How to Organize an Office Kitchen & Supplies – Case Study
My client moved into their brand new, recently renovated office and started settling in. Each of the staff tackled their own workspaces and quickly unloaded the contents of their boxes so that they could get back to work. The challenge was how to organize the office kitchen and supply closets.
They wanted to be sure to maximize all available space, keep clutter to a minimum and assign all office and kitchen supplies to locations that made the most sense. As the office has very high ceilings, the top shelves of all the cabinets weren’t that accessible so strategically positioning items was going to be a must. All the dishes, glasses, cups, snacks, beverages, and other assorted items had been unpacked and randomly placed on shelves and counters in the kitchen. While there were still 7 large cartons of office supplies to be sorted and organized.
I started in the kitchen and assigned locations by category being sure to keep the most frequently used items most accessible. All items were then sorted and grouped by category so that they could be placed in the appropriate cabinets. For example, the mugs, tea and coffee supplies were put in the cabinet about the space where the new coffee machine was to be installed.
Once the kitchen was completely organized, I moved on to the supply cabinets and followed a similar approach after surveying the contents of the cartons. Those office supplies like Fedex envelopes and frequently used small office supplies were assigned a home in the stand-alone cabinet across from the copier. The rest of the items like extra binders, Avery labels and paper were stored in the cabinets above the copier. As I gave my client the tour of the newly organized kitchen and supply cabinets, she kept saying how great the office looked!
My client was pleased because the office not looked great but I also made sure that all their objectives were addressed. If your company has a move scheduled in the coming months,
this moving checklist will come in handy.