by Natalie Morey | Jun 8, 2016 | Declutter tips, Home Office, Home Organisation, Office Organising, Tips
This month it’s all about gorgeous home office storage ideas and looks. Forget drab and go for some of these fab storage ideas and products for your home office. In no time you will have a super stylish and functional office space that will actually inspire you to want to spend time in there. Then, there will be no excuse to get all your paper work sorted for the tax man.
Home office organising and storage – Image credit: Officeworks
A light, bright and white home office
This white trestle desk is definitely the statement piece in this minimalist workspace. Achieve the look with this customisable trestle desktop and legs for less than $100. Love it all? All the furniture, the lamp, and the photo frame packs come in at $658 from Officeworks.
The perfectly organised home office -Image credit: Office Works
A bold home office space
A black workspace is a bold move, but it definitely sets a get-it-done attitude. The floor lamps will bring much needed brightness to this space and are a great affordable alternative to pendant lights, which require installation by a qualified electrician. Opting for wood-look furniture will not only add light and warmth, but will keep your budget in check.
Using these picks, you could create the look for $385 – which includes two each of the light oak magazine files and vintage document boxes.
Classic white home office – Image credit: Kikki-k
Go for the classic uncluttered look
As a professional organiser, I just love this look from Kikki-k. Its uncluttered and functional. You could also easily add a single draw filing cabinet under the desk to give you some more storage space if required. You could also add some pops of colour by changing the colour of the storage product that’s sitting on the desk.
Home office storage
Gorgeous home office storage ideas
Check out these storage ideas from Kikki-k. They will help keep your desk uncluttered and organised and they look great too.
Based in Melbourne and assisting clients in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, The Lifestylers Group is a professional organising service that helps people organise there homes, home offices and lives. With over 10 years experience, we have seen it all before. We have lots of practical tips and advise that we share with our clients to organise there office or home office.
by Natalie Morey | May 19, 2016 | Declutter tips, Home Office, Home Organisation, Office Organising, Tips
Clutter are things that you no longer use or love and it’s also those items that start to effect the way you run your house or life because they start to build up and take over the space. I’m sure that if I asked the question, most people would say that I have clutter in my house.
Clutter in my house
I believe that there are two main types of clutter. Emotional clutter and physical clutter. Both of these types of clutter have an impact on your life. In this blog, I am going to concentration on the physical clutter in your home and home office.
Clutter in your house is:
- All those odd socks that are still in your draw – but clearly you are never going to wear
- The broken TV or printer.
- The piles of unopened junk mail and old newspapers.
- All those plastic butter containers or jam jars that might come in useful one day.
- All the piles of papers on your desk or office floor
- Expired medicine in your bathroom
- Things that might be broken but (for sentimental reasons) you cannot throw it out (even though it can be no longer used)
- The boxes of stuff that have not been unpacked from your recent house move, because there is no space for them
- The junk mail that you collected from the mail box. (You know it’s just junk mail, but you still bring it inside, telling yourselves – I will read that later)
- The things that remind you of a difficult time in your life.
- The things you liked ten years ago but your tastes have changed.
- Those shoes that you wore once but can’t bear to part with because you paid $300 for them!
We all have clutter in our house. Some people just have more clutter than others and as a result don’t know what to do with it.
Clutter in my house becomes a problem when:
- You run out of room
- When there is “stuff” sitting on benchtops or on the floor
- You feel frustrated at the state of your own home or home office
- It takes you an extra 15 minutes in the morning to get ready, because you cannot find anything to wear
- When you cannot find things.
- When you pay a bill late because you misplaced the invoice.
- You don’t want to invite friends over because of what your house looks like
- You buy duplicate items because you could not find the original one.
What stops people from clearing the clutter?
The key thing that stops people from dealing with their clutter is:
- Procrastination
- Feeling whelmed and not knowing where to begin.
Did you know that on average we use 20% of our possessions 80% of the time? Now that is a lot of clutter that is not being used at any one time. So that is something to consider when the clutter starts building up in your home, wardrobe, kitchen or home office.
Clutter in my house
For tips on help you clear the clutter click here.
If you need help to clear the clutter in your home then contact The Lifestylers Group. We are experts at helping people to clear the clutter and reclaim your home and life. We have a team of trained professional organisers, all of whom specialise in different areas of the home. They are experienced, discrete and love helping people clear the clutter.
by Natalie Morey | May 10, 2016 | Declutter tips, Home Office, Home Organisation, Office Organising, Tips
We were pretty chuffed to be included in this months edition of the Home Beautiful Magazine – 40 ways to get sorted.
As you know, we love to declutter and get our clients sorted. These clever out of the box storage ideas will help you declutter and restore order in the most stylish ways.
In the article, 40 ways to get sorted – Storage solutions for every room of the house, it gives lots of tips and solutions to help people get organised.
Whether you need to declutter and organise your hallway, need some stylish home office organising tips or need to organise your living room, there is some great storage solutions.
We hope you get some ideas or inspiration to get inspired and organised this February. To read the full article click here.
Happy Organising,
Natalie Morey
by Natalie Morey | Nov 26, 2012 | Declutter tips, Home Office, Home Organisation, Office Organising, Tips
Christmas Organising
Now is the perfect time to get organised and make sure you write and mail your Christmas cards this year. Getting your Christmas cards out on time, only takes a little bit of forward planning, so what are you waiting for.
Tips To Get You Organised
Here are some of our key tips on making sure your Christmas cards get mailed this year.
- Type up your Christmas card list and keep it in a safe place so that you can refer to it (to add or delete names) year after year. I also put an asterisk next to any overseas addresses, as a reminder to post their card early.
- I find the easiest way to manage my Christmas Card list is in Excel. That way I can mail merge and print off addresses directly onto labels. You can also print directly onto the envelope, which saves you not only time but also the cost of the label.
- Create your own “return to sender labels” using labels purchased from Office Works. I have used http://www.coastallabels.com.au before and they were very quick and well priced. Also check out: https://www.thatsmine.com.au
- Set a date and plan to write your Christmas cards in the last week of November, because otherwise Christmas day will be here before you know it and that pile of blank Christmas cards will still be sitting on your desk.
- Christmas cards with ‘card only’ marked on the envelope can be posted at a reduced rate during November and December.
- Overseas mail at Christmas time takes longer to arrive. Plan ahead and arrange to send cards or presents in early to mid November, to avoid disappointments (and the very long queues at the post office).
- For great savings, buy Christmas cards, wrapping paper, ribbons and decorations at post-Christmas sales – you would be amazed how much you can save.
Until next time, happy organising.
Natalie Morey, Professional Organiser.
by Natalie Morey | Sep 25, 2012 | Declutter tips, Home Office, Home Organisation, Office Organising, Tips |
How to organise and manage your home office computer
Just like work computers, home computers also need to be looked after and maintained. Ideally, you should have one person responsible for their maintenance. This becomes especially important when several family members use the same home office computer.
Backup data and photos
Backing up your data, photos and treasured memories on your home computer is just as important as backing up your work files. So often, when I’m in clients homes and I ask them when was the last time they backed up their computer, I am horrified. The answer is often “never”. There are some cost effective portable backup devices that you can purchase from Office Works and install on your computer.
Ideally, you should store your back up drive in a different location from where your computer is stored.
It doesn’t take long to do a back up. Put it on and go and watch TV or have a coffee (or continue working).
If you have kids or other family members accessing the same computer, it might be worth setting up separate log on’s for each person. That way your files are protected and cannot be accidentally deleted off when one of the kids is playing on the computer.
Internet security and virus protection
Internet security and virus protection is just as important on home computers as it is on business computers. Make sure it is current and working correctly. There are some cost effective virus protection programs on the market such as AVG, Norton. We use Trend PC Cillon which I find to be really reliable. If you need some assistance, then organise for your IT technician to purchase and install one for you. At The Lifestylers Group, we work with a range of computer technicians that do this sort of thing, so if you need some assistance, then we are only a call away.
Don’t learn the hard way. It is essential that your virus protection is working.
If you have wireless Internet connection at home (or in the office) it is vital that the network is locked down so no one else can access it. If it is unlocked people in the surrounding neighborhood can log onto your internet connection and use your internet. Unsecure networks makes it easy for people to hack into network and access data such as bank account log in details.
Suspect emails
It’s also really important to have a policy for how you handle suspect emails. This becomes particularly important when there are different family members using the same computer and receiving emails. If you see a suspect email “doing the rounds” let the other uses know not to open it, and delete it straight off the computer.
Always be wary of files that have the following wording EXC after the file name. These files are called executable files and often contain virus. Organising your home security is such an important part of owning a computer.
So do you need to check your internet security and virus protection after reading this article?
Until next time, happy organising.
Natalie Morey, Professional Organiser
by Natalie Morey | Sep 21, 2012 | Declutter tips, Office Organising, Tips
Stylish Home Office Filing Ideas
Now that your paper work is all organised and sorted, it is time to file it.
As professional organisers we love things to look organised and stylish too. I am always search for organising tips and ideas. I come across a great way to create stylish looking lever arch folders in the October 2012 edition of Better Homes and Gardens. I hope you like it too.
Take an A4 photocopy of your favourite photo, or perhaps some beautiful coloured stationery paper and cut stripes wide enough to cover the spine of your folders. Then, use double sided tape to fix the paper to your folder. It only takes minutes to have custom made, stylish folders. Don’t forget to label your folders too.
Organise, sort and declutter your home office paperwork
Hopefully this decorative filing system will even encourage you to do your filing as well! Talking of filing, if you need some help organizing, sorting and filing that pile of papers, then I have listed below some filing tips for you.
CREATING FILE CATEGORIES
Firstly, look at your current filing system (or that pile of paper on the floor or desk that you’ve been meaning to file for months) and start sorting your documents into broad categories. “Finances” might be one; “house stuff” could be another. At this point, we’re not focusing on the detail of your filing system, it is just the broad categories. At this stage it doesn’t matter if it’s a credit card bill or a bank statement right now. We can sort out the distinctions later on.
SUBCATEGORIZING
It is in this stage, that we start sorting into sub categories. Start with one of your “major category/ piles” and sort through it again. This time, you can put your papers into smaller subcategories. For example, your “finances” pile could be divided into:
- savings account – ANZ
- savings account – ING Direct
- check account
- Visa credit card account
- AMEX credit card account
It is important to be specific. Don’t just say that they are “bank statements”. Determine which account they belong to and break each out into a separate pile. It makes it easier to find if they are in specific groups.
Until next time, happy organising
Natalie Morey, Professional Organiser
