Organise your office in these quick easy steps!

If you have a lot of clutter and mess in your office it can make you feel disorganised, demotivated and less productive. Doing a de-clutter can help save you time looking through the piles of papers on your desk scouring for that important file and will help you feel re-energised and focused! Here's how:

1. Schedule time for a spring clean

Do you have lots of different equipment in your office that you could consolidate? Instead of having different devices stacked and balanced on various tables and cupboards in your office collecting dust, invest in an all-in-one printer that will work as your printer, scanner, fax machine and photocopier. It will save on maintenance costs in the long run too.

Empty your office desk drawers. Tip the lot out! Throw out the empty chocolate wrappers (yes, we all have them!) and start to organise the contents into categories and designate a drawer for each one. For example, one of the drawers could be a stationary drawer that contains the post-it notes, staple removers, staplers, scissors, spare notepads and paper clips that you don’t want clogging up your desk space.

Do you have a letter or in-tray on your desk? Sort the papers into piles, shred anything out-of-date and no longer relevant or needed, categorise the remaining information and file anything you need to keep or alternatively scan in the file and store it on your computer instead of taking up space in a filing cabinet.

Is your desk tidy? If you have a pen holder filled with pens that no longer work, throw them away. If you have scraps of paper that are no longer useful, place these in the recycling box or shred. If you find your desk swamped with staplers, paper clips, post-it notes, pencils and note pads, assess whether you need them all to hand and if not, place them into your designated desk drawers. Keep only what you use regularly on your desk.

2. Tidy your hard copy filing system

Now to turn your attention to the filing cabinets / systems. Do these contain only the most relevant information that you need? How up-to-date is the information you have stored in them? Start by going through one drawer at a time and shredding and / or recycling any information that is out-of-date and no longer relevant. Decide if you need to keep the original document or if it is best to scan in your file and hold an electronic copy instead thereby freeing up space in your hard copy filing system. Make sure you keep the legal documents that you need because there are specific legal timeframes for storing these. Organise your filing system into different categories, such as a section for clients, core business, finance, etc. Consider putting your files into alphabetical order or get creative and colour code!

3. Assess your office storage

Do you find you don’t have enough space for everything? Have a look at alternative solutions. For example, a business owner I recently spoke to said he only had a small office and very little space for office storage, filing cabinets and cupboards so I suggested wall shelving and under desk storage. It was a simple idea and makes the most of the space you have. Shelves are cost effective and can hold all your binders, books and folders. If you have the space, look at different types of storage units, cabinets, cupboards and bookcases and purchase only what is appropriate for the items you want to store in them. Before ordering, assess them for size and if they will fit in the space required.

If you have existing storage, have a clear out. Office storage cupboards are havens for old equipment, such as old keyboards and mouse mats that can take up much needed space. If anything is still in working order but is simply older technology, then consider donating to local charities. Many rely on donations for their office staff.

4. Manage your post

If you have a pile of unopened mail on your desk, try forming a new habit of opening the mail as soon as it arrives. Put junk mail straight into the recycling box and initiate any mail forwarding if this is relevant. For important mail, such as bills and client and business information, action or file these as appropriate. If you don’t need to keep a hard copy of the mail but still need to have it on file, consider scanning and storing an electronic copy instead.

Following the office de-clutter, your work space will be a much more positive and productive environment for you to work in. Remember to schedule in a quarterly de-clutter to maintain it. Good luck!