You may be pleasantly surprised at the positive effect cleaning your office can have on your daily work environment. When you have to take the time to sift through various mounds of clutter to find valuable information, it takes away time that could actually be spent doing your job or gathering the key information to complete an important deadline. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have an organized office when you’re entertaining clients, either. Most people would rather not deal with someone who just can’t find basic items in their office or work area, no matter how valuable you supposedly are.
Below are several ideas that will help you declutter your office and help you and your business run efficiently.
1. Make sure you have a clear path from your door to your desk and filing cabinets without bumping into anything along the way.
2. Evaluate your desktop. Does it work for you and the size of your office? An oversized desk can make your office space feel cluttered, but a desk that’s too small could be the reason behind those piles of paper on your floor.
3. If your office has a lot of empty space, consider adding a nice table and simple chairs for meetings. This provides a great meeting place and keeps everyone focused on the meeting rather than being distracted by office items.
4. Do you have essentials in your office that allow you to function properly, such as a properly sized file cabinet, a table for your printer or fax machine, etc.?
5. Place a printer stand next to your desk so you can free up valuable space from your actual desktop workspace.
6. Do you have lots of books and papers lying around? Hang up some shelves and organize all those items and get them out of the way.
7. Look at how the furniture in your office is arranged. If you constantly need to get up from your chair and walk to the filing cabinet, this could be the reason why piles of papers accumulate on your desk all the time. Maybe you could move the desk closer to the file area or point to pour.
8. Decide what really needs to be on the desk. The key to allowing you to have a clutter-free desk is to control your paperwork. Labeling your project files and making them accessible will ensure that you actually keep your papers where they belong instead of having them scattered all over your desk. Standard stacking trays labeled “in box” and “out box” are also helpful for saving space and keeping things organized.
9. Once you’ve fixed your desk top, move on to the drawers. Most office supply stores offer a wide variety of desk organizers and even trays that are specifically designed to fit inside your desk drawers and keep you organized. Pens, thumbtacks, clips, and other office supplies can get out of hand without the help of the right organization tools.
Taking the initial step of organizing your office is always the most difficult. However, once you get control of your area, it’s easy to maintain as long as you take a few minutes, either at the end of the day or throughout the day, to put everything where it belongs. A few free moments dedicated to organization every day will ensure that your office and/or desk no longer spiral out of control. Create an office of convenience to work for you, not against you. Remember, you want to work smarter, not harder.
