Get Your Vision Board Iphone/Ipod App and start moving toward your dreams today! Books by this Author All They Need to Know Some people believe that just because they have a will, they don't need to do anything else. But how will anyone know where to locate the will, or know what insurance policies you have if you don't have that information recorded? Don't leave your loved ones guessing.   Unlimited Autoresponders! Unlimited AdTracking! Free 30 Day Trial! http://www.trafficwave.net Feature Articles: The First Step to Manifesting Money... Goal Achieving Strategy - Thinking Prosperity... Build a Better Business - Give Up the Copy-ca... Life Balance: 3 Ways to Bring More Peace and ... 3 Biggest Mistakes With the Laws of Attractio... How to Detox and Balance your Immune System f... Thanksgiving Day and the Secret to Wellbeing... Vegan Handbags: Where Style Meets Compassion... Click here for more >>

One of these friends recommended, "It's All Too Much," by Peter Walsh, the professional organizer from TLC's hit series, Clean Sweep. I have seen the show a couple of times and am always apalled that people allow their junk to affect their quality of life. I'm not really a packrat (but I'm married to one), and I do like to go through the house and get rid of those things I don't need, but the one area that seems to fill up for me is my office. Maybe that's because that's where I spend most of my time.

This isn't your typical home office. I run four businesses out of one space. Fortunately, it's a pretty good sized office, but it takes some good organization to stay on top of it all. I have three computers, three filing cabinets, a scanner/printer/fax combo, and the stuff to make it all happen. I would consider myself an organized person, and paperwork is generally filed so that I can easily locate it.

That does not mean that I'm ready for our CPA to start working on our tax returns. There will be lots to do to prepare the books for the business taxes, which are due on March 15th, before we can do our personal taxes, which are due on April 15th.

In reading Peter Walsh's book, "It's All Too Much," I was delighted to find a chapter devoted to home offices. I learned a few things that could help me improve my productivity in the office.

1. Don't file everything. I keep every receipt and file it in a folder appropriately named "Receipts." At the end of the year, my file cabinets are just bulging at the seams. Not only do I file every receipt, but I enter each one in my financial program with MS Money. It's a great way to see how I spend my money. I'm not sure I want to give up keeping the receipts throughout the year, but I will be shredding many of them as I move these files from the cabinet to a storage box.

2. Don't keep magazines. I have a box of work-related magazines under my desk. Mr. Walsh says you shouldn't keep more than the past 3 issues of any magazine. I was surprised to find that I had magazines in that box dating back to 2005. Without even flipping through them, I pulled out the last three issues and took the rest of them to the recycling center at the neighborhood school. (Do I need to mention that my husband has TWO boxes of woodworking magazines in our shed?)

3. Be efficient. If you have a filing cabinet, use one drawer for important papers, and think about assigning the other drawer(s) to each family member. That way you at least have the paperwork in a file cabinet and not strewn all over your kitchen counter. I know one family who hasn't eaten at their kitchen table in 10 years because it's always piled with stuff they can't seem to put away.

4. Tax Stuff. We're all afraid of Uncle Sam wanting to conduct an audit. We had one of those last year for our business, and I managed to survive. The government provides guidelines for what we should keep, but it's up to you to be organized enough to meet those guidelines. Go to http://www.irs.gov/ and search for Publication No. 552 to see what paperwork you need to keep.

5. Junk mail is your enemy! Don't even let it into your home. If you want to minimze the amount of junk mail coming into your home, contact the Direct Marketing Association at http://www.dmaconsumers.org/ and go to Consumer Assistance. To avoid receiving credit card offers, call 888-567-OPT-OUT to have your name removed from the list of the major credit organizations. You just follow the computer prompts and can call 24/7.

Just taking fifteen minutes at a time, as Flylady suggests, http://www.flylady.org/ , you'd be surprised how much clutter you can eliminate. It's almost impossible to feel confident and prepared when you're surrounded by so much stuff that you can't find what you're looking for.

As Grandma always said, "A place for everything, and everything in it's place." If you don't have enough space in your home, or your office, then eliminate enough so that what you have can be put away. Everything else can be donated or thrown in the trash.