Whether you’re working from the office or from home, organizing your office supplies is an essential element of a successful business. Office supplies may be the most basic building blocks of a company, but they’re imperative parts of your daily office routine. Imagine not knowing where you stored the extra staplers or where you stacked the boxes of A4 paper? These little nuisances can really slow down your workflow.
If you’re currently working in an office that’s overcome by messy chaos and disarray, this comprehensive guide to organizing your office supplies will save the day. An organized office leads to a healthy work environment, and can do wonders for both boosting your productivity and reducing stress. Say goodbye to clutter and hello to the power of organized bliss!
1. Labels are Important
Labeling everything in your office makes life easier. This is where your trusty label maker steps in as your assistant. By sticking labels on all the drawers and file cabinets, you and your co-workers will have a much more organized way of finding the staple pins, punchers, and printer paper.
Labels are the perfect pair for filing cabinets as well. Imagine rummaging through all your files and not knowing where to find that one document you need. An organized filing cabinet is a common sign of a well-organized office. Categorize files alphabetically and with colour codes. You can never be too precise with regard to labeling documents, as it speeds up productivity in the long run and saves you a bunch of time.
In addition to physical labels, don’t forget to take this practice into the digital world as well. Your desktop will thank you for deleting unnecessary files, sorting, and categorizing all your documents with document management solutions. While you’re at it, why not dive into your email inbox, and label everything there too? After all, most of our work is online nowadays, so an organized desktop and email inbox will speed up your productivity by tenfold.
2. Untangle the Cords
Since everything is digital now, everyone uses monitors, computer CPUs, laptops, phones, computer mice, and chargers. Our desks are usually peppered with countless cords that entangle with each other into nearly irreparable clusters. The frustration that stems from tangled cords and wires is colossal.
As mentioned before, reducing clutter can eliminate stress, so be prepared to spend some time untangling all these wires. In order to maintain a neat appearance, hiding them is your best option. Most desks have a slot to hide them, but if that isn’t the case with yours, using binder clips to group them together works as an alternative. This also saves you the trouble of reaching for that once cord that always falls off your desk and lands in an alternate dimension.
In addition to keeping all your cords and wires untangled, labeling them is vital as well. Use adhesive paper in various colors to create DIY labels for the cords that you use regularly. The different colors of paper will help you distinguish which cord belongs to your phone charger and which one belongs to your computer. With this simple yet effective organization hack, you’ll never unplug the wrong cable again.
3. Maximize Wall Space
If you work in an office cubicle or near a wall, you’ve hit the jackpot when it comes to extra space. You can utilize a pegboard, shelves, or corkboard to store mail, electronics, scissors, tape, stamps, staplers, punchers, pens, sticky notes, sanitizer – you name it!
In case your desk is not located near a free wall, collaborate with your colleagues to create a shared shelf or board.
Maximizing your office’s wall space will benefit you in many ways. First off, your office essentials will be in reach, and secondly, your desk will be clutter free. Gone are the days wherein you wondered where you left your scissors.
4. Go Fully Digital
Reducing our use of paper doesn’t only get rid of all the clutter of sticky notes and whatnot; it is also extremely helpful to the environment. Using less paper saves trees. Saving trees is saving the environment. Saving the environment is saving ourselves as well.
The solution to clearing your desk of the mountain of paper is simple: Go fully digital! There are tons of apps that aim to help you take digital notes. This allows you to take notes faster and sync your information seamlessly across different devices. Moreover, you can copy, paste, merge, and share notes without the extra hassle of using a copier machine or printer.
5. Use Clear Bins for Important Items
Do you ever have those moments when you forget where you put that one important file that you needed? How about that time when you couldn’t remember where you kept that one specific flash drive that you needed for your upcoming company meeting? Eliminate this challenge by organizing important items in transparent bins. This method keeps the clutter away while maintaining the visibility of your office essentials.
6. Create a Mail Station
Take your office organization skills to the next level by creating a mail station. This can apply to both your home and company office. Utilizing a mail station can dramatically reduce the mess on your desk as it serves as a place where you can sort through your incoming and outgoing mail.
Make your mail station even more efficient and appealing by using recycled material in it. By recycled material, we mean old books. If you’ve got a collection of old hardbound books or folders that you aren’t using anymore, you can repurpose them by painting them or wrapping them in decorative fabric. All you need is a little imagination to render useful and environment friendly mail bins.
7. Use Containers
We all have small trinkets in the office that are vital to our daily workflow. Where would we be without paperclips, staple pins, thumb tacks, binder clips, tape, markers, pens, and markers, right?
Regardless of being office essentials, these little objects can often be found sprawled across desks in a complete disarray. Solve this issue by storing all your office supplies in containers, such as bakes, drawers, dividers, and bins. Storing them out of sight yet within reach will give your office a clean and sleek look.
8. Set Up a Charging Station
Your office is full of devices that need to be charged on a regular basis. Instead of charging all your electronics, like your laptop, cellphone, and tablet, at your desk, designate a specific area for this task. This way, you’ll keep your desk clear and you’ll have an organized shelf or table for charging your gadgets.
9. Limit the Items On Your Desk
Let’s admit it, no matter how organized of a person you are, our work stations will always be somewhat of an organized mess. Oftentimes, it’s covered in a mountain of things that aren;t even related to work. Since work tends to be chaotic at times, people usually eat at their desks, right in front of their work. Consequently, our desks become littered with cups, bottles, food wrappers, and whatever else doesn’t belong there. With all the pressure from work tasks and duties, it’s easy to just put everything down on our desks, until we can no longer locate the actual desk underneath all the mess. What’s important is that we remind ourselves that productivity dwindles when our workspace is cluttered.
Let’s stray away from this desk mess culture, and work towards limiting the items on your desk to work items only. A clean work station can motivate you to work more efficiently while eliminating stress altogether.
10. Conduct a Paper Detox
Notes, documents, and random pieces of paper can pile up in your office faster than the speed of light. Before everything piles up into colossal mountains of paper, considered going on a paper detox. It may be a gruelling task, but it’s important to face it rather than to drown in it. Sort through the clutter and determine which papers are worth keeping, and which ones should be shredded or tossed.
Your file cabinets, bins, folders, and drawers will be eternally grateful for the breathing space you’ll be giving them. Remember that getting rid of old paper that you no longer need makes the necessary space for the important things that are coming.
Let’s Get Organized!
Once you’ve successfully organized your office, it’s time to pat yourself on the back and move onto the next phase of optimizing your company. In any office setting, it is imperative to be equipped with high tech electronics and appliances, as it benefits both your employees and the output for your business.
At Busys.ca, we proudly offer printers from leaders in the technology industry, such as Canon, Konica Minolta, and Toshiba. We carry the latest, most innovative, and state-of-the-art office essentials. If you have been searching for the most high-end printers that suit your company’s specific needs, Busys has got you covered.
Click here to learn more about our high quality and advanced printers.
