Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Advice To Keep Your Office Organized

By Van Theodorou

All owners of small businesses and office managers of large firms have to deal with keeping the workplace organized at all times. We do have individual organizational skills, practicing this in the office is different from keeping a household neat.

1. Maintain a neat and clean office. First impressions, as they say, last. As such, offices frequented by customers have to be cleaned regularly. There should be no clutter because your client's perception of your office is extremely important. Even companies that rarely have visitors need to follow this guideline because a beautiful and clean office makes employees feel good about themselves.

2. Place supplies in closets. Office supplies and extra equipment should be placed in closets because people have a tendency to throw things into cabinets unless the contents are arranged properly. Each item should be properly labeled to ensure that everything is in place.

3. Place unnecessary items in a box. Keep the things nobody seems to find useful in a box, rather than stuff them all in a room cluttered and unorganized. Label the boxes and place these at bottom of the closet. From time to time, clean up the boxes and ask the appropriate people for suggestions on what to do with these things.

4. Find the right accessories. Accessories does wonders in beautifying an otherwise dull office. To make the working environment look better, choose desk accessories which are similar in style or color. Buy office equipment in huge quantities to save money.

5. Arrange bills accordingly. For people who have accountants, arrange older bills based on their dates, while current bills should be placed in an envelope. Go over the telephone bills and check if you are going to need other kinds of services. Use the voice T1 service to accomplish this task as it is more affordable than the typical line service.

6. Choose furniture carefully. It has been said that not everything is created equal, making it imperative for the people in charge of purchasing desks and cubicles to choose wisely and carefully. Finding pieces which have huge storage space is important, as well as giving employees access to file cabinet drawers. Notebooks or books may be placed in overhead cabinets.

7. Businesses that have tons of files have to set aside a storage room, instead of just buying file cabinets. This will give you ample space to store your current, as well as future files. To organize the files, consider hiring in a temp who can place all your important things and documents in their proper places. A file basket for papers that are not needed, but have to be kept, should be provided to the temp.

8. Coffee or break rooms keep the clutter of wrappers and cups from the workplace. But these rooms should be well kept at all times. Encourage people to clean up after themselves. Cabinets should be installed in these rooms to keep things in order and out of sight. Also make sure that dish soap, sponges and paper towels are provided so people would find it easier to help keep the place clean.

9. Hire a good cleaning service. It's not enough that you and your employees keep your areas clean and organized. You need to hire a cleaning service that can report to your office regularly and take care of the garbage, recycle some items, clean the break room, vacuum and clean floors. You can also ask them to clean the windows once in a while.

10. Remind everyone of their responsibility to clean up and organize their areas. Each employee should clean his or her own desk, cubicle area or office. Inform them, especially those who have voluminous files, that they can request for items such as cabinets or boxes to keep their areas organized. It would be highly appreciated if a tem is hired on a monthly basis so some employees concentrate on their day-to-day work, not on cleaning up every now and then! - 15478

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