Spring is finally in the air, and with it comes the freshening up of spring cleaning. This season, don’t just reorganize your spice rack or deep clean your carpets, look into cleaning up your business! Here are four ways you can declutter your small business.

1. Bookkeeping

Ah yes, the most fun part of running our own business – bookkeeping. Your business accounting books are a look back at your transactions and financial records, but can also be used to look to the future of your finances, so it is important to keep your books in a neat and organized manner. Steps to organize your books include:

  • Sorting receipts
  • Reviewing files and accounts
  • Keeping your business and personal expenses separate
  • Digitizing and automating whatever you can

For more information on automating your books, check out these articles.

2. Circle Back to Your Annual Goals

Despite what it may feel like, it is in fact April already. How have you been working these past 4 months to reach your year end goals? Are your goals turning out to be unrealistic or not ambitious enough? Now is the time to look back on and reassess your goals for this year. Things change every single day, especially at a tumultuous time like 2021, so your business and your goals should be able to change and adapt with it. Don’t be afraid to readjust your plans for the year! 

3. Cleanup and Automate Your Inbox

If you’re anything like us, your email inbox can get a little out of control at times. Especially in the age of COVID and work from home, correspondence over email has become the mode of communication, meaning we are sending and receiving more emails than ever. 

Things you can do to clean things up is to unsubscribe from any unwanted newsletters or advertisements, delete emails that serve you no purpose, and mark any of the super important emails and put them in organized folders. To keep things clean, you can go into your email settings and set up filters that send things like newsletters straight to “read later” so they don’t crowd your inbox, as well as setting up auto-replies. Here is a more in depth look into cleaning up your inbox.

4. Revitalize Your Workspace

Alright, we can have a little fun with this one. The ability to work from home for many of us offers more temptation to leave it cluttered – no one is going to see it except you, right? However, having a clean and organized workspace is crucial for productivity and mental health while working those long hours in one spot. 

Basics include dusting, vacuuming, wiping down surfaces, clearing out any trash or unnecessary clutter, etc. Beyond just a clean space, your workspace should be a place where you WANT to be – so personalize it! Whether that be with motivational quotes plastered on your walls or being surrounded by house plants, make your desk or office a place that reflects your aesthetic and your goals. A great place to look for workspace inspiration is Pinterest – here’s a board we really love. 

Running a company from home in the middle of a global pandemic is hard enough, make things a little easier on yourself by eliminating any clutter or mess. As the queen of organization once said, “The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment.” – Marie Kondo