When you put together a new office, be it within an organisation or at home, it’s very easy to think you need absolutely everything. You’ll purchase the very best luxury office furniture, you’ll think you need all the gadgets, and you’ll probably go for as much storage as you can find. The reason? You think that you need it all in order to be productive.
The truth? You really don’t need it all.
Storage is an area which most businesses go a little OTT on. If you want to declutter your office space and cut down on the amount of paper you store needlessly, perhaps the single best way to do is to cut down on the amount of office storage you have! If you have nowhere to store it, you won’t keep it.
Most things can be stored online these days, e.g. Cloud storage, and you can look at catalogues online too, so no need to keep endless paper copies of everything. Of course, you do need to keep certain paper-based documents, such as any tax-related documents, and these need to be kept for a set amount of time. One storage cabinet is enough for these!
Avoid too much clutter in your office and you’ll be far more productive. Office storage is required, of course, but surely one small storage cabinet per employee is enough? Shelving should be minimal too - endless shelves don’t set the best visual impression.
Overall, cut down clutter and cut down on storage. If you can do that, you’ll cut down on costs too.
What do you think about storage? Do you feel an office needs more, or is minimal the best way to go?