Five Questions to Guide You Through the Process of Cleaning Out a Commercial Storage Space
If you're cleaning out a commercial storage space, you may be wondering what to get rid of and what to keep. To help you stay organised, consider working through these questions. Not every question applies to every business, but in general, these questions should help you pare down and organise what's in your commercial storage unit.
1. Is Your Storage Compliant With New Industry Rules?
Before going to clean out your commercial storage unit, you may want to brush up on industry-specific storage regulations. For instance, you may need to meet certain privacy standards when storing medical records, or if you're storing pantry items for a restaurant, you may need to meet food safety standards. Check for any industry updates or new laws and make sure you're compliant. If not, you may need to change your storage strategies.
2. Are Items Losing Value Whilst in Storage?
To decide if you should keep or purge items, you may want to consider whether they are gaining or losing value. For instance, if you have antiques for a curiosity shop in your storage unit, they may be growing in value, and thus, it may be worth the monthly storage fees. If you have items that are just growing old and dusty and losing value, you may want to sell those items and save a bit of money on storage costs.
3. Is Tech Outdated?
If you're storing office computers, hardware or software, consider whether the tech is outdated or not. If it's outdated, it is undoubtedly losing value quickly, and it may never be useful in your business again. In these cases, you also may want to purge these items. Keep in mind that you should recycle old electronics to be environmentally friendly.
4. Are You Spending Too Much on Inventory Storage?
In some cases, you may be storing inventory in commercial storage. You should consider whether or not this is cost effective. If you're constantly moving old inventory out of the storage facility and bringing in new inventory, that may be cost effective. In other cases, you may be willing to pay storage costs for inventory that moves slowly if that supports the level of diversity you want for your online or brick-and-mortar shop. If you think you have too much inventory, you may want to have a special sale.
5. Can You Switch Anything to Digital?
Finally, you may want to save space by converting paper files to digital format. Make sure that you are meeting industry regulations or tax codes if you decide to convert client records or tax records to digital format. Then, make sure the storage facility you use is climate controlled to support the safe storage of digital files.