January is the time for new year’s resolutions that never seem to last and ridiculous aspirations for organization that we never really seem to achieve, but we can at least start the year right…
Here@Hayne we dedicated a full day to jump-start our new year with the great Office Purge. Here’s what we did :
Step 1: ARCHIVE ARCHIVE ARCHIVE
We started by archiving all of those projects that have been complete for years and have just been taking up valued real estate in our small office. Banker’s boxes are a must to clean out the filing cabinet and make way for new projects! Next we gathered all of the accompanying project binders and set them aside to be archived in storage. We only wanted to see current project binders!
Step 2: PURGE PURGE PURGE
Next we cleaned our desks! That’s right… we got rid of all that unnecessary paperwork by scanning and digitally filing it and then we recycled it. Want to learn fun ways to use all of that old paper besides putting it in the blue bin for pick up check out our post What to do with all that Paper?
Don’t forget to look at those material samples! We havent edited our materials library for some time, and as you can see our material bins were just taking up leg room under our desks. First we made sure that all of our project baskets had the specified materials in them, and then we went through all of the bins and decided yay or nay to keeping them. Any materials that were discontinued or not wanted were recycled.
We are guilty of hoarding plan sets. Our office policy is to only have one current check set in the office so that red lines don’t pile up or get missed, but some how we still seem to collect plans. Now is the time to filter through them!
Step 3: ORGANIZE ORGANIZE ORGANIZE
After archiving and purging, you now have a clean workspace to set up some good habits and catch up on those organizational tasks that have fallen through the cracks!
- Set up current project folders in the filing cabinet.
- Create new project binders.
- Review current project binders to make sure that critical tasks weren’t missed.
- Make a Project task list.
Step 4: TAKE A DEEP BREATH
Ah, now I can breathe a little bit easier… Hmmm, now how to keep the office looking this way…