Since 2013, Emilio and I have been offering workshops and team-building events on the topics of organization, minimalism, and self-care. This Spring, we were introduced to a company who is completely changing the way team building events are thought of.

A company called WholeHearted connected with us to discuss being a part of their programming for a corporate customer event that would see it’s employees gather, eat and drink local treats, learn about decluttering, and donate their unwanted items to charities in need. The best part? The employees were given hours off from work to actually take action on the learnings.

So picture this: everyone met online, the snacks and drinks were delivered to their door the day before, KW Professional Organizers shared their expertise to help kick-start a declutter session, and then the employees signed off and went at their own decluttering projects and the employees supported each other’s progress through the company chat.

Team building events can feel better

Cat, co-founder of WholeHearted, shared that employees spend a lot of time at work, and they deserve to feel good about it. WholeHearted helps companies and leaders offer their teams opportunities to do good through events and fostering corporate wellness.

Cat also enlightened me by stating that one of the ways employees can feel great about their work and who they work for is by having opportunities to give back. Volunteer Canada supports this with “research that indicates that 80% of employer-supported volunteers believe that group volunteering strengthens their relationships with colleagues.”

Ask your boss to get into corporate wellness

You might be asking yourself after reading this, “Great! How can my boss offer better team events?” Good question. We thought the same thing and decided to ask Cat and Gill from WholeHearted for their suggestions.

3 ways to ask for better team building events

1. Ask for a survey – it’s easier to offer your feedback to the company leader or manager if it’s asked for. Maybe your company already offers a survey to their staff, but if they don’t, this is a great place to start down the road to getting better employee experiences. Let your company know what solutions you’re seeking, what causes you support, and what you’d really love to see for your wellness.

2. Identify the gap – what is really missing at your work? Sometimes it’s challenging for your leaders to know what it is the team really needs. You probably have the answers because you’re working on the front lines. Does the team need time to rekindle after months of working solo at home? Maybe a group of you have been wanting to learn a new skill? Share this knowledge with your leaders and you might be happy to find it weaved into the next team-building event.

3. Reinvent the same old event – you know what I’m talking about here. At the end of every quarter the group gets together for pre-cut sandwiches, coffee, and a speaker, then everyone heads back to their desks. The truth is that your company does want to support your wellness, but they need a nudge in a new direction. If the events are scheduled, all you need to do is suggest the previous two tips and your afternoon in a chair with sandwiches is sure to change for the better.

Better company culture, better work

WholeHearted founders say it best, “these days, people are looking for a sense of meaning in their work. It’s not all about the paycheck and the corner office anymore.” And we couldn’t agree more. We witness the power of positive self-care and wellness with our clients and our audiences every day. If you start to use your voice to ask for what you really want to see at your work, you will have the positive ripple effect we’ve all been waiting for.  

Since the onslaught of COVID-19, we have been asked repeatedly how to best create your home office and ideal workspace. You may very well be reading this post from your own desk at home right now. And, we want to help you get set up for success by sharing the idea of what having a minimalist desk is all about.

Minimalist Desk Examples:

A minimalist desk can look like this:

But a minimalist desk can also look like this:

Does this seem confusing? Don’t worry, many people often misunderstand that minimalism doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to own anything. But in fact, minimalism is about removing what is no longer important in your life to reveal what is truly important for you to function the way you love. Read more about defining minimalism. And if you would prefer, listen to Emilio’s audio version.

So in the first photo, you can see that Emilio’s desk is simple and fun, not a lot to his murphy-style minimalist desk. And in the second photo, there are a lot of items in and around the desk, but all of them are again necessary for creativity.

How do I create my own minimalist desk?

We’re glad you asked. By following the steps we’ve outlined below you can create your own minimalist desk in a matter of minutes or hours, depending on what activities you’re doing in your workspace. Meaning that if you’re a laptop user and coffee drinker your desk will be easier to create than the woodcarver who has hundreds of necessary tools.

4 Steps to a Minimalist Desk

1. Decide – you can do this in your mind or on paper, but create a list of activities that you are going to do while at your desk (this helps you understand what physical items you might need or how much clear space you require)

2. Eliminate – find the table, desk, or area that you are going to use as your minimalist desk and take everything off of that space. You are going to set these items aside and decide one-by-one what will go back (remember to use the list you just created if you get stuck on tough items)

3. Store – now’s the time to find the right homes for the items your keeping. Often times you will never need to buy products, you probably have what you need around the home, so get creative.

4. Keep Tidy – maintenance is the most neglected strategy for having a great workspace. Try integrating a daily tidy-up of 5 minutes either morning or evening that every item returns to its proper home and used mugs go back to the kitchen sink. 

By using the D.E.S.K. acronym you can create a workspace that works for you and the work you do. Your minimalist desk is waiting to be discovered and only you know what will work best. And remember that you can always change and pivot as your needs change with the times.

Working from home can be a real blessing when you feel inspired by the place that you camp out, so take some time and create your minimalist desk. Love minimalism, but your workspace is fine? Find more inspiration in our minimalist solutions post. We look forward to seeing what you create. Leave us a comment below and we’ll be sure to answer quickly.

Turning a Passion for Minimalism into an Impact Business (interview)

He wanted to know how we are building an impact business around organization and minimalism. 

This is a snippet of his original post: 

“Samantha and Emilio are full of energy and have a certain zest for life that is contagious.

After their interview, I got a copy of their new book, A Recipe For an Extraordinary Life.” It’s an easy read that offers a lot of great insights and inspiration.  They don’t just help you declutter your space but also your mind.

In this interview, we talk about how they turned that passion into a business.

Decluttering is their genius. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. They want to help you remove the things you don’t need to be doing and focus on what really matters to you.”

Click here to read the original interview

We hope you enjoy it. Let us know your thoughts about this interview. 

Watch how we boosted business storage for this small business in Toronto.Give your brain a break. Embrace the power of labels and systems to stay organized with your stuff.

Recently we were invited to Toronto, Ontario to complete a project of creating an organized storage system for several businesses in one space. Over time the shared space had become a dumping ground for items because there was never an established system for having “homes” for things. This is very common and easily fixed.

Watch the video below of the transformation, we explain the steps we followed to make it happen. Below the video we’ll share our Top 4 Tips for making your project a success.

4 Best Practices to follow when creating your ideal storage spaces.

1. Start with your why! You have to know what you’re working towards. What is the bright future that you can visualize when the project is complete? This is your key to ever-lasting motivation. When the times get tough — just remember why you’re doing this in the first place.

2. Schedule Time. Estimate a good amount of time that you can dedicate to your project. Remember it’s an investment in yourself. It doesn’t feel good to be rushed, give yourself time to get things done. Even if it’s one hour a week — eventually over time you will be successful!

3. Know Your Challenges. If you can name the roadblocks that might stand in your way, like procrastination, budget, or decision making, then you can make strategies for how to overcome them!

4. Prioritize Routine Maintenance. Maintenance is the difference between staying organized or falling back into chaos. We personally enjoy this part of the organizing process. Routine maintenance allows you to confirm that your system is working, that labels are still relevant, and it acts as a memory refresher for what you have in storage. Maintenance is the investment in yourself and your peace of mind — if someone tells you they’re too busy to make this happen, they’re not making healthy investments with their time. 

To read about the experiences of our friends at Coco & Cowe first hand, visit their blog about their storage space transformations.

Decluttering for Successful Entrepreneurship.

“Decluttering forces the entrepreneur to go through everything (physical, mental or both!) to find what is important and what adds value.

Once this process is completed what remains is a clearer view of what needs to be done”.

We had the honour to meet with Zoe, the Chief Executive of Schmooz, a successful Online Consulting Firm in Toronto. 

Zoe understands how important decluttering is for successful entrepreneurship. She shares with us challenges that most of her clients are facing and also her personal challenges regarding of clutter.

She also created a blog post “Decluttering… for entrepreneurs” where we answer some questions for her.

Why are you interested in talking about decluttering Zoe?

I have had many clients coming to me talking about all the noise that surrounds them as they work on building their businesses. When I ask what “noise” they are talking about, it’s many things: It’s the stack of papers on their desks, their accounting tool, the ads that pop up on their Facebook making them feel that they should be doing more and the pressure they feel to use every platform for their business.  I’m interested in talking about decluttering because I think people need to feel that they have permission to choose and to simplify so that they can be productive, efficient and more satisfied.

“People need to feel that they have permission to choose and to simplify so that they can be productive, efficient and more satisfied”

What kind of clutter have you seen from working with entrepreneurs? 

I have seen lots of different types of clutter in my time working with entrepreneurs.

Technology clutter– “Which tool do I use? How many self-help online course videos should I watch? What entrepreneur newsletters should I unsubscribe from?”

Paper Clutter- “Hold on, let me write that in my agenda, my day planner, my google calendar, my iPad notetaker, my Evernote”…you get the drift!

Brain Clutter – “I’m not sure what to do for my business, there are so many options. I could expand, I could do an e-book, I could run ads, I could go door to door…but I only have $1000.00 to spend”

How do you think decluttering can help small business owners? 

I think a lot of people feel overwhelmed by all the options available and are worried about missing out on something if they don’t do it all. This is something I can relate to because it’s a very human thing to feel. Learning about decluttering could be very helpful in making small business owners clarify what is specifically important to them.

Do you personally feel like you have clutter in your life/small business?

My biggest challenges are keeping track of my expenses and managing my own expectations about clutter. I’m a very in-the-moment type of person, and I find it hard to take a pause and take a picture of my receipts. The other challenge I’ve had is that my husband and I have been doing home renovations through most of my time running Schmooz Media. It was particularly hard to run my business from home while our house was a dusty messy construction site. As the home projects subside, and I leave home to go to work now, I feel much more balanced.

How best do you learn new information? 

I learn best by doing. From my days of teaching, we always talked about show don’t tell and I think that could not be truer. That’s why teaching my clients how to reach their clients and not only reaching clients for them is important to me. Knowledge (that means something to you) is power! If I’m in a stressful situation, I will learn to adapt and do so well, but my desired learning experience is to understand why I need to learn something from a high level and then do it, even if mistakes are made along the way.

What value does learning about decluttering offer?

I believe that small details make a big difference, however, that does not necessarily mean getting hung up on too many things. In life, simplifying is important. Fewer things done meticulously could be just impressive than many things done in a mediocre way. It’s a choice. Learning how to make that choice is vital- learning what gives you energy or takes energy away from you is empowering. Learning about decluttering can help make it clear what your priorities are.

What are your top 3 fears when it comes to decluttering or clutter? 

1) I’m afraid I’ll “declutter” too much and forget to keep something important. I’d like to trust myself more but in life, there are so many variables and things to remember that it is hard to give myself permission to let go.

KW Professional Organizers comment:

We believe that you can become paralyzed by keeping things for that “just in case” situation. We also believe that if you have the storage space and an organizing system in place, KEEP STUFF! Make sure the items you keep are easily found, accessible, and most importantly, are not preventing you from using a space for it’s intended purpose.

For example, you might think storing papers on top of your desk is best because that’s where you see them and they’re easy to access, BUT they prevent you from having a clean and clear working space. Try instead a paper management system like a filing cabinet, stackable trays, etc.

The most successful entrepreneurs always make time to step back and re-evaluate! We strongly recommend scheduling time in your calendar every 6 – 12 months to go through your stored items and repeat the decluttering process. If you are succeeding with growth in your business, you will not need most of the items you’ve been storing.  Schedule the time and keep only what is relevant and adds value!

2) Holding onto clutter gives me an excuse to mess up. If I get truly organized, then I won’t have an excuse if I make a mistake. While I only have myself to blame if things are out of control (“If only I had more time to organize my desk, then I would be more productive every day” for example)…if I try to control things more and still fail, the failure might feel greater. (“Now my desk is organized, but I still don’t know what work to start with. What’s wrong with me?”) This is counterintuitive because while it’s likely that I will succeed more with less clutter, the fear of this type of negative self-talk is still there.

KW Professional Organizers comment:

It’s very normal to be afraid of change. Decluttering means change, by having less you will have more room for more. More time, more space, more freedom.. but what’s next? It’s really important to ask yourself “why am I doing this?” There is always a reason or a goal that will pull you to keep going.

It’s also important to be aware that trying and failing is a part of life. Don’t be afraid of failing because when you fail you will learn a very valuable lesson. Every time we encounter a challenge or tough experience we ask ourselves, “What are we learning from this?” It quickly flips your mindset from being pissed off or frustrated to “Wow, I just realized that I never want to do a project like this again!” OR “If I had to do this all over again, I would have started like this instead to avoid the outcome I’m in now.”

3) If we assume that time = money, what’s the return on investment in terms of spending the time to declutter? Are there tangible ways to measure the time I spend making myself feel more in control? The answer is yes, but this might be more of a feeling than something I can capture in items I can hold in my hand.

KW Professional Organizers comment:

We measure everything and that includes time! We believe you can measure the investment by keeping track of how you spend your time. We recommend using Toggl to track your time. When you start to see where and how much of your time you spend on projects, paperwork, social media, and other business stuff; you can become empowered by numbers.

For example, meet Sally. Sally is always spending time looking for missing papers, that one email, her keys, or that note she jotted down on a post-it. Sally decides to track how much time she spends looking for things and it adds up quickly. She spends on average 1 hour a DAY looking for things. Sally is a consultant and charges her clients $185/hour. Let’s do some math!

1 hour x 5 days per week = 5 hours
5 hours x 52 weeks per year = 260 hours
260 hours / 24 hours in a day = 11 days *almost two weeks of time spent looking for things
OR Financially… 260 hours x $185 hourly rate = $48,100 of billable revenue LOST

What are your biggest challenges? Feel free to leave a comment below. 

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