Declutter Your Office Before Your Boss Does

Having a declutter day may also involve reducing clutter in other areas of your life besides your home. If you work in an office, taking time for project declutter office should be a top priority as it will improve your efficiency and do wonders for getting work done quickly. Your boss will also be impressed that you are an efficient worker with a well organized office cubicle.

Are you a culprit when it comes to not being able to locate a file that you need in order to complete urgent work? Or how about that professional development course you wanted to go on but couldn’t find the promotion pamphlet?

Bet you can relate to a colleague you know who has the last 10 years of filing in his office cubicle? Sometimes it is hard to find him or her to chat because he or she is buried in a mountain of paperwork. Or maybe you are the resident colleague who has mountains of paperwork in his office cubicle?

Declutter Your Office – Let’s Get Started

If any of the above applies to you, then it’s time to get operation declutter office under way. These are all things that we don’t need extra hassles with when we are already busy at work. Having a clean and tidy office means that you can save time by not having to spend endless hours searching for something. If you deal with clients for your work, having an organized work space leaves a much better impression. The cleaners will also thank you for it.

Deciding What to Keep and What to Throw Away

Similar to our declutter day where we cleaned out our closet, we can take a similar approach to cleaning our office. Whether you are organizing your home office or office cubicle at your workplace, the same tasks should apply.

Firstly, in order to reduce clutter we will need to decide what we to throw out and what we want to keep. Sort your stuff into two piles, one for stuff you want to keep and the other pile for stuff that you want to throw away. For the stuff that you want to throw away, get yourself a box and start to throw away stuff that you don’t need into this box.

Setting Up Your Office Properly

Secondly, the key to making an office space workable is to have a system in place for allowing you to find things. Your computer is usually the hub of your workspace. So it is important to make sure that you keep your computer area clear. No matter what, make sure that you keep the area around your computer clear of stuff.

Your Desk – Only the Essentials

You should aim to have only essential items on your desk. If you have a current project on the go, then files and documents related to that project should be easily accessible. If you have files and documents relating to past projects that have been completed and that you no longer have a need to access, then file these items away.

Transition to a Paperless Office

Another good approach is to aim for a paperless office rather than spend a lot of time organizing paper clutter. A lot of companies these days have paperless records management systems. If you work in a company which has a records management system in place, then it is a good idea to adopt the philosophy of having a paperless office. After all these systems are designed so that you can find documents easily online rather than in physical form.

Review Office Storage Areas

Review the storage area around your office. Do you have an adequate storage area? What access do you have to cupboards and shelves? Are they in close proximity to your work area so that you can easily access files when you need to? If you find that you don’t have enough storage area, then it may be time to get yourself a new filing cabinet or more cupboard space.

Review the Layout of Your Office

Once you have adequate storage space, review the layout of your office. It may be necessary to reorganize the storage area around you. If there are files and documents that you need to access on a daily basis, make sure that they are easily and quickly accessible to you.

Locate Documents Quickly and Easily

Being able to locate documents quickly and easily is another element of a well organized office space. Have a look at your filing cabinet and see how you have organized your files. Do these file categories still make sense?

File Projects

Decide on whether you should file your documents by project or by chronological order. It really depends what type of work you are involved in. You may need to file your documents by client in the first instance. The litmus test of your filing system is how easily you can find documents when you need them.

That’s all for now with decluttering your office.


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