We live in a shallow world that teaches us that the more things we possess, the happier we must be, whereas, in truth, clutter can generate trapped energy and excessive distress. Throwing things away can be unpleasant and imply losing the past and surrendering to our future. Hence, we often hold onto something in the belief that they may come in handy one day, while in fact, they add to our psychological and emotional tension.

Clutter is something that is disorganized or overflowing with items. It can also refer to a confused state or condition. The accumulation of "things" lying around that causes chaos in your workspace sabotages your efficiency and can negatively impact your health daily. Clutter builds up when we fail to make choices or don't have a strong system in place for storing it. There are four main steps to tidying anything, and they apply to all types of clutter:

● Gather

● Contain

● Label

● Store

Why is an organized workspace good?

People spend roughly eight hours a day working—it could be more or less depending on a variety of factors—so keeping your work area as clean and tidy as possible should be a priority. Here are a few reasons to keep your workspace organized:

● Productivity

A tidy, well-organized desk can also help you increase your productivity and work ethic. When it comes to completing your daily responsibilities, you will feel less swamped and pressured, which will boost your efficiency and effectiveness at work.

● Injuries and accidents

Every employee is accountable for keeping the workplace safe and neat. It takes a collective effort, and all employees must follow the guidelines to keep everyone safe and comfortable during the workday.

● Creativity

Because you will spend less time searching for misplaced documents or other materials, you will be able to devote all of your creative energy to performing everyday duties and engaging in important tasks with your teammates. Furthermore, you may discover that you have extra time in your schedule to come up with fresh ideas.

● Stress levels and work environment

Having dedicated spaces for critical documents, filing everything appropriately, and keeping your workstation orderly can help minimize stress and even improve your mood as you work. Keeping your workstation organized makes it easy to find things when you need them, and that can help you maintain a clear brain while working.

● Smooth performances

Most people find disorganization and disorder in the workplace quite disturbing, affecting their job performance, efficiency, and general employee satisfaction.

Common types of Clutter

Examine specific issue areas and devise solutions to them. The majority of office clutter comes into one of these types:

SUPPLIES

Cluttered supplies accumulate when:

● You don't have designated storage areas for the many supplies you use regularly.

● You have a terrible tendency of not putting things back in their place after you're done with them.

● Other individuals leave items on your desk.

To fix:

● Examine which supplies tend to pile the most on your desk. Find out why this happens so you can get to the bottom of it and come up with a viable solution.

● Gather the goods, organize them, mark the container, and make a place for these items to be stored. If they are items you use frequently, make sure they are kept in an easily accessible location where you can readily reach or put them away when needed.

● Set out a few minutes each day to make an easy supplies sweep of your desk and clear the clutter.

● Use a desk that comes with sleek storage like drawers or shelves to put everyday things away and easily grab them when needed.

FlexiSpot's Esben Standing Desk Series graces us with two ergonomic, clean, and aesthetic standing desks that are not only beneficial to our back, posture, and overall wellness but also feature sleek storages to minimize distractions from clutter:

● Esben Standing Desk UD4 features two large sliding drawers that provide ample space for your stuff

● Esben Standing Desk UD5 comes with a large hutch-style storage shelf for more space for your essentials.

UNDER THE DESK

When you store clutter beneath your workplace to deal with it later, this mess accumulates. You become sidetracked; other things take priority. Before you know it, those excess supplies, busted laptops, or promotional materials appear to have taken root underneath your desk. Every time you recall it, it hurts you, both physically and psychologically.

To fix:

● Determine what accumulates the most under your desk. Are you the one who puts stuff there, or is it gathering due to people depositing items in your space?

● If the items require you to do something with them before they can be handled, create some dedicated drop-off containers near your desk and label them.

● Educate your co-workers on the appropriate storage locations for the stuff they leave at your desk.

● Make it a point to perform a swift under-the-desk inspection and clutter removal a couple of times every week or at the end of each day.

PAPER

Here's how they build up:

● Printing stuff that shouldn't be printed.

● No labeled tray on your desk that separates papers that need your attention and those that are done.

● You don't immediately enclose, label, and store your paper when it comes across your desk.

● You don't have easy access to empty file directories for creating files.

To fix:

● Do not print what should not be printed.

● Duplicate or old paper should be shredded or recycled as soon as you recognize it is no longer needed.

● When you have time to create a printed label, use a pencil that you can effortlessly erase. Use removable file labels to generate a hand-written label that is easy to remove afterward.

● Locate a vertical, freestanding tray sorter with one or two compartments. Place the sorter on your desk, within arm's reach of your seat. You should also add a nice writing pen, marker, or pencil to label your files. A mesh organizer like this from FlexiSpot has a three-tier space-saving design complete with a three-compartment sliding drawer and a vertical shelf at the back to hold those papers and other supplies within arms reach.

DESK OR FILE CABINET

To rapidly tidy up an area, we empty it and put it into the confined, enclosed space of a drawer or cabinet where we can quickly hide things. The issue is that we rarely return to clean things up afterward. And then the scrambling begins the next time you need something from that drawer.

To fix:

● Keep your goods organized and labeled in your drawers for quick and simple access. Use rubber bands, zip bags, or drawer organizers to keep everything together.

● If you really must make a rapid sweep of your desk, keep it confined in a large envelope or zip bag until you can resume and organize things properly later.

● If you have many messy drawers, pick one drawer a day and organize it using until you have everything collected, confined, labeled, and in its permanent home.

How clutter can ruin you

Clutter has also been shown to harm your mental and physical health. If you need more convincing, take a few more minutes to go through these negative impacts of what clutter can do to you. Clutter may or one way or another:

● increase your stress

● trigger respiratory issues (dust and mites)

● threaten safety (in cases of severe clutter piled up in cardboard boxes blocking ways and exits)

● endanger your private relationship ( may cause discomfort, irritability, and judgment)

● upset your kids (may feel distressed and have difficulty making friends)

● isolate you (no desire to invite people over due to clutter)

● prevent a promotion (impact on job performance)

● miss work could be due to anxiety or substance use

● decrease productivity (can't focus)

● make you spend more (for when you thought you have already lost something, so you buy a new one)

● keep you in debt (lost or misplaced bills, which can lead to late payments)

Clutter is more than simply an annoyance and an eyesore. It has a direct impact on our physical, psychological, and emotional wellbeing, as well as how our bosses and coworkers see us. It reduces our productivity and increases our anxiety. We can eradicate clutter from our workspace and restore calmness to our desk with some basic organizational skills and a little drive.