By Shay Hughes

Over the past six months, our Hughes Marino offices have undergone multiple expansions and a company-wide design refresh, complete with vibrant new décor, lighting, art and furnishings. For more on the design refresh, please see our recent post here. Along with the revamping of our offices, we have also refined the way we keep our workspaces organized and tidy! With the help of NEAT Method, we have been able to create and maintain an even more beautiful space that helps our team stay organized and efficient on a daily basis.

After discovering their passion for creating a clutter-free and organized space, NEAT Method was founded by Ashley Murphy and Molly Graves in order to transform spaces from chaotic to composed. With the help of Katie Koentje, NEAT Method’s Southern California leader, and her fabulous team, we were able to transform our already organized offices to ensure that our organization not only made sense in terms of grouping items together in a logical way, but more importantly, allows for anyone on our team to find items quickly and identify when inventory is needing to be replenished.

We loved the NEAT Method team’s keen eye for detail, no-nonsense yet collaborative approach, and refined modern style that perfectly matches what we strive for at Hughes Marino. We take immense pride in our offices as a place to welcome our clients into a beautiful environment and inspire them with ideas they can implement in their own offices, while also striving to ensure our own team members also feel inspired, creative and cared for every day while they are at work.

The NEAT Method’s in-depth process started with an in-person consultation and then their team helped us organize and categorize items in our kitchen, bathrooms, living rooms and storage areas. Organization is about form and function and with this new mode of thinking, we were able to create the perfect organization method that we can maintain for years to come!

Clear stacking bins, shelves, baskets, lazy susans, divider trays and more were used to organize items. Below are some tips that you can also implement in your own offices that have benefitted us greatly!

1. Decant All Supplies

It might sound like an odd idea to empty out boxes and items into one container, but it helps remove bulky boxes and clutter, and with many air-tight containers on the market, you can keep supplies fresh while also displayed in an aesthetically pleasing way! This is especially important for snacks in your kitchen.

2. Use Clear, Coordinated Containers

Clear containers allow you to see your items quickly, saving time from having to open boxes or containers to see their contents and if you are running low on any items. Also, coordinating the containers adds to that neat, cohesive look!

3. Mix in Baskets

Containers are great, but feel free to add in some baskets to help add variety and interest to your organized look! We love having baskets hold items that need to be easily accessible.

4. Use Divider Trays

We found divider trays to be perfect for organizing coffee and tea supplies in our Hughes Marino kitchens. Not only does it allow easy access for team members to start their days off right with their morning pick-me-ups, but it keeps our drawers perfectly organized and adds to the enjoyment of kicking off the day!

5. Create a Unified Labeling System

This was KEY when we refined our offices, as our main goal was for anyone to easily go into a space and find what they were looking for quickly! We loved the idea of the black chalk labels as they keep everything clearly identified, add to the design of our offices, and are easy for our team to update as needed!

6. Be Green While Decluttering

When the NEAT team was finished, they thoughtfully disposed of the items we no longer needed with protecting the environment in mind. From giving away extra IT and household items to our own team to take home, to donating extra supplies we no longer needed to local charities, shredding sensitive documents, and recycling as many materials as possible, they helped keep items we needed to throw away to a minimum. It’s this thoughtful and intentional approach that we really appreciated about the NEAT team.

We can’t thank the NEAT Method enough for helping us to refine and organize our offices and we hope that our tips help you with your offices as well! For more information about the NEAT Method, please visit their website or reach out to our organizer, Katie Koentje, directly at katie@neatmethod.com.

P.S. This endorsement of NEAT Method is a result of our genuine happy experience with them and nothing else! This is not a paid ad and we gained nothing by recommending them, except that we hope others find these tips and our recommendation a helpful resource!