Marie Kondo has been taking the world by storm with her new Netflix show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.
Her philosophy? If it doesn’t spark joy, toss it. While this theory may hold true in your home, your office is a different story because, let’s be honest, 95% of things would be thrown out because it’s…work, and invoices, paperwork and emails don’t tend to spark joy in many of us.
Marie’s philosophy can still be used in the workplace, though, and de-cluttering is the primary goal. Here are six ways to “Kondo-ify” your office space.
Become Cloud Based
Make a habit of regularly going through items and moving them to the Cloud. Whether it’s Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, etc, digitizing documents (particularly hard copies) will help you declutter and save space.
Clear Off Your Desk
Marie would tell you to remove any piece of paper from your desk that you aren’t actively using. In today’s paperless world, this isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Have a filing cabinet nearby and digitize as many documents as possible so they’re readily accessible on your computer or laptop. Fan of post-its? There are digital versions of those, too!
Lose the Personal Touch
Sorry if it sounds cruel, but your desk doesn’t need to be loaded down with photos of your dog, your high school swimming trophy, collectible figurines or the latest “artwork” from your child. Choose one or two things max that spark joy or bring a sense of calm (think a small houseplant) and leave it at that. Anything else just adds to the clutter. If you’re like Penelope Garcia and just can’t imagine doing your job without your collection of fun personal items, invest in a shelf and relocate the items so they are at least off your workspace.
Get a Wireless Charging Pad
Have you ever gotten irritated with a bunch of tangled cables? We sure have. The good news is that in this tech-savvy world, there are wireless charging pads and charging stations that can eliminate the cord clutter, thus reducing stress (and time spent plugging items in).
Clean Out Your Emails
Does your packed-out inbox fill you with joy? Probably not. Marie Kondo’s technique can help with digital files too. You can custom filters and folders to suit your needs and help sort. Once a week, go through that week’s emails and delete the items that are no longer needed. There’s even an app for that! Clean Email and Cleanfox are two of them.
Clean Up Daily
At the end of every day, take a few minutes to clean off your work space. Scan items into your computer, put up any documents you are finished with and throw away unnecessary paperwork. That way you start fresh every morning with a clean desk.