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Top Tips for Decluttering Your Home Office
Working from home has now become a way of life for many people, who now only have to be in the office for part of the week. According to official Government figures, almost four out of every 10 people are still spending at least one day a week working from home.
However, this can put a lot of strain on space in the home, with spare rooms being transformed into home offices and workspaces. Here Hamiltons Removals, who stock packing materials for customers in Norfolk, Suffolk and across East Anglia, provide some top tips to ensure your home office looks neat and tidy and is a really productive environment to work in.
Start from Scratch
It may be best to start by removing everything from the room. That way all the surfaces, floors, and walls can be cleaned before you start. You may also discover a few items hidden away in nooks and crannies you had forgotten about. These may be restored to their rightful place or just binned.
Then you can begin to think about the design. Is the chair in the right place to be comfortable, have you got enough natural light, etc. Is there enough room on the desk for the PC/laptop, and what about storage?
Be Brutal
Some items you may not need at all, or at least not in your new work environment. It may help if you have a complete declutter and divide things into three categories – keep, archive and junk. Items in the last category can be recycled, thrown into the dustbin, given to friends, family, or the local charity shop or sold on an online auction site.
You may be surprised, if you can be dispassionate enough, at how much ‘stuff’ you can get rid of – and how much space and money you could make.
Let Tech Be Your Friend
Investing in a smaller laptop, or even a tablet, will pay dividends in terms of the physical space you have to work in. Making use of cloud storage will mean that you need fewer hard copies of documents, although you may still need to be able to print them from time to time.
You will also still need some physical storage space. If a more bulky cabinet is too big, consider some shelving on the walls, which you can access just as easily. Labelling cables so you know what each one does and what it’s attached to can also come in handy; you may find you have one or two leads which you don’t need any more.
A Place for Everything…
It can be so easy to ‘lose’ important documents when they get buried under something else, which might not be quite so important. So make sure that, at the end of every day or week, you give yourself a few minutes to file everything away.
Have a colour-coded system if it helps to identify things such as particular clients or priority tasks. Knowing exactly where everything is could save you valuable working time.
And, if there Still Isn’t Enough Space…
If you need something to put your decluttered items in, we also stock a wide range of packing materials at our Harleston site on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, including specialist decluttering kits. They include strong boxes, packing paper and bubble wrap, marker pens and inventory sheets. In fact, everything you will need for a successful home office declutter.
If there still isn’t enough room in your home office, then consider using self-storage – we operate two Safe N Stored sites, at Harleston and Aldeby. The Harleston site is ideal for smaller items, such as sensitive documents which you don’t want to keep in your home office.
At Aldeby the units can accommodate larger items, such as furniture, which you may have to move out to make way for your home office. Both the sites are extremely secure, being covered by CCTV cameras, and Harleston has an alarm system linked to Norfolk Police. We are continuing to follow all the latest coronavirus advice; both sites are open as usual and we are safely despatching online orders for packing materials.
For more information on our selection of packing materials and decluttering kits, visit our e-shop here.
Four Key Takeaways from the Self-Storage Industry’s Annual Report
The self-storage industry is one of very few which has continued to thrive over the past two years, adapting and flourishing in the changing circumstances brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The annual report by the UK’s self-storage industry (SSAUK) proves that suppliers are proving remarkably resilient in the face of numerous challenges.
Here Hamiltons Removals, who offer storage rental in the heart of East Anglia, look at some of the key facts and figures from the report, and how we can meet all your self-storage needs.
The ‘Churn’ is Down
In the past two years, the self storage market has been fairly volatile, with a lot of people renting out space on a fairly short-term basis. In the past 12 months, not only has overall occupancy gone up slightly (from 82.3% to 83.3% of the total available space), the so-called ‘churn rate’ has fallen from 118% pre-pandemic, to 76% now.
The churn rate is measured by the total number of move-outs in a year, divided by the total amount of units that were occupied during that period. However, not only does this reflect the greater stability in people’s domestic and commercial lives, it also shows that people appreciate the value of having somewhere to put their possessions, and the quality of service being offered.
It Reflects the Post-Covid Times
There are other ways in which the industry has reflected the post-coronavirus times as well. More people are now likely to sort out the details of their contract (or pay a visit to their storage facility) online rather than by phone, even if the facility offers both. Some 86% of self-storage suppliers now allow customers to reserve or pay for their unit online.
Taking an extended holiday used to be one reason for using self-storage, but since the start of the pandemic, this has been almost non-existent because of ongoing uncertainty about possible travel restrictions.
Business Use is Changing
The retail sector accounts for around 14% of all commercial use of storage. SSAUK thinks this is down to government subsidies being wound up or decreased in value. E-commerce was down for a similar reason.
However, while the retail sector has reduced, others, such as the IT industry, have increased to fill the gap. In addition, many areas (particularly in the fields of professional services and travel companies) have been using it more this year, but not quite to pre-pandemic levels.
Another interesting point from the report was that 84% of businesses that use self-storage have 10 members of staff or less, which shows that small businesses are increasingly relying on self-storage.
There is still some uncertainty surrounding the sector, with the war in Ukraine, Brexit and the possibility of further outbreaks of COVID-19 all meaning suppliers are not that optimistic about future growth.
‘Life Events’ are Still a Major Factor
A death in the family is the most common reason cited for using self-storage, with about one in three of those surveyed stating it as their reason for use. Moving house is the next most common, at just under 30%, with international moves accounting for around half of this figure.
Divorced or separated people are more likely to use self-storage compared to (married) couples, with the end of a relationship given as the reason by 12% of those surveyed. Around three out of every four users are over 40.
Other reasons for using self-storage include a change in employment (6%), children returning home (2%), and the birth of a child (2%).
Self-Storage Rental in East Anglia with Hamiltons Removals
Whatever reason applies to you, Hamiltons Removals are the people to call if you are interested in self-storage in Norfolk and Suffolk.
We have two Safe N Stored sites, at Harleston and Aldeby; the former has self-storage rooms of varying sizes, while the latter has self-storage containers ranging from 5’ to 20’ in size, making it ideal for larger items such as motorbikes and caravans.
Both sites are extremely secure and are protected by CCTV cameras. As one of the leading Suffolk removals companies, we can sort out everything on moving day, and store any items you haven’t got room for in your new home, or haven’t decided what to do with yet.
Both depots are now open as usual, and we are safely dispatching online orders for packaging materials. The Harleston self-storage centre is currently open Monday to Friday 08:30 – 17:30. If you need to visit your unit outside these hours, call our sales team on 01379 855203 to see if this can be arranged.
- The SSAUK survey was completed by 66 self-storage companies, encompassing 489 stores in total. They were all members of the SSAUK. The survey was completed in the months of January and February based on data from the 2021 calendar year unless otherwise stated.