Give Your Files A Place To Come Home To

"When I started my own business, the last thing I thought about was a filing system," says Sue Weyrauch, who offices at home. "First I bought the necessary equipment -- the computer and printer and fax machine cost me nearly $4,000 six years ago -- and then my main concern was finding clients and keeping them. When you give up the security of a regular paycheck, getting paid moves right to the top of your priority list. I was busy figuring out how to bill for my services; I didn't worry about where I was going to put stuff."

Weyrauch has been so successful that she now runs two businesses out of her home, and therefore needs two entirely separate filing systems. How does she do that? "I have a two-drawer file cabinet, and each business gets its own drawer," she says. "And for something like $10 apiece I bought a couple of those plastic file boxes at the local office products store. I put them in the closet and keep the 'archives,' or files I'm not working on at the moment, in the boxes. Cardboard boxes would serve the same purpose, I suppose."

Most home office workers use closets to store files that are inactive or that won't fit in the desk. Dave Beck is a vice president with a major food company; he's on the road most of the time and keeps an office at home because he lives too far away from corporate headquarters to commute. Beck says his filing system consists of a drawer in his desk that has room for hanging folders , in which he puts manila folders arranged alphabetically by project or client name. His archived files are indeed in the closet. "The biggest adjustment for me in moving from corporate to a home office," he says, "was that I was used to having staff people who did all the filing and copying for me. I just asked my assistant to bring me a file, and she did. I didn't know where she got it. I didn't care where she got it, as long as she could find it when I needed it. Now I have to label the file folders myself, and that's a problem because I have trouble reading my own writing."

File so that you can find things

"The value of an effective filing system is that you can retrieve information when you need it -- it's not just a place for storage," says Barbara Hemphill, professional organizer and author of Taming the Paper Tiger. "The purpose of filing anything, paper or electronic, is to create a place to put the information so that you will be able to find it again easily. Bottom-line, instead of thinking, 'Where can I put this,' ask yourself instead, 'Where can I find this?'"

Travel Writer Christopher Johnston agrees. "Hemphill's filing suggestions are particularly valuable for people like me, who office at home, because we don't have a lot of room to store stuff. If I filed everything that came across my desk I'd be wading through boxes." Besides, he says, research shows that 80% of the papers in most filing systems are never needed again. "Why keep it?"

Use the supplies that work for you

"My office doesn't require more than couple of file drawers," says Johnston. "I use hanging folders because the stand-up plastic tabs let me see all the labels at once. Box bottom hanging folders are ideal for very thick files -- I keep a lot of hotel and restaurant brochures -- or in a case where you would like to put subcategories in manila folders within one hanging folder. For example, the hanging folder might say 'Mendocino B&Bs,' and the manila folders inside relate to a specific inn, say, 'Agate Cove Inn,' or 'Mendocino Hotel,' etc."

Then, inside the folders, Johnston uses Smead's self-adhesive vinyl pockets to store small items such as innkeepers' business cards, photographs, or diskettes from his laptop. The pockets have clear front panels, so he can see at a glance what's inside. This eliminates clutter on his desk and makes it infinitely easier to find even odd-sized pieces of paper.

The really easy solution

If you're just setting up your office at home, you're 'way ahead of the game. You don't face the daunting task of sorting through stacks of paper that have accumulated for years. Conversely, if you've given up and you want to start fresh -- which is the way Hemphill recommends you do it, as the task of cleaning up years of mistakes can be so forbidding, most of us procrastinate about it indefinitely -- here's a hint. Go to your office products store and ask for a Smead Straight Line Filing Starter Kit . It contains, in one box, everything you need to set up your files. You get top tab manila folders, color coded labels, clear label protectors, guides, and special "miscellaneous" folders for papers that don't warrant their own folder. The starter kit also comes with an instruction book, in case you need some suggestions.