How to declutter your office – and boost business efficiency

Clutter is bad for your business. Seriously – it’s probably costing you money as you read this.

For a start, it takes up space. Assuming that you pay for your premises in some way, unnecessary paperwork is effectively squatting.

Clutter also makes you inefficient. How long do you spend looking for documents you know you filed “sensibly” a couple of months ago but now can’t find?

And it’s stressful, isn’t it? For you and for your staff, who are probably as demoralised by chaos as you are.

If you’re shifting uncomfortably in your seat right now, don’t worry – you’re definitely not alone! But scheduling in a declutter or spring clean soon would be a good idea. After all, it’s the right time of year for it.

“But I need all this paperwork!” you may be saying. And maybe you’re right. But do you need it languishing in flimsy archive boxes or rows of rusty filing cabinets?

Here are three things to ask yourself:

Do I need it at all? If the answer is no, get rid of it. If it’s sensitive, make sure it’s properly destroyed so you don’t run into security issues.

Do I need it on site? A safe and secure storage facility could well be the answer – just make sure it’s one with a good barcoding, cataloguing and retrieval system.

Do I need it in hard copy? If not, scanning it will reduce its physical impact without you losing the content you need.

No one likes spring cleaning, but we all love an uncluttered, efficient workspace. And at least it will be done – until next year, anyway.

If you’d like us to help you assess your business data and how it can be more efficiently stored, expertly scanned or securely destroyed, contact the team on 0800 008 7229 for a no obligation assessment.

Just how Secure is your Document Storage?

Here at Scan Film Store one of our main services is document storage, whether holding your physical paper records securely off-site or scanned copies in a digital format.

So we were intrigued to find out about some of the most secure storage facilities in the world. When you think about the ultimate in secure storage Fort Knox would probably be one of the first to come to mind, but in fact there are a number of more unusual places that can rival it in terms of security but it’s likely you’ve never heard of them.

Svalbard Seed Vault

How many of you have heard of the Svalbard seed vault before today? Well to tell you the truth neither had we. As the name might suggest the purpose of the vault is to store duplicates (‘back ups’) of all seed samples from the world’s crop collections.

The seeds are stored on the island of Svalbard which is located halfway between Norway and the North Pole under what is known as “black box” arrangements. This means that once the packets of seed are sent for storage they will not be opened or sent to anyone other than the original depositor in the event that they are required. No one will have access to anyone else’s seeds!

So if you want to make sure that your business records are backed up and have no possibility of being altered by anyone else then the seed vault sounds like a pretty great place. What a shame that your business records don’t come in seed format.

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