Have you just moved office or are about to get an office move underway? You’ll probably be looking for some easy office organisation ideas to get your new space sorted.
Moving office provides you with a perfect opportunity to get rid of old technology, curb the cable chaos and ditch the excess supplies and old files. You want to create an office space where you step in and feel ready to take on the day’s work, ready to be productive, ready to get it done!
Unfortunately, your office might currently make you feel overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with the lack of space to do your work, overwhelmed by the chaos and overwhelmed by the clutter. When we feel overwhelmed, we are not in the right mind-frame to be productive. This then causes stress because you know you need to do your work. It can be a vicious cycle!
If your feelings are more inclined towards the latter – feelings of being overwhelmed, this blog is for you! I have put together 12 great ways to organise your office and turn your feelings back to feeling ready. We will look at my first 6 tips in this blog – Part 1.
Let’s dive right in!
1. Minimise Your Belongings
The easiest way to get organised is to go through your belongings. Get everything out, lay it out on the floor so you can see it all and sort through it.
This shouldn’t be a quick task and if you are doing it correctly, it may be difficult. But it is such an important step!
One of the biggest reasons I find clients are disorganised is because they haven’t tried to work through the items, they already have sitting in their office spaces (or in other parts of their home!)
Get real with yourself and get rid of the things that no longer serve you. They may no longer serve you a purpose or they may no longer serve you with joy. Getting rid of these unneeded items can help free up a ton of space. Take those items and toss, recycle, remove, or donate them.
This includes office decor!!! If the decor is dusty and shabby it is time to move on! It clearly does not serve you enough for you to keep it looking nice and fresh, so it is time for it to go.
2. Establish Work Zones and Maximise the Space
After decluttering, the next step is to figure out how you want to set up your home office. This is a great time to establish ‘work zones’.
What I mean by this is, figure out which areas of the office are for what. You will obviously have a primary workspace (let’s assume the desk, this is where all the action happens), a resource area (the drawers/cupboards for your pens, sticky notes, paper clips etc.) and possibly a filing area (a filing cabinet, binders etc.)
Think about how you would like each area to work and flow, try to identify spaces that may not be fully utilised and find ways to use them to help solve clutter problems in this new work zone.
This step includes exploring different creative ways to use the space you have and utilise it in the best way possible.
For example, if you have letters continuously stacked on your desk, installing a letter organiser on an open wall above the filing cabinet may be the perfect solution to maximise space and create a more organised life while keeping it in the ‘work zones’ you have created.
3. Keep it Close
Now that you have gone through your belongings, established your work zones and you have thought about how you want to optimise the space you do have, it’s time to find the items that you use consistently throughout the day and position them in a convenient way so that they are nice and close to you.
This will stop you having to look for things halfway through a task as those items will now have a set place within the work zone and will be in close proximity to you.
Things that you do not use often but are still important are the items that can live off the desk, in drawers or cupboards to further declutter the space.
4. Rethink Your Filing Systems
Now being in 2022, I want you to really consider whether having paper bills, paper receipts, paper invoices…is the way to go. Paper is one of the most cluttering things to take over office spaces and it happens so easily too.
Anything you can go paperless with, do it. It is better in so many ways!
You are saving paper (and of course trees), saving yourself space, saving you the hassle of trying to find that specific bill you need, saving yourself time as you don’t need to file papers away…there are many benefits, so save yourself from insanity and go paperless!
There are many online storage apps – Google drive, OneDrive, iCloud just to name a few. Try out which one you like best and set it up with folders to organise your electronic documents and paperwork. Sign up for electronic ways of receiving them in the first place. Where you don’t have that option, use a scanner app on your phone, scan the important paper documents to import them onto your cloud storage and then shred the paper version!
We are so lucky with technology these days that it can be done in many ways! But really, other than being stubborn (sorry someone had to say it), you have no excuse not to go paperless!
5. Organise Your Drawers & Cupboards
Just like any other drawer or cupboard in the house, the office ones can get very easily cluttered and disorganised without having some strategies in place. My favourite go to’s are:
- Drawer dividers; like these ones here from Kmart they keep things in place and stop items from getting mixed together.
- Storage containers or bins; like these one here from Howards Storage World again they are a great way to keep items together and maximise the space.
- Spice jars; like these ones here from Kmart will allow you to keep small, easily lost items such as paper clips, staples and board pins kept together and will make it easy for you to grab one when needed.
Using some of these hacks will allow you to have a clutter free feel in your office as all those loose items will be out of sight but you can still rest assured knowing they are organised!
6. Use a Label Maker
One of the inventions that I absolutely love is the label maker! It is an incredible tool to bring organisation to any space.
In the office, it can be used for a plethora of things.
Want to label the drawers or cupboards so you know exactly what is stored in each other?
Label it.
Want to label your binders for storing different information?
Label it.
Want to label your wires so you know which plug to pull without turning anything you need off?
Label it.
So many options and all are such a great way to keep your office organised and easy to work in!
Coming up in Part 2…how to tackle desktops, printers and wire tangles, and put systems in place to keep your office clutter-free.
Ducks in a row is a Melbourne based home and office organisation business that help you implement simple systems that your work colleagues, or family, can follow.
If your office is on the move in or from Melbourne, Pinder Tower Movers is here to help with our office relocation service. With over 30 years of removals experience, we’ll help you plan and co-ordinate a smooth office move, with minimum disruption to your business.