Keeping an office organized can seem a lot like herding cats. Fix one mess and another one pops up, then another. How can you keep your office organized and get the team to buy into the program?

These seven office organization tips will help!

1. Declutter

Straightening up an office can be overwhelming. Where do you start? First, take a walk around the office and look at all the clutter. Decide what can be thrown out. Cubicles overflowing with cat posters, sticky notes, and old coffee mugs can quickly be spruced up. Set up large trash cans around the office and have a purge party! That office hole puncher that shows up under a thick pile of papers? Give it a home in a central location, along with other office items that are communally shared.

2. Establish Work Areas

Identify which activities occur where. Then determine what equipment needs to be moved. You may have a central location for photocopying, posting mail, and other communal office activities. Clearly label areas and create space for everything you’ll need, from extra reams of paper to stamps to paper clips.

3. Label, Label, Label!

Shared office items should be labeled so they’re less likely to disappear. Designate bins, shelves, drawers and other spaces for supplies, manuals, tools and decorations. Make things easy to find and simple to put away! This helps keep things neat and organized. This may sound like a no-brainer, but eventually things start to disappear. Labeling helps everyone keep organized and when something is misplaced, it’s easy to find a home for it.

4. Manage Documents

Who doesn’t have at least one paper hoarder in the office? Maybe the team holds onto documents because they can’t be recycled or they simply don’t know what to do with them. Create a filing and shredding system. Provide one or more shredders depending on the size of the office. Ask everyone to organize their own filing and choose a common area for frequently shared documents to file.

5. Storage

Every office has that box of seasonal decorations or leftover party banners. Find a space for things that are used occasionally or yearly. Get rid of stuff you haven’t used in the past 24 months. Ask a team member to be in charge of purging and updating once a year!

6. Schedule Regular Cleaning Times

There’s nothing like the feeling of surveying your well organized, shiny, clean office…only to have it cluttered up again in a month or so! Scheduling regular office cleaning is a must to keep your nice, neat office, well, nice and neat! Enlist the team every quarter to clean up. Play some music, provide snacks, make it a casual dress day; in other words, invite the team to be part of the process and make it fun! BONUS: Taking an hour or two to stop working and clean up changes the atmosphere, allows team members to talk and joke, let loose a little, and build morale without even realizing it!

7. Update Equipment and Furniture

Consolidate the printer, fax machine and scanner into an all-in-one solution. Get rid of the old mismatched filing cabinets and purchase new furniture and accessories that will help keep the office organized and easily maintained. Now is the time to decide on replacing desks, storage and filing cabinets, and other office equipment. Coordinate color and style for a streamlined look. This is your team’s home-away-from-home, so you might as well make it a place where they want to work!

**BONUS TIP**

Go ergonomic! Design a space using ergonomic principles such as maintaining neutral posture with the proper chairs and desks, providing adequate lighting to avoid eye strain, and freeing up space to move and stretch within a work space or cubicle. Going ergonomic helps cut down on office injuries, aches, and pains, and also creates an organized and more comfortable office that’s easier to maintain!

A cluttered, unorganized office is not an ideal work space by any means. Declutter, get organized, and invest in new office furniture and equipment to make your office a place to get things done!

The pros at Nolt’s Office Furniture would love to assist you in creating and maintaining a well-organized office. Stop by our showroom today to see how we can help!