3 min read
Take The Time To Declutter Home and Office
Springtime seems to give us all a little bit more energy – and the motivation to get organized! If you’ve done a bit of spring cleaning this year, you might be in the mood to get rid of some things around the home and office. It’s rewarding to declutter and start the new season fresh. Here are some tips to make it easier!
START WITH YOUR HOME.
- Start Simple. Give away one item a day. Fill one trash bag a week. I have a friend that put the giveaway item is his car each day. At the end of the week, he made a trip to Goodwill. Filling up a trash bag is easy. . .check out the cabinet in your bathroom, throw away old bottles, cans and ointments.
- Be Forceful. Go through your closet and give away any clothes you’re not wearing anymore!
- Tackle a dresser. Go through the drawers of your dresser. Organize the clothes and throw out old, torn or stretched-out items.
- Tackle the linen closet. Throw away any sheets that don’t fit your bed sizes. How many sheets sets do you need per bed? Decide, and then throw or give away the most worn sets.
- Give everyone at home a box. Within 2 weeks, they have to fill the box with things to give away. Even kids can get into this action. Donate the toys to a pre-school, or books to the library. Make it fun and feel good about it!
DECLUTTERING THE OFFICE
- Set one day aside for everyone to clean up. No meetings are allowed on this day. Make sure you have plenty of trash and recycling cans ready. You’ll improve the look of your office and employees will find things they thought they lost!
- Set procedures for keeping files. If you have many employees and you often work in teams, establish this procedure: Only the head of the team keeps all of the documents. Everyone else can pitch the document if it’s of no use to them.
- Clear off all flat surfaces. Counters, desk tops, work stations – they are all clutter magnets. If you need to keep a few things out, that’s OK, but make it a goal to free most of the surface.
- Appoint an archivist. One person should be keeping and storing a sample of all company literature. It’s historical data that might come in handy later. But not everyone has to store brochures from long ago!
- Store old files off sight. If you can’t pitch files, then store them off site. After a year, you might be able to throw away the oldest files that are being stored.
Once you’ve decluttered, consider taking some photos! Not only will these photos remind you of how organized everything is, but they could be great resources of information for your insurance company – should you have any problems during the year.
