It’s almost the end of the year. Before we dive into the new year and turn a new page , there may be some customary items us employees need to settle before the year ends.
It could be clearing off your annual leaves, handing in performance reviews and organizing a town hall to align everyone on the company’s new year business goals.
With all these imperative items to check off before the new year starts, its easy to overlook basic tasks that can help you enter a new year on a more organized note and that task is cleaning!
Cleaning may sound like a really hassle and overwhelming to a few, but we’ve broken it down to the key areas that are doable and will make a difference for you and your office to work better in 2019!
1) The technological clean-up
Soft copies of files aren’t only environmentally friendly, they are also convenient for easy access on our computers. This convenience can be easily abused and we tend to just save or download all the files into our computers.
Often these files are used right away in attachments or for other urgent matters but once they are used, they are usually just dumped as a file in one’s computer.
Over time, these can just accumulate and by the end of the year your computer will have many, many files and most of them are files that you don’t need anymore.
DECLUTTERING YOUR TECH SPACE
STEP 1: CLEARING YOUR DESKTOP FILES
Before you start going into specific folders start with what you first see: your desktop
The desktop can be a dumping ground for easy access. But it can get out of control if you frequently create desktop shortcuts and don’t regularly clean-up.
We hope your desktop isn’t as overwhelmingly cluttered like this:
STEP 2: DELETE THE TEMPORARY STUFF
If you have created or downloaded some files for one-time use, chances are you are probably not going to use them in the long run.
The best practice when it comes to these sort of files is to delete them as soon as you’ve done using them or printing them but if they have accumulated over time then you should definitely get rid of them.
STEP 3: THE STUFF YOU NEED TO KEEP
Got some important files from this year that you need to reference for the following year? You can still keep them but to make it more organised its best to create a separate folder and store all your previous year files there.
That way you can make room for your new files without confusing them getting all jumbled up with your old files.
2) The Supplies Check
Keeping track of your office supplies inventory is important not on only to keep track of how many supplies you have but also to audit your stock and to forecast your next purchase.
KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR SUPPLIES
STEP 1: START GROUPING YOUR SUPPLIES
If your office supplies are stashed away in a cabinet it’s time for you to organize them before you do an inventory check,
Some categories you might want to consider are as follows:
- Writing material: for pens, pencils, markers, post-its
- Binding material: for paper clips, staplers, staples, binder climbs, tape, glue
- Mailing material: envelopes, stamps pads, stamps
- Organizing material: files
STEP 2: Take note of how much you have left
The year end could mean most of your stock has been used up. You might want to work closely with your in house accounts manager to ensure all the supplies are accounted for.
Note down the balance of the items you have left for the following step.
STEP 3: Project your purchase for next year
Now that you have a number, you can have a projected amount of how to purchase for the upcoming year.
This is also a good chance for you to gauge your office’s consumption and make an estimation based on how much your office actually uses so you can purchase just the right amount without having unnecessary surplus.
3) The pantry clear out
When was the last time you cleared your office’s fridge over even the general pantry area? There might be items that have been sitting there for a long, looooong time that have been expired which take up space and aren’t safe for consumption.
This year end is the perfect time for a quick pantry clean-up.
CLEARING OUT YOUR PANTRY
STEP 1: Get rid of the expired goods
We can be very attached to things, especially things that bring us comfort like food. But when things have expired and grow stale and rotten, it’s time to bid our goodbyes to them.
Don’t worry, you can always restock your pantry with all your favourites here.
STEP 2: Consume early expiry goods first
If you do have items that are still good to be consumed, you might want to hold back on buying more of them until you have cleared out what you currently have in stock.
Be sure to prioritise the early expiry items like dairy, bread and fruits if you want to clear out your fridge by consuming them.
STEP 3: Wipe your pantry clean
Step 3 is pretty self-explanatory, common steps like wiping down counter tops and shelves should be done regularly but if it isn’t, this year end is the prime time to do it while your clearing out your pantry.
An area to focus on is also the inner shelves of your refrigerator.
Tip: if you’d like to get rid of a certain scent in your refrigerator insert bits of charcoal or get a fridge deodorizer to absorb the smell.