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Whether you're working from an extra room at home or you're working in an office downtown, you need to be organized in order to do a good job. No matter what your job title might be, you need to be certain you know where your possessions are when they're placed on your desk. This is especially important when you are trying to run your own business. If you're not keeping track of your things, you might seem inefficient to a client and you can lose business. Thankfully, it's quite simple to organize your entire office space, just by dividing the task into three simple steps.

Get Rid of It

The main reason why many people have clutter in their office is because they store things in and on their desks they don’t need. For one hour, stop your work and remove anything from your office that you don’t use on a daily basis. This will help you to see what really needs to stay within arm's reach. You can then move everything you use more often to the drawers next to you. You will also want to start by getting rid of papers you don't need to save. Since most email programs now allow you to save everything you receive and send, there's really no need for the paper copies too, is there? If you want to hang onto certain papers, but you don't have the physical storage space, you might want to consider investing in a scanner. With this piece of equipment, you can scan any paper you want to have on hand, save the file to a hard drive or a flash drive – and then toss the paper. You then still have the information, but in a much smaller space.

Find a Place for Everything

If you want to make sure your office remains as clean as it will be after this initial decluttering, you need to find places for all of your things. You might want to invest in bins or in trays to make sure everything you own has its own place. This way, at the end of each day, you can put things back where they belong. This keeps things neat and tidy, while also making it much easier to find what you need when you need it. Some people find that using a label maker is a great way to begin to sort their items into places. You might not need to go to this extreme, but it can help you direct your possessions into places where they can be easily stored and retrieved.

Out of Sight Storage

Most of us also have items we want to keep on hand, but that we don’t need everyday. With these items, you might want to invest in a long term storage facility or a filing cabinet. In this space, you will only put items you don't need immediately. This might include tax papers, old assignments, etc. In putting these items away from your current working space, you will help keep things neat and you will create a space into which future items can be stored efficiently. Of course, the real key to organization is to keep everything as neat as possible – and that starts with not bringing more junk into your office than is absolutely necessary. When you receive new papers and other items, deal with them immediately instead of letting them pile up again. This way, you can keep things Zen-like and your mind clear of stress.