As a company grows, the problem is where to fit all the employees, desks, cabinets, photocopy machines, and other assorted items. Businesses that start out with a whole floor to fill with managers wondering how the space will ever get filled up quickly discover that a year of rapid growth creates the opposite problem.

Relocating to another office or taking over a second floor in the same building isn’t always either convenient or affordable, so here are some suggestions for how to create more space.

Clear Desk Policy

Employees will tell you that they need bigger desks and clearer floor space around them. However, often they clutter their work areas with an excess of bags, boxes and other items that make their footing unsure. They also don’t follow a clear desk policy where items are filed away and not left on the desk overnight or through the weekend because it’s convenient.  

A clear desk policy instituted across the firm makes sure that desks don’t accumulate unnecessary documents. It also has the added benefit of ensuring that privacy and confidentiality are not violated by keeping documents left out overnight. The policy also complies with the ISO 27001/17799 standard too.

Convenient Off-Site Physical Storage

Companies that have important files and other items that they don’t wish to throw away but need to clear from the office to make more space would benefit from using a business self-storage facility. Safestore is the UK’s largest storage company with over 100 facilities and industrial racking, so they’re likely to have one in your city. As a UK publicly traded company, they’ve been in business since the late 90s offering their dependable storage services to businesses and individuals who have seen a need for it.

Share a Desk

When you have a business with part-time staff who either work a morning or an afternoon, have them share the same desk to save space. The computer can be setup with two users that operate separate from one another to address any privacy concerns too.

Standing Desks

There will be some younger staff who like the idea of using a standing desk. They’re certainly space saving options because they’re able to fit into corners or along the walls and the employees can make use of all their space which is easier to access now. Standing desks can be good for the health, but not for people with bad legs, knees, feet or ankles.

De-Clutter

All staff should be encouraged to help de-cluttering the office on a regular weekly basis. Removing anything that shouldn’t be there, putting items away in their proper place and avoiding the temptation to expand into the available space should be encouraged.

You can also digitize many of the documents still stored in filing cabinets. Not everything can go to a digital copy (make sure you have an off-site backup service setup too), but most things can nowadays. Claim back the majority of the floor space filled with filing cabinets, remove the risk of them falling over and injuring a worker, and eliminate the filing clerk position in a single step.

Finding more available space in the office to avoid a move isn’t that difficult. After all, most offices are poorly organised and don’t make good use of the resources that they have.