive.

Protect highly valuable papers.
Mortgage records, deeds, savings bonds, insurance papers, birth certificates and other vital papers should be stored in a locking, fireproof home safe. These safes are available in many different sizes, some perfect for stashing in the corner of a home-office or even underneath a bed.

Organize instruction booklets and warranties.
Paperwork that comes with the things you buy...such as appliances and tools...needs to be filed and saved. Ring binders, together with Oxford® sheet protectors, are great for this purpose. Simply place your instructions and warranties into the 3-hole punched sheet protectors, then insert into binders and store on a shelf in your home-office for fast reference whenever needed. The sheet protectors, which are clear, will provide an instant view of your instructions and warranties while also shielding them from water damage and other possible hazards.

Don't ignore your home computer.
A personal computer is a centerpiece of many home-offices. Keep yours in tip-top shape by periodically purging your hard drive of files you dont need...store them on CDs, DVDs, Zips or floppies. Also protect your computer files by installing firewalls and by utilizing anti-virus software.