If you find yourself dreading going to your home office, check out these simple tips for office maintenance and start looking forward to sitting behind your desk. Working at home brings distractions and emotions from family members who demand your attention. Maintaining order in the chaos is vital, not only for your business but for your sanity. Whether you have been working at home for years or are a newcomer, you will benefit from these tips.

1. Treat your office the same as you would an office in the public arena. Yesterdays' sandwich and soda would not clutter your desk if you worked away from home so do not do it at home. Keep your desk tidy and clean. In addition to avoiding spills on your paperwork, you will have a better feeling about being at your desk if you have a pleasant work area. If you have clients that will be arriving, make sure to have an uncluttered chair available for them to use.

2. Designate a specific time each day where there are no interruptions from either your family or the telephone. No matter where you work, there must be a time where you can accomplish important business transactions. Even if it is thirty minutes, you need to take that time for yourself. You will be amazed how much will be accomplished when distractions are eliminated.

3. Do not let mail go unopened. Each day open it and designate its' destination.

4. Throw out fliers and junk mail immediately. It should not even touch your desktop.

5. Keep a desktop file for "bills to be paid" in plain view (use a clear folder) and put bills in the file as they arrive. Mark the due dates on a piece of paper and place inside, on top of the bills so the dates are visible.

6. File items that need attention within the week in a clear folder behind your bills file. Every Friday, go through the file and make sure you have accomplished your "pending" items.

7. Set up a desktop "waiting for response" file.

8. There should be a desktop "work in process" file or "orders to process" file.

9. All other files are located in a file cabinet, within easy reach of your desk. Organize them by category, not alphabetically. For instance, put all your product files in one area and label them Product-Materials, Product-Sources, Product-Shows, Taxes-State, Taxes-Sales and Taxes-Accounting. This will eliminate the need to search your entire filing system because you cannot remember a name.

10. Keep a current list of "things to do" on top of your

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