4 Steps to Organize Your Supply Closet

Imagine, someone asks you to get a new toner for the copier.

You think to yourself, “Do they realize the magnitude of the job they’ve just asked me to do? Have they seen our supply closet? It could take all day.” You’re a team player though, so you cheerfully say “You bet! Just give me a few minutes.”

We deliver supplies to offices all over the Chattanooga area, so we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly over the years. We’re here to help you get that supply closet under control with these 4 tried and true tips for organizational success.

#1 Group similar items & clearly label shelves

Few things are as frustrating as having to hunt around for that thing you are looking for only to find that it’s not where you left it last. If you don’t have a place where similar items are meant to go, people will tend to put them wherever is most convenient for them. If your supplies are organized this way, it only takes a short amount of time before disorganization and frustration set in.

#2 Check on it regularly

Assign an employee to keep track of the supplies in the closet. This should result in fewer trips to the office supply store and the ability to see what needs to be ordered.

#3 De-clutter and standardize

Another idea is to standardize the tools your people use so you only have to carry one supply item in the closet for each task the staff performs. For example, the tape dispenser and stapler are the same. You can see how much easier it would be for the person ordering supplies to simply remember one SKU for each supply item. It’s incredibly efficient to operate this way.

#4 Consider a copier that helps you simplify toner supplies

We’ve covered 3 great tips for keeping your supply closet spick-and-span, but we have just one more thought to leave you with.

In the same vein as de-cluttering and standardizing office supplies, businesses will appreciate Sharp’s color Advanced and Essentials Series workgroup document systems that offer common toner supplies across the entire line. This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s actually very unique. In fact, Sharp has the only line of copiers in the industry that all take the same toner – from their 20 page-per-minute unit all the way up to their 60 page-per-minute copier. This helps save you time, money, and storage space by removing the necessarily complicated chore of stocking several different models of toner for the various machines in your office.