The Child Care Business Owner Institute

3 Easy Ways To De-Clutter Your Office Space

I will be the first to admit this: My office is not always organized. In fact, I get so so busy mentoring staff, talking with parents, preparing meals and I forget all about my office.

Furthermore, when I get the time to sit in my office, the office tends to be more of a quiet place for me to re- group.

As you may already know, I recently moved into a new location and my new office has observation windows. The observation windows, motivates me to keep my office organized, because everyone that walks pass those observation windows get to take a peak at my office.

Now that I focus on keeping my office clean and organized, I feel more focused. In fact, I find that when my office is a mess, I feel all over the place. What about you?

Are you ready to DE-clutter your office and get focused? I am no expert at office organization, so I decided to do some research and I have found some great office organization tips for you:

1. Divide Your Work Space into Zones. Organization expert Peter Walsh suggests that every professional first ask themselves, What do I want from my office space, and is it meeting my needs? After establishing how you want and need to use the space, set up zones for your daily functions. You may require a workspace for your computer, a library area for your research, a storage area for supplies and a filing area for your archives. This will provide a foundation for a more efficient use of space. ~Forbes Magazine
2. Re-Evaluate Your belongings. Whether you’re starting from scratch or not, you need to evaluate what you actually need at your desk, and what can go. Clutter exists because our brain tricks us into thinking everything’s important. As you go through your stuff, ask yourself: does this item have a purpose? Is it redundant our outdated? Are you keeping it because you need it, or because you might need it? Did you even remember it was there? From the answers to those questions, you should have a good idea of what to do with it—even if you don’t like the answer.
3. Reading Materials.
   • Relocate them. Magazines and newspapers on top of the desk rob you of valuable real estate. It is unlikely that you are going to read a magazine as soon as it arrives. Look around your office. How about moving them to the credenza or the top of a filing cabinet?
   • Decide how long to keep them. Once six months have passed, recycle them, even if you have not yet read them.
   • Unsubscribe to the magazines that you hardly glance at. Be honest with yourself and let go of unread magazines that take up valuable space.
   • Read a magazine at lunch or while waiting for an appointment. Before leaving on a plane trip,  stuff your briefcase with unread magazines. Out they go as soon as you read them; no magazines make the return trip.
   • Tear Out Articles – The fastest way to go through a magazine is to glance at the table of contents and decide if there are any compelling articles. Rip them out and toss the magazine.
   • Pass them along to doctors’ offices, hospitals and places where others can enjoy them.
   • Recycle whenever possible.

Now it is time to get to work on your office space! You will find more tips below in the resource links below. My goal is to simply inspire you to get that office space organized, so that you can have more productive Business days.

Shiketa

Sources:

Life Hacker

Forbes

Its time to Get organized

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