But where do you begin?
It helps if you look at your surroundings with a fresh set of eyes, experts say. "Go into your space with the eyes of a stranger, or have someone come in who's never been there before," suggests Eileen Koff, owner of To the Next Level, a professional organizer in Stony Brook.
Ask yourself if the space is arranged ergonomically, she says, and whether items you use most are close by - or is the copier three doors down?
"Make sure your filing system is near where you are sitting," Koff adds. "You're not going to file if it's on the other side of the room."
The bottom line is that most people avoid filing because they hate it, says Alice Price, owner of Organize Long Island Inc., a professional organizer in West Islip. She says one solution is to file more often, even if that means allocating a half hour to an hour each week to the chore. And have a system to purge your files when they get full.
"Rather than stop filing, take out a folder and purge it to make room," Price notes.
Rosemary Saganic, owner of Anderson Travel in Babylon Village, tries to keep ahead of unruly files by taking action at the end of each year: She'll put this year's files into storage and start new file folders for the coming year's client bookings. Then, after a couple of years in storage, the old files will get destroyed. "It helps free up space," she says.
And remember that not all files are created equal, notes Leslie Jacobs, owner of Les Is More, a professional organizer in New Britain, Conn. Chances are you have file folders on clients you haven't heard from in a while, she says - they may even have moved away.
"You should never throw away a client file, but you could move it to another client drawer," she says. Just mark it "inactive" and keep it separate from your active files.
The same goes for the contacts in your Rolodex.
"Put the inactive ones in the back of the Rolodex," Jacobs says.
And don't forget to clear off your bulletin board, she says. You may find you have notes tacked up there from six months ago - or longer.
While you're at it, peek in your storage and supply room. Organizing supplies helps you start the year fresh and replenish inventory.
Hilary Topper of HJMT Communications in Westbury found the task to be worthwhile. The staff recently cleaned out the supply room, tossing supplies that hadn't been used all year. It had been a busy year, and everything was out of place, she says, with "doubles of lots of mundane items like Scotch tape and paper clips. So we organized the closet into sections - we have an event section, a publicity section and a section for general office supplies. Hopefully, we can keep it that way in 2008."
Staying organized takes commitment, experts say. But you'll find it's worth making time for.
"Clutter creates stress," says Price. "So getting organized is a great destresser."
And who couldn't use a little less stress?
HOW TO KEEP THINGS TIDY
Make a list of realistic goals for the new year. Between Christmas and New Year's, professional organizer Leslie Jacobs writes down financial and personal goals, as well as clients she wishes to target, and tacks the lists on her bulletin board with some visuals to help keep her focused and motivated.
Organize tax receipts and documents now, so you won't be overwhelmed at tax time.
Keep only one calendar, Jacobs suggests. With more than one, you may miss appointments.
Keep a notebook for random notes and thoughts, says Alice Price, a West Islip organizer. That will cut down on the Post-it Notes scattered about.
Consider purchasing a desktop file system, Stony Brook organizer Eileen Koff says. It can hold multiple file folders and keep your inbox less cluttered. Label it, so you know what each file is for.
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