According to research, workers waste an average of 16–55 minutes every day looking for things they have misplaced.
That’s a lot of time that could be spent more productively.
Untidiness and excess clutter are two of the biggest problems. They are particularly common in businesses that have downsized to smaller premises or haven’t decluttered in a while.
Here are 8 tips for decluttering your space and keeping things tidy.
1. Identify the things you’re using regularly
Make a note of what you’re using on a daily or weekly basis. Each of these items should have a permanent home in your workspace.2. Remove everything else
The remaining items can either be moved to a more appropriate space on site, or packed up in boxes and moved into storage.3. Remove paper files and keep digital ones instead
Hold on to your digital files and put the paper printouts you’re not using into storage. Digital files and filing systems are easier to keep track of and will help to reduce the amount of paper you have lying around.4. Transfer ‘old media’ to hard drives or cloud storage
Repeated use of old media, like CDs can cause scratching and damage. Transfer your CD and DVD files onto hard drives or cloud storage. This means you can store them all in one easily accessible place and there’ll be no risk of them getting damaged or going missing. You can keep the original disks as a backup, but remove them from your workspace and put them into secure storage.5. Be selective about what you keep on site
Don’t hold onto anything just for the sake of it. Take the view that if it’s not being used regularly, it’s creating clutter and it needs to go somewhere else.6. Give each permanent thing a home
All of the things you’re keeping on site and use regularly should be well organised and within easy reach. To keep things more organised, you can use things like:- Sectioned drawer inserts
- Filing cabinets and box files
- Plastic wallets and binders
- Shelving
- Paper trays
- A desk tidy for pens, scissors etc
- Media racks.
7. Take on a storage space rental
A storage unit can be a great place to store things that take up a lot of room in your workspace, but which you don’t need access to all the time. Some of the things you might consider putting into storage include:- Unused computer equipment, such as spare printers
- Old machines you’re keeping for spares
- Boxed paperwork
- Seasonal stock and items
- Old media backups
- Unused office furniture
- Tools and equipment you don’t need immediately.
