Despite your best intentions, every office accumulates a certain amount of clutter and disorganization. It's pretty much inevitable when you're busy, trying to keep up with all of your business obligations. Fortunately, spring is a great time to get your office organized. Getting your office organized is even more important now. Whether your staff is working from home, returning to the office as stay-at-home orders relax or, in the case of essential businesses, doing a mix of work from home and in the office, having an organized office or home office will make everything easier and more manageable.
11 Steps to Spring Clean Your Office
The words “organize” and “spring cleaning” typically make people think of physical cleaning, but digital cleaning and organization is just as important. Whether you start with the physical or digital depends upon your preference – and where you are. If you're using a work laptop or a VPN to your office desktop, you might want to start with the digital clean up. If, however, you want your office to be ready for when the state's shelter-at-home orders relax, you might want to take advantage of the lull. If you can do the physical office organization and clean up alone, going to your place of work while the location is formally closed is a good idea. Just make sure to wipe doorknobs and surfaces down with disinfectant before you start and after you finish.
5 Digital Clean-up Tips
Back everything up before you start just in case.
Clean up your digital desktop. Anything other than shortcuts on your desktop slows down your computer's performance because it uses RAM. Break the habit of storing files there. If you absolutely have to keep things on your desktop as a reminder, make it a shortcut to the files' actual locations.
Reorganize your digital files. Make new folders as needed.
Clean up draft files. Saving multiple versions of a document can make sense but once it's finalized you don't need all of those versions.
Get your inbox organized. Delete or file everything so each day you are cleaning it out and going to inbox zero.
6 Easy Office Cleaning Tips
The next step to office spring cleaning means tackling the physical office space.
Start by sorting every bit of paper on your desk into “trash,” “file,” and “pass on to someone else.” Once you're left with just “file” you can move on from there.
For easy access and to decrease physical clutter, scanning and digitizing documents is the best solution. That way they can be accessed by any team member you grant permission – even if they're working remotely. With today's COVID-19 outbreak, that's even more important than ever. Have a large number of files? Contact us about Storage Quarter's document digitization service, which can involve either us storing the documents, after assigning a code for easy retrieval, or shredding them.
Once your desk has been cleared, give it a good cleaning. Even if your goal is to keep paperwork minimal going forward, you might want to invest in a file rack, file tray, etc. to keep things organized until you digitize, shred or pass on essential documents.
Create a WOR file for items “waiting for a response.” A “meeting” folder can also be useful. Just drop into it everything you need to have answered and addressed in meetings for easy access.
Make a weekly appointment – with yourself. Set aside a specific time each week to file or scan paperwork so it doesn't pile up. Shred or toss anything you don't absolutely need.
Tackle your desk drawers next and follow the same sort, purge, scan, etc. procedure. Set up email filters to automate filing what you can.
Secure Your Documents with Storage Quarters
Store your records with the document security experts at Storage Quarters. Whether you want to store your hardcopy files or digitize your financial records, Storage Quarters will keep your vital records safe and secure. To get a free quote or book our services, contact Storage Quarters today.