Office space was not inspiring client to actually go into the office and do anything.  There was no space on the desk for client to actually work and the sheer amount of paper everywhere busied the mind with clutter as soon as they walked into the space, so often they chose not to.  The business suffered as a result.  The paper also spread into the personal space – stacks being found here and there.  Office supplies were located in several different places as additional stuff was purchased when it was thought that they had ran out of some stationary items.

ALCHEMY SOLUTION:

This project took one day to complete.  We systematically worked around the room throughout the day sorting, purging and re-organizing.  Over 50% went directly into the garbage or re-cycling.  What remained was filed – making sure that each item had a place and that there was a place for each item.  What resulted was a clutter free desk surface that allowed focus on the work at hand.  The personalised work-flow process we created ensured that most items were touched and dealt with only once and the easy movement of paper in and out of the office as well as across the desk space ensured a continued clear and focused work space.

ORGANIZING TIP:

When dealing with an over-abundance of paper, don’t get stuck in dealing with one piece of paper at a time. You will be there for an eternity.  Instead, sort like-minded stuff together:  printed e-mails; newspapers/magazines; reports; files; to file items; to read items; to-do items, and to give to someone else items etc.  Then, deal with the bulkier and easy to decide upon items such as newspapers/magazines stack first.  This will remove ‘stuff’ from your space more quickly, creating for you the physical and mental space to deal with the more detailed stuff.