A short anecdote first. My friend has a small business in landscaping which is doing very well. Last year her business had grown so that she could no longer park her car in her own warehouse. It turned out that all the hoses, fertiliser bags, various parts for the different types of blowers she used as well as the seasonal stock that she held for 3 months of the year had taken up the entire space. It had all been slowly eroding away over time until one day it had all disappeared.
Sound familiar?
A couple of weeks ago we discussed how space doesn’t disappear overnight. However, space can erode very slowly and before you know it, it all collapses. Piles of old paperwork and invoices, storage display racks for old product lines, overstocked items that were purchased on clearance some time ago. These things can become massive operating costs for a business before you know it.
The myth of “we’ll sort it eventually”
There are many items that businesses have stored in their facilities which are excess to current requirements. Stock, old equipment, excess packaging, odd shaped items that are stored to fill space, archives of past documentation and old office equipment. All these items have been left because they had a use at some stage. But when they are no longer required to be used they get left and start to fill up a lot of space. These items amass slowly and before you know it they have taken over your working space. They have started to become a storage facility instead of a place to service clients, to meet and work.
Clearing space in a business is a massive undertaking. I’m not going to sugar coat it. It’s a huge job to sort through the clutter, organize the workspace and set up systems to keep it that way. But there is really only one decision that you need to make about each item in your business. The decision is where will this item live when it is not in use?
As I’ve already stated, renting larger commercial space is also often used to combat space issues. However, we quickly come to realize that paying for longer leases, and higher commercial space rental per square meter, just to store loads of boxes of archived documents, old stock, or even that folding table you take with you to trade shows twice a year – that’s not a space problem; it’s a storage problem. And there’s a big difference.
What’s actually eating your square footage?
Most problems with space in small business can be solved by one simple rule: the worst way to store an item is the way that it is currently being stored.
- Excess inventory that hasn’t moved in months, stacked in corners because “it’ll sell eventually”
- Boxes of documents and records that legally need to be kept but have zero business being at arm’s reach
- Seasonal equipment that’s critical for three months and completely irrelevant for nine
- Furniture, fixtures, or retail displays from a previous setup that nobody wants to commit to throwing out
None of that needs to be in your prime commercial space. Your work space should be for work, not for all the ‘stuff’ that your business has grown from over time. Let it go. Let it all go.
A quick comparison: expanding vs. storing
| Factor | Expanding your premises | Using offsite storage |
| Upfront cost | High (fit-out, bond, relocation) | Low (monthly rental, flexible terms) |
| Commitment | Long-term lease, often 2-5 years | Month-to-month in most cases |
| Disruption to operations | Significant | Minimal |
| Solves a storage problem | Sometimes, temporarily | Directly and immediately |
Offsite Storage – How it can work for your Operation
Offsite storage is for storing things that need to exist but aren’t needed right now. All of the above items could be defined as this and as you can see are not things that would typically be stored in a business’ commercial premises. Store these items off site and free up your commercial premises for more useful purposes.
Managing business space effectively often requires more than simply moving items around; it involves making smarter decisions about organization, efficiency, and future growth. Many companies now use advanced digital resources and modern technology trends to improve planning, streamline operations, and create more productive work environments.
Offsite storage is for things that you are holding on to because they have some value but that you do not need to keep near at hand. Those pop up banners for trade shows that you have from years ago are great things to store offsite as well as all of the inventory of slow moving products that you have picked up at very low prices prior to the start of Q4 and are storing in the back of your storage space. These items have value to you. Right now the value is not being realized because the way that you are storing these items is not in a way that is helpful to you in your work.
Many businesses around the world are utilizing the offsite storage facilities for a variety of things. The regional businesses are able to use a single storage unit at the offsite storage facility such as business storage Bunbury self storage ENDANCHOR and free up the floor space. They will then be reminded of just how much space they really have, and the corners and nook and crannies that items had previously been filling.
Step 1: Prioritise Your Decluttering Process.
- Start with documents. Anything older than 12 months that’s kept for compliance rather than active reference goes into storage. Box it, label it clearly, get it out of your sightline.
- Then tackle seasonal gear. If it’s not currently in rotation, it has no business sitting in your main workspace taking up oxygen.
- Finally, address slow-moving inventory honestly — and I mean honestly, not optimistically. Be real with yourself about what’s actually going to sell and what’s just quietly hoping you’ll forget about it.
No, there’s no great system for sorting out a cluttered storage facility but then to sort through it. When you find the space you need to clear, just decide what to do with the stuff that’s in the way. In most cases, that stuff will be stored elsewhere. Here is how to decide what to move out first.
The real question hiding inside the logistical one
Space problems and storage problems are different things.
Most business owners view cluttered workspaces with a sense of unease and uncertainty. They fear that their business isn’t reaching its full potential, and that problems are hidden beneath the surface of the work that they are doing. But in reality, no one can ever know for sure whether or not your business is achieving its full potential. The key is to keep working towards your goals, and to find the best ways to work within the space that you have. Some businesses work from basements, others from large warehouse spaces. As long as you are working towards your goals and reaching your full potential, it really does not matter where you work from.
You don’t need more space. You need less ‘stuff’ in the space you have. Once you start to see your workspace in a new light this becomes very obvious. The ‘stuff’ that you have in your workspace is taking up your valuable prime real estate and stopping you from being able to work effectively. So get rid of it.
Start there.
