Guide to downsizing your office space

This COVID-19 situation affects a major number of businesses. While some are closed, others continued to work from home. Furthermore, there are also multiple industries that must continue to operate at all costs, since all people's lives depend on it. For example, medicine, food industry, police and fire departments, etc. Another truth is that with this setback, the number of employees also reduced. All companies that have large office space now face this issue of having to pay for it, even though a small number of people are actually in the office. Whether you need to reduce your office expenses or simply want to arrange your "home office", here is a handy guide to downsizing your office space.

Multi-purpose furniture

Whether you are working from home and looking for productivity tips or thinking about finding a smaller office space and making it work for all your needs, multi-purpose furniture is always worth considering. For example, if you have a desk with a lot of drawers, you can use it as a workspace and as storage for your paperwork.

This type of thinking will help you save precious space, and it will consequently lower your expenses.

Use virtual data storage

There is still a large number of companies that use physical documentation, like contracts, addendums, etc. However, there is also a large number of companies that moved all of their paperwork to a virtual environment. Using Cloud as storage for all the important documentation for your business is a smart move.

First of all, it is way cheaper than renting storage. Secondly, you will successfully declutter your office and create free space by removing all those gigantic filing cabinets. Furthermore, finding and handling an electronic document is much easier these days.

Also, remember that paper costs money. To put something on paper you also need printers. Printers need ink, and they need maintenance as well. All of those expenses can be significantly lowered if you switch to virtual data storage.

Virtual meetings instead of meeting rooms

If you are currently working from home, you probably had a lot of online meetings within your company. The benefit of virtual meetings is beyond any measure. There is no need to rent meeting rooms, and everyone can connect easily with the use of online apps, no matter where they are.

If you are thinking about downsizing your office space, this is one of the best practices you can apply. And at this moment when keeping our distance from other people is important for our health, this will help you to continue your business without major setbacks.

Think about productivity and usability of office equipment

You know how people often buy all those handy kitchen utensils that they use once a month, if not even less? That is how you effectively waste space in your kitchen and money in your wallet. Now take this example and move it to your office. Do you have any piece of equipment that you don't use, but you still keep it because you might have it one day?

This is not a good practice. Immediately get rid of anything you don't use. Of course, if you are just an employee, you cannot simply throw away that old printer in the corner. It is in the ownership of your company. However, what you can do is give a suggestion on how to make your office space more productive. Point out anything that can be a space waster.

Think about office layout

One of the best approaches to downsizing your office space is to make changes in the office layout. Depending on the number of employees you have, try to come up with different furniture layouts and see which one takes the least amount of space.

This approach will help you utilize office space in the most productive way, and it is very useful if you wish to take care of your business during the quarantine.

Rearrange employee shifts

I understand that this step doesn't really have much to do with downsizing your office space, but it is an important step all the same. For example, if you are considering renting a smaller office that can support only 6 people, but you have 12 employees, you will have to make seating changes. This is when shifts become useful.

If you still need 12 people during one shift, split them so half works from home and the other half works from the office. And, they can swap every week, so the other group can also work from home.

This is a great strategy to downsize your office, save money, and keep employees happy.

Moving to a new office space

Have in mind that renting a smaller office space might require moving your entire business to a new place. Even though this is challenging, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, it is a smart move to make if you need to lower your expenses.

Switching completely to working from home

Finally, if you decide that you cannot rent office space any longer, the smartest move is to have everyone work from home. This change may be difficult to make, but it is a necessity if you wish to continue running your business. Do not forget to help your employees adjust to working from home, and create a communication channel that will keep the information flow steady.

You will soon discover that this is a great option to increase company earnings.

Guide to downsizing your office space - done!

To quickly summarize everything I covered in today's article:

• always use multi-functional furniture
• think about the most productive layout of office furniture and equipment
• start using online storage systems
• online meetings are a must
• move to a smaller office space or
• have your employees work from home

Following these tips and best practices will make downsizing your office space a children's game. Just remember to always think about how to utilize your office in the best possible way, and how to lower your office expenses. Keep your business running and stay safe!