Part of the: Office Fitout Collection

Cleaning! Although there are those few people who actually get a fix out of the dreaded spring clean or the end of year pack-up, let’s be honest even the mere idea of organising and cleaning the house or office sends chills down our spine. But with the New Year rapidly approaching (we still cant believe its already November) we are all thinking about what we need to clear, store and de-clutter around the office to finish the year and start afresh in 2016.

Sometimes it’s hard to always be on top of your game and we all know that if we just kept up with the filing, archived our paperwork and processed our outstanding documents life would be so simple. But we are all guilty of this habit and paperwork, junk and other things that we haven’t even looked at since last year seem to just build up and accumulate over time and next minute you know, you are in a pile of chaos.

Clutter and Chaos

In today’s open plan office layouts there really is no hiding when it comes to messy desktops. But besides the office judgment, having a cluttered environment can have a major impact on your overall health and performance. Besides the fact that your desk may look like a bomb has hit it and the only visible desk space is for your keyboard, according to some research there is a direct correlation between chaos and clutter as a messy workspace undermines productivity and motivation. According to the National Association of Professional Organisations the average person spends 4.3 hours per week searching for paperwork, which is not only a waste of time but also hinders productivity, decreases your quality of work and adds unnecessary stress. Instead of working in a cluttered environment all the time and only organising your workspace when you are forced to at the end of the year, implementing these simple organisational tips into your everyday life can help increase productivity and reduce stress.

Back to the basics

Take time initially to work out those trouble spots. Re-evaluate the important items and eliminate those that don’t need to be on your desktop or better chuck them away. If you haven’t used certain things for a period of time or better forgotten they even exist get rid of them! If you are the kind of person who tries to organise your space only to end up worse than when you actually started, then start from scratch. Remove everything from you office workbench and store them in a box next to you. Over the next few days only retrieve the items that are essential. Put these back on your desk and slowly overtime you will realise the items remaining in the box can be disregarded.

Schedule a Home

We all love a good calendar reminder and organising your workspace requires consistent effort and reminders. Everything on your desk should have a home and a place to live. Establish these living areas, add a Jasonl mobile pedestal or caddy so each day items are returned to where they belong as items that don’t have a place to live end up living on your desk.

JasonL Office Furniture - Mobile Caddies and Credenza Storage for Offices

Figure out which items are the most important and frequently used and place these in the top drawer or cabinet closest to you. Store similar objects together for example all pens, pencils and stationary in one area, paperwork in another ect. Create filing systems and label each one and for bonus points sort in alphabetical order. Click here to view our different storage solutions.

Jasonl 3 x 5 Cube Office Shelves Storage - Commercial Quality

Set a reminder 30 minutes a day or an hour every Monday and Friday morning to clear and store everything off your desk to reset and organise.

Create systems

Think of your desk as your mini business and establish a left-to-right-workflow system to help organise paper work. Create a system where work comes in through the left, process it in the middle and clear out on the right. This way work completed is out of the way and your desk is cleared for what comes next. Cable wire systems- There is nothing more frustrating than tangled wires and cable cords and an area that can be easily resolved. Jasonl offers a range of organizational systems that are inbuilt or can be added onto any office bench. Labeling cords can also help keep things neat and organized for when you need to be mobile and disconnect.

Under Desk Cable Management tray

Umbilical Cable Management - Ceiling to Desk, Ceiling to Floor

Trash it

Believe it or not but having your trash can within reach can help you reduce your clutter considerably. Make sure the trash can is not in a place that requires you to get up or shoot some paper hoops into the bin as quick and easy disposal of unwanted paper is a simple solution.

JasonL Personal Rubbish Bins - under Desk

Scan it, shred it, get rid of it.

We live in the digital age and whilst I am guilty of this too, papers and documents can all be scanned and filed online. You don’t need 99% of the papers you are saving so scan all-important documents and create filing systems for all necessary hard copy items. This not only helps with organising your desk top, makes retrieving information more efficient but also is beneficial to the environment.