I hate decluttering office supplies. It’s like being exposed to the reality of how I tend to hold onto stupid stuff. While decluttering my office supplies last week, I came across a dozen pens and pencils that weren’t even usable. While some of the pens had dried up, others had lost their caps. I had to get rid of the most of them but a few. There were many notebooks, planners and calendars that I had accumulated over the last few years but never cared to use them.
Decluttering office supplies can be the easiest part of your entire decluttering journey if you have figured out a way to get started. Because all your office supplies are confined to a particular area of your house, it’s easy to tackle with it in one sitting.
While you may think that decluttering office supplies isn’t important, don’t forget to take into consideration the fact that your office is the space where you spend most of your life. It needs to stay clutter-free at all times to help boost your productivity and to keep you motivated. You can’t hope to be at the top of your work deadlines with all the clutter sitting on your desk and in the drawers.
Office supplies accumulate fast because they’re usually inexpensive and are hence easily replaceable. It’s easy to seal open a new pen rather than looking for an old one that is probably lost in a pile of clutter. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I ended up buying four staplers in the last one year because I keep losing the old ones within my office. How stupid is that!
The best thing about decluttering your office supplies is that it isn’t too much of a time-consuming task and has a lot of benefits attached to it. Here are some office supplies you can purge right now to keep the clutter in your office to minimum:
1. Pencils that are short or without erasers.
2. Pens that have dried up or have lost their caps. Use a piece of paper to scribble each pen and get rid of the ones that don’t work.
3. Extra Markers And Highlighters. Also get rid of the ones that have dried up or have lost their caps.
4. Empty or dried-up glue.
5. Excess binder clips.
6. Extra mailing envelopes and cardboard boxes. Keep only a few to meet your mailing needs and recycle/donate the rest.
7. Torn or extra bubble wrap.
8. Bills that have been paid.
9. Old Receipts that are no longer needed.
10. Manuals for the appliances you no longer have. Manuals are available online these days and hence aren’t needed to be kept in physical form even for the appliances or gadgets you currently own.
11. Tax Documents that are too old and aren’t required to be kept anymore. If you still want to keep them, scan them using a scanner and store digitally in neatly labelled folders on your desktop.
12. Unused Computer Equipment and unwanted cables and cords. Get rid of the broken hard disks and old CD’s and DVD’s along with any associated equipment. If there’s any unused computer part lying in your store, get rid of it right now.
13. Old Party Invitations, Christmas Cards & Birthday Cards that are no longer needed.
14. Outdated Mortgage Papers. You can scan them if you still want to keep them.
15. Out-of-date Car Insurance Policy, Home Insurance And Health Insurance. Insurance documents are also made available in a digital form thereby eliminating the need to keep their physical copies.
16. Vehicle Registration & Maintenance Documents for a vehicle you no longer own.
17. Outdated calendars, filled-up Notebooks And Planners.
18. Books that you have already read or don’t intend to read in future. Old books can either be donated or given away to a friend or a family member.
19. Artwork & Projects that you don’t need including the ones that have been lying unfinished for a long time. This includes old craftwork and projects that were made by your kids. Make sure that you ask your kids before getting rid of the paperwork that belongs to them.
20. Old School Supplies that your kids have outgrown and won’t need anymore. This includes broken crayons, dried-up paint bottles, painting brushes and broken stationery items.
21. Random School Papers of your children and Books they don’t read. Children’s books can either be donated or given away to a charity. If the books are relevant for the other kids in your family or friend circle, ask them if they want it.
22. Excess Office Décor like photo frames, vases or desk décor items. Don’t let items of décor clutter your desk. Too much décor can be distracting and causes visual clutter.
23. Dried-up Flowers in your vase. Replace them with fresh ones as soon as possible. You can even fill your vases with artificial flowers that are not required to be replaced frequently.
24. Small scraps of Paper or clothes.
25. Stamps & Stickers that are no longer needed.
26. Cell phone cords for cell phones you no longer own. Also get rid of wiring for gadgets that you don’t own anymore.
27. Old Phone Books (because phones these days already come with one built in). Make sure you scan these phone books before discarding them because they might have important details.
28. Unwanted Business Cards. You can either scan the business cards to be stored digitally or type the information manually in your Phone Contacts.
29. Extra Binders and Folders. Also get rid of the broken file folders and dividers.
Although I still find it hard to stop incoming writing implements, planners and files, I try as much as possible to keep my office supplies to minimum. Besides that, I have managed to stop the inflow of duplicates to my home office because they were contributing to the most amount of clutter.
How often do you declutter your office supplies? Drop a comment below or write me at hello@theaestheticabode.com.