Reduce Clutter, Save Money
A lot of people do not realise how much clutter costs them in their home and office, and also financially. Do you want to save money, increase productivity and have more time to spend with your family and friends, then you need to consider removing the clutter from your life.
Here is how to calculate the cost of clutter in each part of your life:
Home Clutter
A simple formula has been created to calculate the cost of lost space in your home:
1. Current monthly cost of your living space / square footage = Value of your home per square foot.
2. Take inventory of the rooms, closets, storage rooms, garage and other areas that are unusable because of the clutter.
3. Take the value of your square footage (point 1) x amount of clutter space = Cash value of the space.You can take this even further
4. Monthly rent or Mortgage payment / square footage of your living space = see how much room is devoted to clutter.
You can also be losing money by paying for off site storage units to hold extra clutter. How much are you paying in monthly and yearly charges to hold this clutter? On average you can pay around AED2500 per year for storing this clutter. The money you spend on storing clutter could be saved for a fabulous holiday, retirement plan or into a savings plan.Damage to the items stored in these units and in your homes can also cost you additional money to fix or rebuy. Some items may need to be taken by specialist removal services which will cost additional amounts.
Financial Clutter
Do you pay penalties and fees due to late payment of bills, as they have been buried in your email clutter or underneath the paper clutter in your home? If you are late on payments, such as for DEWA and they shut off your power, you will need to pay additional amounts to reconnect the service.Do you shred your banking items? If no, your clutter could have a direct impact on identity theft. Decluttering your paperwork can save you money and prevent theft occurring.
Office ClutterIn recent reports it has been calculated that the average employee spends 30 minutes per day and 150 hours per year looking for items such as documents and tools. How easy is it for you to find the document your boss requires. If you are too slow, it could be costing you a promotion. If you have files around your feet and clutter on your desk, your boss may think you are unable to handle your current responsibilities and you could be never considered for a higher position.How often do you miss meetings due to a disorganised calendar or reminder. Being disorganised could be resulting in lost revenue for the business.A study by Brother International in the USA found that US companies were losing USD 177 billion annually due to clutter.If you organise your workspace you can increase productivity and add dollars to your balance sheet.
Digital Clutter Digital clutter is becoming a greater issue for companies as there is an increase to become "paperless" and streamline systems (especially when an international corporation).How much does it cost you to store digital clutter?Are you clearing the hard drives and server on a periodic basis especially when employees leave?How many flash drives does your business order annually for storage of documents?Do you pay for an off-site digital storage unit?How often do you increase that storage capacity?How slow does your computer run everyday due to the clutter on your desktop?If you spend a few hours eliminating the files you do not need, you can save money on back up hard drives, flash drives, date storage units (whether online or offline).If you spend a few hours per week clearing your email system, hard drivers and server documents, you can save yourself and business money and time.We are all busy in our day to day lives but if we spend a few hours a day clearing the clutter we can save ourselves a huge amount of money.
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