Reducing your Home Office to the Bare Essentials – LivingMini®

As you know, Living Mini™ is a way of life for me.  And it ain’t always easy – especially when you work out of your home.  Here’s how I mini-ized my home office to just the basic essentials:

Working Files

I keep one file folder for each client — everything else is a soft copy. I also keep one file folder for the blog, and one for personal follow up items / ideas. So no more than 5-6 active folders at any one time. Done!

Office Supplies

Here’s the test:  You should be able to hold all your writing instruments in one hand. Really, how many times do you use a pencil these days? Pen is out of ink – throw it away! Paper clips, rubber bands, staples – again, how many do we really use? Keep a couple of each and do away with the rest.

1 Internal File Box

I keep very few hard copies of documents. Most are saved electronically and backed-up with an external hard drive. The essentials (insurance, health care, employment docs) all fit in 1 file box which I keep in the house for easy access. The extra room in the internal box is for wrapping paper and maps.

1 External File Box

An extra file box is in the garage to store old tax information, which takes up half the box. The other half of the box stores portfolio pieces / samples.

In terms of office equipment, I have a laptop, a wireless printer, and a Blackberry.  Minimalism at its finest.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 and is filed under Hearth.