Is your business premises chock-full of clutter and coffee cups? Businesses are busy places, which is why work areas can quickly become chaotic. If your office is client-facing however, all of this productivity can appear disorganised and downright off-putting.
Time to tidy
Neat, tidy workplaces aren’t just more appealing to potential clients and customers, they also help employees to feel valued and comfortable. Environments which are streamlined are far less stressful and can even increase productivity (especially when you don’t have to spend three hours tracking down an invoice from last October).
The appearance of your premises is, however, only partially your responsibility. While keeping shared areas clean and tidy is down to organisations, individual employees must take charge of their work areas to some extent. Most organisations will have a few rules and regulations regarding tidy workstations. This may be officially stated, or it may be an unspoken part of company culture. However, it’s not always easy to tell employees to remove the 17 photographs of their dog and five years-worth of office secret santa gifts that make their desk completely chaotic.
The Marie Kondo approach
Enough is enough! It’s time to hold a business-wide amnesty on clutter. In the interests of streamlining and professionalising your employees’ workspaces, why not take inspiration from Netflix’s new hit show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo? Our last post also looked at the ‘KonMari method’, albeit purely in the context of commercial premises as a whole – this time however, the focus is on employees’ individual desk areas in particular.
So, to help your staff get started, we’ve distilled some pearls of wisdom from the Japanese queen of tidy…
1. Pile it up
The first step in cutting out clutter is to make things a whole lot worse. Start the process by asking staff to put everything in their workspace into one big pile. Once everything has been piled up, your employees will be able to take stock of everything they have and make decisions about what is truly needed.
2. Hold each item
Work through the stack item by item, holding each object in turn. Ask staff to question themselves: “does this object have an essential function?” and, if not: “does this object spark joy?” If the item isn’t function and doesn’t bring them any real happiness, it can be recycled or thrown away. This practice will quickly reduce the amount of clutter in a workspace.
3. Compartmentalise
Once you’ve removed all non-essential, non-joyful objects, it’s time to tidy away what’s left. Marie suggests compartmentalising items to keep spaces clear, tidy and easy to maintain. Drawer separators and desk tidies are helpful for creating compartments. Keep items of the same size and similar function in the same place. You can even use old tupperware containers to compartmentalise your drawers.
We may not be Marie Kondo, but The Abbey Cleaning Service has been tidying the workplaces of South Wales for over four decades. From one-off deep cleans, to regular rotas and specialist cleaning tasks, we ensure professional spaces are spotless. Discuss your office cleaning needs with us today on 029 2067 9323.
