The Easiest and Best Ways to Declutter

Dealing with data clutter every day is more than just a motivation and productivity killer; it’s also a big security risk. When you have old documents and other sensitive information lying around, it exposes you and your company to the risk of data breaches and identity theft.

If you have a lot of clutter, it’s time to properly dispose of it and make way for the new. You’ll be surprised how light and creative you feel once your work space is decluttered, and how easy it is to find things again. Whether it’s your work or home office, here are 10 of the easiest ways to clear out.

Organise Your Clutter

If you have a lot of clutter, it can be overwhelming just knowing where to start. Choose one area and start from there. Go around your office and take note of everything that’s no longer useful. It might be helpful to start in the most cluttered space first, or pick something smaller and work your way up.

Documents

Many people will find that they have an excess of old documents that are taking up space and creating a possible security risk. If you have some sort of filing system, start with the oldest documents and go through to ensure there’s nothing you need. Keep going through them until you have two piles, wanted and unwanted. Chances are the unwanted pile will be much bigger, and that’s what we’re aiming for. Store these unwanted documents safely away until they can be shredded.

Document Storage

Now is the time to review your filing system and improve it if necessary to avoid collecting more clutter. Have an organised system on your desk too, documents in, documents being used, and documents out, from left to right or right to left, whichever seems more logical to you.

Digitise Documents

Any documents you can digitise and store on the computer will be more secure and take up less space. You’ll need to keep the originals of some documents, but many can be scanned and digitally filed, and the paper version safely shredded.

Your Desk

Go through your drawers and the top of your desk and remove anything that doesn’t belong, or is outdated and no longer used. Organise your drawers so that the most used items are in the top drawer, and least used in the bottom drawer, or whatever system makes sense to you. After all, you’ll be the one who needs to find things in a hurry.

Digital Notes and Reminders

Old post-it notes and scraps of paper often hold sensitive information, and we stick them all over our desk where anyone can read them. Clean up the mess by using digital calendars, notes, and password reminders on all your devices.

Clean Desk Policy

Have a Clean Desk Policy in place where everyone clears the clutter from their desk before they leave work.

Digital Clean Up

Go through all your digital files and apps on your devices and clean them up. With increased storage space on our hard drives comes increased clutter. Devise a system of organising your files so they’re easy to find and delete when no longer needed.

Obsolete Devices

Don’t keep old and obsolete devices in the office. When you replace a device, dispose of the old one securely. When you bring something new into the office, take something old out to prevent clutter build up.

Secure Disposal

Now you should have a pile of paper clutter and product clutter that needs to be shredded and recycled. In Confidence offers document shredding and product destruction in Melbourne to ensure all your confidential information remains that way. Call us on 1300 723 187, or contact us online.