New Year’s Resolution: 5 Easy Steps to Clean up the Office Clutter

So, 2011 is upon us and you have decided it is your time to be organized! This is great news, because it is time to get rid of outdated and unnecessary paper. This article is dedicated to the initiative that “a clutter free office is a productive office”. Below, are some tips and techniques to make this happen and continue the practice throughout 2011. Start with these questions:

 

Step 1: Contact a Shredding Company

With Shred-it Akron, you have four choices:

1.    We can arrange to bring a shredding truck out to your location and shred the documents on-site and on regularly scheduled intervals, such as monthly or quarterly;

2.    We can come out to your facility or pick up your documents and bring them back to our secure facility for shredding “on demand” when you need us;

3.    You can rent a shredder from us, which we will deliver to your site or

4.    If your office is small or you have a home office, you can bring your documents to a drop-off location.

Schedule us to come out by going to www.shredit.com/_miniSites/akron/home.asp or look for a drop off location at www.residentialshreddingneohio.com.

By contacting Shred-it Akron, we will put in place secure bins for individuals to fill with their documents or we can provide you with secure bags to take to the drop off locations. Once these bins are in place, individuals will immediately minimize clutter. Paperwork needs to be categorized into one of three areas:

·      File it

·      Archive it

·      Shred it

Remember, by shredding, it will automatically be recycled.

Step 2: Set Aside a “Clutter Control” Day

Choose a day, early this month, to concentrate on clutter. Let people come to work in their jeans, order pizza, and play music. Make it an event and try to get the entire floor, group, or home to participate. Treat this just like an appointment on your calendar and don’t break it unless absolutely necessary.

Make certain you have the collection bins in place and have bought the appropriate office supplies (available at www.miracleonmain.com) to deal with the filing. Some of the items you may need for filing are:

·      File folders

·      Markers

·      Hanging folders

·      Tabs for Hanging Folders

Step 3: Start with Your Desk

Remove all the paper from your desk and desk drawers. Only place file folders on your desk for work you are currently working on.

Step 4: Set Up Your Archiving System

Archiving is the process of removing outdated paperwork from your work area to a safe storage area with the purpose of keeping it for a specified period of time. Make sure to mark the date, so when the time period expires, you can shred the documents. When you think about archiving, consider the following:

·      Do I need to keep this in paper form? Perhaps hire an image company to scan your documents and transfer them to another media.

·      Should I store the documents off site? Should I rent a storage unit?

·      If I keep them onsite, is the room fireproof, theft proof, and flood proof?

Step 5: Keep Your Resolution Going

·      Handle each document only once – either shred or file it.

·      Implement a “clean desk” policy where all paperwork must be filed by the end of the workday.

·      Set up regular purging sessions. Have a certain time during the week or month the entire office spends 30 to 60 minutes purging the file system or desk drawers to stay clutter free.

 

Here is how the Shred-it Akron process works:

		Step one: Our document destruction truck arrives at your location.
		Step two:  Monitored and secure transportation of your documents to our on-site document destruction truck.
		Step three: Your documents are destroyed behind a locked security screen at your location.
		Step four: Once your documents are destroyed, you are given a Certificate of Destruction.