I love working from home and I’m really pleased to have a lovely home office space under the stairs. But sometimes (OK quite frequently) my office starts to take over more than just its designated area. And then the children put a scooter or skateboard in there which means David sees this as a green light for a toolbag or dumbells!
Minimalist, I’m not.
Organised we are not!
Sometimes I wish we could get the builders in, look at skip hire and turn the loft space into an office or maybe even just put a door on mine! So in the meantime it means every few weeks I need to have a word with the family to get my office back and organise my small business stuff effectively.

Declutter:

This always sounds much easier than it is, but really take a look at the “stuff” in your office. Once you have thrown away all the rubbish, shredded all the unnecessary paperwork/printing, it’s time to organise the stuff!

• Do you need it? Do you really need 3 pictures of your children in your home office alongside every other room in the house?
• Do you use it? Will you ever fill in every single one of those 50 notebooks you are saving for best?
• Does it bring you joy? For me, I’m thinking random things made out of clay that the kids have created and I’ve put on display in my office as no way in hell it’s going in my lounge! I’m sure those things will be much happier (and me) in the loft.
• Can you sell stuff to make a few extra pennies? Reading books, I’ve loads I’ve read and don’t need anymore, unused office furniture, notebooks and stationery (and for me, it’s craft kits I brought with all good intentions but instead just piled up!) – social media profiles are always a good starting point to sell bits and pieces, especially office-based. If there are products you’re trying to sell lying around and you can’t seem to shift them, it’s a good idea to use a UX Consulting Firm to assess your product holistically and decide whether it’s time to take it off the shelves.

Stock Check and Inventory Management: 

You should be undertaking regular stock checks so you know exactly what you have to sell but how often do you check your stock against your sales?  This could be when you realise you have 1000 #freeBrittany T-shirts!  It’s really important to cross-reference your stock against sales to see what is working and what isn’t. Anything that isn’t is costing you in space within your stock room/home office and needs to go! Might be time for a sale!

Storage Solutions:

If you have come to the point where you have run out of places within your home to store your business paraphernalia then chances are you are more than ready to check out places like Magenta self storage. It’s also best to hire a Man with a Van Service in Bournemouth to help move your stuff to the storage facility. Sometimes you need to spend money to make money and if storing paperwork, old office furniture and a library full of books is going to make your home life better, you more productive at work, and calm your mind then do it!  We have a storage unit for David’s tools and machinery which we can’t possibly store at home (well that’s what I told him!).

Going Digital, Embracing Paperless:

Paper is a distraction. Paper clutters up our desks and our minds, we are far more productive in a tidy, clean, distraction-free environment. There is also the serious issue of space. Paper documents take up an awful lot of space and equipment (shelving, boxes, paper clips, files) which needs organising, maintaining and cleaning! Stop and think about what paper you have – do you need to print all these documents off? Can you scan and store files digitally?

Further Reading: 11 Reasons Your Small Business Should Go Paperless

Have A Housekeeping Audit Procedure:

Whilst I know that sounds well jargony (yes a real word) what I basically mean is having procedures in place daily to stop your home office from getting cluttered again putting you back into point one – declutter stage.  If you keep on top of things little and often you can soon stop the overwhelming clutter stage.