Many of us are finding ourselves going back to work now that coronavirus-related restrictions have eased. While businesses are doing their best to ensure that employees stay safe with a thorough cleaning and sanitation policy, they may be neglecting something else: the clutter many employees have left behind when lockdowns were imposed.
It might not have an impact on their physical health and wellness, but having a cluttered office affects many aspects of an employee’s time spent at the office. Below we’ll discuss how making disposal bins your best friend at work can help your business.
Why You Should Encourage Decluttering at Work
There are many reasons you should encourage your employees or colleagues to declutter their workspaces once they return.
1. You’ll improve your productivity.
Do you ever find yourself looking for important documents or just that elusive stapler from the amount of clutter on your desk? It might seem like mere seconds to you, but in the business world, every second counts. The more often you have to do this, the less time you spend doing your assigned tasks, and the lesser wages you earn.
2. It calms you down.
There’s a reason minimalism is gaining traction in the design world. The clean lines, minimal use of furniture and lack of clutter calms people down and gives them peace of mind. It also allows for clarity in your thoughts and deeds. Imagine what that kind of mindset can do for you at work.
3. It shows your organization in a good light.
They say first impressions last and having a cluttered and disorganized office won’t give a good one when clients come to see you. Encouraging cleanliness and tidiness at work shows that you care about your customers. It shows that you take the time to ensure that you have a positive work environment and a non-toxic company culture.
Tips on How to Declutter Your Workspace.
We’re sure by now you’ve heard of Marie Kondo and her KonMari Method of decluttering. It’s typically a two-step process where you identify things that give you joy and let go of things that don’t. The second step is to put those “joyful” things in places that are easily accessible. But it might be difficult to find joy in a mountain of paperwork, so here are some other ways you can declutter your office space.
1. Do you need it?
While the KonMari Method encourages finding joy in your things at home, we’d encourage you to look at their usefulness. If it’s not something you need to get your work done, time to dispose of it.
2. Can you reuse it?
While you need to be ruthless about an item’s usefulness, you also have to consider the environmental impact of just throwing it away. Reevaluate its value and if you think you can upcycle or recycle it, do so. You can also pool together some of your colleague’s unwanted items and do a swap meet. After all, what might be useless to you could be beneficial to someone else.
3. Can you digitize it?
Let’s face it. Most of the clutter on your desk is probably because of that mountain of paperwork you can’t seem to get rid of. When you’re decluttering, you need to sort through all those papers and see which ones can be digitized. You can either do it through a notes app on your phone or scan it through to your computer.
Sorting through all your things at work can be intimidating because you’ve gotten so used to it. Take a “before” picture of what’s currently going on at your desk and compare it to how it looks when it’s neat and tidy. You also don’t have to declutter in one go. Do a little a day, and soon you’ll reap the benefits of having an uncluttered workspace.