Decluttering Guide for Businesses

All My Sons Moving & Storage performs commercial moving services and corporate moving services to get your business safely relocated to a new area. A business relocation is the perfect time to consider what belongs in your office space, warehouse, or storage unit, and what is clutter that needs to go. 

From downsizing into a smaller office space to moving your ecommerce inventory into a warehouse or storage unit, moving a business involves a number of complicated logistics. You can make a move more manageable by offloading the excess prior to packing everything up. When every minute on the clock might mean lost productivity or revenue, then every second of downtime that you can cut counts. 

Here’s a five step process for decluttering designed especially for businesses about to make a relocation.

Before you put off the big office or warehouse declutter for another move, consider these special benefits to decluttering. 

• Save Time and Money on Your Business Move: Your professional packers and movers will charge based on the volume of items you have to move. The fastest way to save both time and money on your upcoming business move is to simply move less items. Decluttering your office, warehouse, or storage unit will ensure you don’t pay a premium to move items you will not need in your new space anyway. 

• Improved Focus and Productivity at New Space: Clutter can have a detrimental impact on you and your employees. Besides making it difficult to find items in an unorganized space, clutter increases cortisol levels, disrupts restful sleep, and negativity affects focus and concentration. With less clutter in your new space, you and your employees will enjoy clear minds for increased productivity. 

• More Room for New Items or Inventory: If you are moving a warehouse or eCommerce inventory then decluttering before the move will allow you to make more space for additional products that sell faster or at a higher profit margin. Decluttering your office space enables you to choose new items that might make work much easier or more efficient. 

• Better Impression on Clients and Partners: Be honest, are you proud to show your office or warehouse space off? An organized and decluttered office commands respect from your clients and business partners while a disorganized office space signals poor business habits. Make the best impression possible the first time with a stellar and beautiful business space. 

What items does your business absolutely need to maintain operations? Part of making a seamless business move is identifying what makes your business tick. These are often the items that you will pack up last and unload at the new base of operations first thing.

Even among these items you have determined that you need, make sure to evaluate whether a different item will serve the same purpose in a more efficient fashion.

• Technology: From each of your employee’s computers to your specialized equipment, these pieces of tech go in the must-have category.

• Files: Your business probably keeps tax records, invoices, and other paperwork to help keep operations running. Perform an audit of all your stored files and determine which items can be safely shredded, what should be backed up digitally, and what should be kept in hard-copy.

• Office Supplies: Paper, organizers, and writing utensils fall in this category. Does your office space have a supply stock closet? What items are getting used on a regular basis and what items gather dust?

• Furniture Items: Employee desks, cubicles, bookshelves, and the lobby furniture should be evaluated before your move. Check each item for wear and tear, and determine if it fits in your new business space.

No business move is ready until a full data backup has been performed. Physically moving technology is a dangerous enterprise, and while you will undoubtedly hire a licensed and insured professional mover with experience performing business moves, hiccups happen. Make sure critical items are on more than one backup machine.

If you are using the move as a chance to decommission outdated technology, make sure you have retrieved all the essential files you need before performing a data wipe and sending the old electronics on their way to be donated or recycled. 

You can have this service performed by your own IT team if you have one or you can hire an external vendor to help oversee the process.

Now that you have identified your business essentials and performed a full data backup, it’s time to evaluate the rest of your business inventory. If you have a small business, you should perform this sorting yourself, and if you have a large business then you might need to appoint a team of employees to assist.

Get a few boxes for sorting the smaller items. Large items like furniture or technology pieces should have a designated space to go to. 

• Keep: These items will get moved with your business essentials. You have determined that they work well for your business and a smaller or more efficient replacement is not possible or practical.

• Dispose: Items that are not in good condition and cannot serve their function anymore should be recycled or trashed. 

• Donate or Sell: Items in good condition that still function but do not serve your business anymore can be donated to charities or sold for a small sum.

Once items have been designated as dispose, donate, or sell, make a plan to get rid of the items as soon as possible. With these items gone, you’re less likely to second guess yourself and re-sort the items back into the keep pile when your first instinct told you to get rid of them. 

For large quantities of bulk office junk, contact a same-day junk removal company to ensure your items are safely and ethically disposed of exactly when you need them gone. Junk.com can take office furniture, outdated technology, construction debris, and more from your commercial space. Items salvaged by Junk.com are sorted to ensure usable goods are donated, recyclable materials get new life, and the remaining garbage is properly disposed of through the correct local channels. Use the online booking tool to get a junk removal team out to appraise your business junk job as soon as possible.

Now that your business is moving lighter, you can use the extra mental space and energy you’ve saved to make sure your new business space is set up for success. Part of organization is having a plan from the get-go, so before you start moving your furniture into the new office space, implement some plans to make your fresh start a running start for your business.

• Create a Detailed Floorplan: Make your new office space work for you from day one. Before you move anything in, take measurements of your new space and your furniture and technology. Draw out a detailed floor plan to ensure maximum productive space.

• Make New Organizational Systems: If your old system of organization led to lost items and delays while you searched for things, then now is a great time to scrap that system and implement a new one. Come up with a standardized format for labeling files, managing work, and streamlining your processes. 

• Schedule the Next Business Declutter: Who says you have to wait for a business move to evaluate what you’re using? Even if you’re signing a lease for several years, mark down a date within the next 12 months that you’ll perform a regular decluttering audit of your business inventory.

Make your next business move a seamless transition with help from the business-moving experts at All My Sons Moving & Storage. Our team will come alongside your business to meet your moving needs and adapt to your budget so that you can get your business up and running again with minimal interruptions to your operations. Click the quote button below to get started on your move.