Tips for keeping your home's office organized

You don't have to run a business from your home to need a home office. In fact, it's one of the most common uses for spare rooms - a place where bills can be paid, homework can be done and schedules can get organized in a quiet setting.

However, with the breakneck pace of everyday life, it's easy for a home office to turn into a disorganized mess. But when your home office turns into chaotic scene, it can have serious consequences - paying bills late because they're lost in the mess can affect your credit, homework buried under a stack of paperwork can put a dent in grades and unwritten thank-you notes can cause hurt feelings.

Make cleaning up your home's office a weekend project. After it's done, stick to the rules when using the space - you don't want it to fall back into disorganization. Here are a few tips that can help you get your space organized.

* Visual cues: Can you keep the due dates of all your bills straight in your head? If you can, you're lucky, but for the rest of us, the tangle of dates is better sorted out on an oversized calendar. There are far more stylish options available these days, so it can be a decor accent rather than an eyesore. Use it to record due dates for bills, homework, vacations and more.

* Make it personal: Having a mess of different-sized greeting cards makes organizing a challenge. It's much easier to order your own personalized note cards, which can be used for any occasion and align neatly in storage. At websites like Vistaprint, you can personalize a wide variety of designs or create your own - it's also a great value because you're ordering a larger quantity.

* Include the kids: Since kids are often competing to use the office for the groan-worthy task of homework, make their efforts more streamlined and fun. Let them contribute their decor ideas and order personalized pens that will cut down on the disappearing pen problems.

* A place for everything: Because this is where papers collect, you need to have an effective filing space. Home decor retailers offer an ever-widening array of chic storage options designed for hanging files or regular files. You should also make sure that the desktop area is clutter-free by arranging trays, storage boxes and other organizing tools. Make an appointment on your calendar to clean them out every month, recycling and shredding what is no longer needed or putting items that need to be saved into more permanent storage.

* Like goes with like: Tasks and projects go faster when you've organized your tools in an intuitive way. That means, for instance, that you should store your note cards with your address book and your printer and software manuals should be stored with your computer information. If your household has multiple checking accounts, order custom checks for each one, and keep them with the bills that are paid from that account.

Courtesy of ARAcontent