How to organize a new office building.

If you ever find yourself in a spot where you have to organize an office building, and don’t have a clear layout where things need to be placed; here is a few pointers on organizing an office building:

1. Know what rooms will be used for what purpose. This will make it much easier to put the proper items in their proper place the first time, and not have to rearrange later.
2. Do a ‘general’ clean up. Put everything away near or in the room it is designated for. If the Accounting department needs three desks, put three desks at that general location. Don’t rearrange furniture just yet, but at least put what you need in each room, that way you can see what exactly you may be missing.
3. Once everything is in the room, get whomever is in charge of that department (or spearheading the layout planning), to look it over. It’s important that you take the time to discuss the layout as what outlets, network access receptacles, etc may change where the furniture and items are placed in the room.
4. Start moving all the larger items around to their places to get a feel for the room. Envision what the place will look like when all components are in place. Make sure that every workstation or device will be able to access whatever resource it needs from the location it is in.
5. If you’re cabling a new place as well, it’s probably not best to start ‘cleaning’ everything yet, as you probably will be spending time on ladders and maneuvering in the ceiling.
6. Know how to properly dispose of any hazardous materials. Some containers, components, and the like may need to be disposed of in a certain way. While it may not be your problem, it will be for someone else. Be considerate and take that extra time in disposing.