Erica is gone this week on vacation and put me in charge of her content this week. Isn’t that exciting!

My name is Elena and I am Erica’s intern this summer. I am a business student and also a declutter coach. Although my goal is to mostly work with families in the future, I know businesses (big and small) can get chaotic fast if you don’t stay on top of the clutter.

Here are the 6 categories in which you should consider decluttering & organizing your business in order to stay on top of things and be as efficient as possible.

Your Brain

This category is first because if your brain is stuffed full of stuff you can’t keep track of, you won’t be able to tackle the rest of your business (or personal life). The ways in which you can declutter and organize your brain are endless. But you should deal with the following areas in one way or another: your priorities & goals, your time (long term, monthly, weekly, and daily), your to-do items, and your self care/emotions.

Priorities and goals should be some kind of a list, journal entry, or vision board. I recommend you have a list of goals for yourself and a separate one for your business. Then, organize how you will tackle each of those goals within the next area… time.

I organize my time in a couple different ways: a digital calendar, a paper planner, and a habit tracker. Here is a blog post on my website about My Productivity Tools. But there are tons of other options out there. Find something that works for you, and stick to it.

I integrate my to-do’s with my time organization. I talk about that in the blog post liked above. But the main idea, is to make sure whatever to-do items that come into your head get written down and scheduled so you actually get them done. You may want to have a separate planner for your personal life and for your business. Or maybe having it all in one place will work better for you. But make sure you have a solid system in place. You can always adjust it later.

I added self care/emotions to this list because if this part of you is not being taken care of, you are not going to be able to run a business. Period. So make sure you have a plan for getting in some self care time before you go on to these next steps.

Physical & Digital Files

Now that you have your brain organized, you can start to organize the things around you.

Business comes with a lot of paperwork. So in order to be as efficient as possible, make sure you have a system that works for you, your employees, and your customers.

First, consider if it is most efficient to have digital system, a physical paper file system, or a mix of the two. Once you figure this out and begin sticking to it, dealing with paperwork should go a lot more smoothly.

Next, declutter & organize. Go though your file cabinets, hard drives, cloud storage, & email. In each of these areas (and anymore you may have), get rid of anything you don’t need anymore. Then upload, scan, or print things so that they fit in the system you created in the previous step.

Digital Identity

Besides your email and computer files, you also have more online you should declutter. Things like your website, social media accounts, and blog, should be as simple and effective as possible. They are the face of your business to anyone who looks you up online. So make sure this part of your business is in order! There are some great tips in Erica’s the last blog post to make sure you are keeping up in this area.

Supplies/Inventory

This is the most straightforward category to declutter and organize. Go through all the physical objects for your business and make sure everything is necessary and used often. If it’s not, then get rid of it.

After that, make sure to organize everything so it is simple for you (and those you work with) to find and use.

Furniture & Storage

Many people don’t think of their furniture and storage solutions when they think of getting rid of stuff. But if there are chairs, tables, shelves, or other large objects that you no longer need, get rid of them. You may find this easy if you decluttered all your supplies and inventory well. But of course, if you use everything you have, then great, keep it.

Locations

This may be one of the most important areas to consider decluttering for your business. Because guess what, land and buildings are EXPENSIVE! If there is a store location or storage unit you don’t really need anymore, move out of there and stop paying for it!

Also, if you have an office downtown as well as a home office, consider getting rid of one. Save money by not renting the office space, or be more consistent with using your downtown office and turn your home office into a guest bedroom or workout room so you can enjoy your home more. Point is, be very deliberate about WHERE you work and store things. Don’t just assume you need all the locations you currently have.

SUMMIN’ IT UP

Make sure you are intentional about everything you keep in your business spaces and in your mind. The more organized you are, the better your business will be able to run (and make you money!).

I hope you found this list helpful. If you want to learn more about decluttering or what I do. Explore my website and subscribe to my email list!