The Why’s and How’s of Decluttering Your Workspace

Those with office jobs typically spend at least 40 hours a week at their work desk. Additionally, overtime requirements or salaried positions may require workers to accrue hours beyond the standard 40-hour work week.

Because of the time spent there, an office workspace can accumulate large amounts of clutter very quickly. The process of decluttering your workspace has many advantages, both personally and professionally. While some of these may seem obvious, others are less so.

Increased Chances for Professional Advancement

Those in an office, especially those who work together in a shared environment for 40 or more hours per week, may think that the state of a person’s workspace reveals a lot about them in general.

For instance, if your workspace is well organized, tidy, and features only the necessary documentation for your current work, your coworkers may interpret this fact as evidence that you are a highly organized and responsible person, generally. Alternatively, if your desk is covered in documents, papers, or other clutter in an unorganized and haphazard manner, this may reflect negatively on others’ perceptions of your work, more broadly.

While these types of assumptions are not necessarily true and may often represent a mistaken overgeneralization, the fact remains that the perceptions of coworkers and bosses in the workplace can be incredibly important.

When those higher in your company are considering eligible employees for a promotion, variables like personal workspace management have the potential to influence your professional opportunities.

Keep Sensitive Documents Secure

Another reason why workspace decluttering is useful is that organized workspaces are less vulnerable to damaging data breaches. Even beyond the obvious issue of misplacing important information, not keeping vital data organized and stored in appropriate places can lead to others reading, or even stealing, sensitive documents. This type of data breach, due to workspace clutter, can put your own professional future at risk.

Increased Happiness and Personalization

Because you spend so many of your waking hours in your workspace, it is important to make it feel as tailored to your tastes and preferences as possible. Whether you choose to do this with photos of family and friends, pieces of art that you love, sports memorabilia, plant life, or all of these, making the space your own can make it much more pleasant to spend your time there.

Additionally, there is empirical research to support the idea that clean and organized spaces tend to lead to increases in mood and overall happiness.

General Tips for Decluttering

While each desk area or workspace is unique, there are some general approaches that will work for most spaces:

• Safely remove old paperwork
• Create predetermined spaces for stored paperwork
• Designate spots for new and incoming documentation
• Determine drawers or containers for storing writing utensils and any requisite electronic accessories

When decluttering, simply throwing away old documents or electronics can result in damaging data breaches. Safely removing old documents or out-of-use electronics involves specified IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) services, like those offered by SEAM.

We are fully certified and provide secure ITAD options for those in the Sioux Falls, SD area and throughout South Dakota. For information regarding on-site document destruction or to request a quote, contact us at 605-274-7326 (SEAM) or visit us online.