Cut the Clutter

Is Your Landscaping Facility Organized?

Distractions can add to your team's indirect time and impact your company's efficiency. With our costs steadily rising, whatever a company can do to improve efficiency helps us keep prices in check and maintain our margins. 

Grunder Landscaping has always placed a focus on organization and systems. It's as central to who we are as anything else, and it is a key part of our operation. If you're unorganized, your crews waste time looking for what they need. Clutter gets in the way and distracts from the job at hand. Plus, there is research indicating that clutter can add to your stress and anxiety. The GLC team doesn't stay organized because we are neat freaks, we do it because it helps us work more efficiently and be more profitable. We keep clutter to a minimum and have clear, labeled, places for everything in our office and shop. 

Dedicate some time this week to getting organized yourself. Maybe that's with your personal workspace or email inbox, or maybe it's taking on the larger project of cleaning up your facility. Either way, the process is the same:

1. Purge what you no longer need. Remove the clutter and get rid of the items you've been saving "just in case" you need them again someday or because you think you can fix them later. Just get rid of it, it'll help you and your team stay focused.

2. If you don't already have a system, create one with clear signage. Place alike things together, categorize them, and label the spaces. This will help you create a sustainable system where when new items come in it's easy to find them a home next to other alike things. It also helps your team follow the system in place, without having to ask you where something goes.

3. Educate Your Team. If you're organizing space that others use too, get their buy-in and emphasize the importance of staying organized. It saves the whole team time, reduces the number of questions about "Where is XX?", and can help the company be more profitable which benefits every team member in the long run. And remember, after you use something, put it back where it belongs. Follow the adage "there is a place for everything, and everything has its place." 

If you're looking for inspiration on organization systems, there's nothing better than seeing a great system yourself: Sign up for one of our Grunder Landscaping Field Trips this fall. We'll walk you through everything we do at GLC: from how and where we store tools to how we manage HR, sales, finance, marketing, and more. 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, we'll talk to you next week!

The Grow Group
Marty, Vince, Emily, and Lindsey