Author: jstfort

What exactly is warehousing? While not the most memorable part of a business, it is vital to any business that has a large amount of physical assets. Not every business has the real estate and capital to invest in a location dedicated to storing their assets. That is where warehousing comes in. With over 25 years of experience and 300,000 sq/ft of storage space, Olympia can let you know just how important warehousing is.

What is Warehousing?

Simply put, warehousing is the process of storing physical assets for sale or distribution. Warehouses are used by all different types of businesses which need to temporarily store products in bulk before either shipping them to other locations or individually to end consumers. Amazon is the most notable example, storing millions of items and distributing them accordingly across the country from every location. A well maintained warehouse can keep your assets moving to wherever you need it to be in a timely manner.

Why Outsource Warehouses?

Not every company would be able to afford their own warehouses. It is a huge commitment and a large amount of space dedicated to just storing things. Not to mention, the extra cost of hiring people to keep track of and organizing the assets is yet another huge cost. That’s why getting companies that are able to provide all those services for you is a much cheaper alternative. Companies like Olympia not only store, but also receive and distribute from the warehouse. Learn more about our services here.

Planning a move is more than just calling some movers and setting up a date for them to come and move. There is a surprising amount of work and planning that comes way before the actual moving date. Here is Olympia’s moving checklist to keep you on track for your next move. 

Moving Timeline

Some task that will occur are:

• Crate delivery
• Pre-move instructions meeting
• Move, pack, and prep
• Movers on site at set time
• First day at new location
• Complete unpacking; pick up crates

Setting dates for all these events and following through with it will keep you on track for a stress free move.

Keep a list of Moving Contacts

If you have any questions about your move, remember to call the internal move manager, IT help, and janitorial assistance for any move-related questions

Prepare on Your End

To have your move be as efficient as possible, have everyone do a bit of packing on their own. The moving company of your choice will be spending less time putting things away and more time moving for you. Here is a list to help you and everyone else pack.

1.Clear the desktop and empty all drawers. Pack all these items in the plastic moving crates provided. Each employee will be limited to the supplied number of crates and will not be provided more.

2.Purge unneeded items and documents in the designated shredding, recycling, and garbage stations.

3.If you have any personal items, particularly items of value, take them home for the duration of the move.

4.If your movers have any other instructions, follow them accordingly.

Preparing for an office move yourself? Reach out to Olympia Office Movers today for a free consultation and take advantage of our 30 years of experience for a smooth and stress-free transition.

Have too much excess furniture after your office move? Not enough space to store it all? Don’t want to spend extra money on storage indefinitely? Liquidation may just be your solution! Not only can you save money and furniture, but you can make some money back for them as well!

Liquidation Process

Professional movers will come into your space to take down and remove any unnecessary items in the space. Once it’s clean and organized, a liquidation sale can occur. Leftover furniture will be sold at a discounted rate, and you’ll make something back. It’s a much better solution than leaving them in storage or throwing it out.

Why Choose Olympia

Olympia Office Movers provides office decommission and liquidation services in Greater Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Austin. Olympia has provided decommission and liquidation of a range of furniture and equipment for offices, campuses, schools, laboratories, and more. With more than 25 years of experience and over 300 well trained employees, you can trust us to finish the job in a professional and timely manner.

Everyone in your office has one thing in common. And that is the office cubicle you all have and share. It all looks the same. The same layout, The same beige, low walls. Maybe they’re white. The same L shaped desk. It’s hard to make this space your own. Here are some things you can tweak to make your office cubicle just that much more comfortable to be in.

Use Peripherals you’re comfortable with

You may not be able to change where you’re working, but you can definitely change how you’re working. Using a mouse that’s comfortable in your hand, a keyboard that clicks and clacks just the way you like it, is a game changer. 

Utilize Storage Space

A cluttered desk can make you more anxious. Utilizing smart organizers can make that task easy. Try using a hide-away desk mat to keep important documents and papers out of sight but close at hand. Organize everything else in a file cabinet. Prob your monitor up with a desk shelf 

to utilize the space under the shelf. 

Add Some Personality

Your workspace doesn’t necessarily have to be all work and no play.. Keeping things to remind you of who you are in your cubicle can keep you focused over time. Put up some pictures. Plant some succulents. Put together a puzzle on the side. Just add whatever it is that you love so that you’ll love your office cubicle back. Think of the cubicle as a blank canvas, and personalize it the way that reflects your own style. Some offices have guidelines around clutter and excessive decoration, so remember to check your company policies first!

The past two years have been rough. The pandemic has caused an irreversible and permanent change to all of us. From remote working to the negative impacts on people’s mental state, not everyone is looking forward to going back to how things used to be. Employers will have to make accommodations and adjustments to the office to entice and welcome people back, to make them feel safe. Here are some ideas to create an environment where your employees would want to return to.

Provide a Clean Environment

Variants of COVID are spreading, affecting those that are vaccinated. Ensuring that the work place is cleaned rigorously and the space is installed with a strong ventilation system will put everyone at ease while they’re working there.

Properly Spaced and Equipped Lounging Area

Employees need space to let loose during the work day. Having a wide open lounging area with basic amenities like drinks, comfy seats, and an organized/aesthetically pleasing area can help employees refresh themselves. Installing a TV for employees to watch relevant videos, newscasts, employee meetings or the occasional movie (company sanctioned of course!) would be a nice touch as well.

Embrace Hybrid Workflow

The pandemic proved that people are able to work remotely without hindering productivity. Allowing employees the leeway to work remotely when they wish is something that can not only ease the transition, but also give them a break when there are aspects in the work space that are making them feel uncomfortable. We have adjusted ourselves to working alone. Suddenly snapping us back into an era long gone will hit anybody with backlash and anxiety. A balance between the two styles would be the ultimate compromise that can ultimately lead to employees wanting to return to the office.

Right Sizing Your Office Footprint

The world is changing. With COVID proving that the world has the capabilities to handle remote working while keeping productivity stable, and in some cases, even rose during the pandemic (Forbes). That leaves companies with one jarring question and concern; are office spaces even necessary anymore? The amount of space that an office needs is no longer the same as it used to be before the Pandemic. Follow some of these basic guidelines to figure out how much space you really need for your company.

Determine Your Key Metrics

The amount of space varies depending on the business. A storage company needs significantly more space than a call center. But one constant is that people need to be working at the office. Get a head count on the amount of people that are going to and will return to the physical office. Plan out the pace that they will need and a little more in case more return or if new hires will want to work in the office.

If you need your space for more than just people, determine the amount of space you need for those other usages. Once that is completed, you can decide if your current lease and space matches up with what you currently need.

Get the numbers. Do the math. Leave space open for growth. Value your current location with what you plan to downsize to. If you do choose to move, Olympia will have you covered. With locations in Boston, Philadelphia, D.C, and Austin and extensive expertise in decommissioning, liquidation, installation and many other commercial moving services, Olympia is sure to provide you with the perfect transition to your next office. Give us a call, and speak to one of our seasoned representatives for a free site consultation/estimate at 800-222-4744.

The 2020 Pandemic has thrown the office workplace into disarray. We all know by now the impact it had on in-office work and the overall success in acclimated to the work from home life.  More so, there is significant anecdotal and empirical evidence proving, although sometimes begrudgingly, that teams can be productive in a WFH scenario. However, all good things must come to an end, and as we crawl out of this pandemic into a sense of normalcy, it is abundantly clear that a hybrid workplace will be the expectation, and not necessarily a perk, in the workplace of the future. Below we highlight some steps to take as you flex your office space to address the growing expectation of a hybrid office environment.

First things First

Make sure you understand your HR, facilities, or management policy as it relates go forward workforce plan, specifically the impact to the layout. This is important because it will address the needs and motivations, as well as get insight into what the key stakeholders expect out of this plan. Critical to this is internal surveys and understanding the ensuing policy. Is the WFH policy two days a week, or three? And does it apply to all business functions, or are some exempt? This understanding and respective data is critical when feeding the design elements of your updated workplace.

Understand the hybrid workplace of the future

If need be, seek out your vendor for design options to understand what the latest and greatest in furniture, apparatus and technology are? Will we continue to see the propagation of open layouts?  Probably not due to several factors, but a partial open layout may be part of the plan, with the ability for live and remote teams required to connect in real time. How will your layout be conducive to this new normal?

Tap into the latest data and needs surrounding what the office of the future looks like, and how it promotes employee wellbeing. With Covid completely altering the work at home vs. workplace debate, more and more workers are looking to have even a more integrated approach to managing life with work priorities, framed out by how the workplace of the future allows for that integration.

Brace for impact

Don’t expect perfection the first week back into the office. The return, powered by the complexity of schedules, will have a slow and steady adjustment curve. The workplace may take much longer than anticipated. Its also possible the layout you choose may need some tweaking. Make sure you have a strong facilities partner and vendor that has the experience to not only act, but provide insight and expertise, specifically in this type of office environment.

Now for the real work to begin

With all these updates and changes, there is bound to be some physical impact to your office space. Expect cubicle layouts and the types of furniture and equipment to change. Perhaps relocation to a smaller space is a necessity or complete decommissioning of your antiquated high wall cubes is in order, in favor of more collaborative inducing and tech friendly furnishings is necessary. There are a significant amount of options out there, and they are not all equal. Best to find a strong, experienced partner that can support you through this workplace evolution.

Olympia has been a leader in the commercial space, with extensive experience and knowledge in many commercial moving services including, installation, decommission, office moving, facilities maintenance and much more. Give us a call, and speak to one of our seasoned representatives for a free site consultation/estimate at 800-222-4744.

The world continues to experience unprecedented closures of schools and campuses due to Covid-19. Therefore, it’s essential to ensure we create a safe environment for reopening and operating the school plant each semester. Studies show close to 50,000 new covid-19 cases have emerged on colleges and campuses in the United States alone.

Also, millions of staff and students continue to be at risk of contracting the virus as they head back to the classroom. Therefore, schools and campuses will need to adjust to limits in programming, operations, room structures, learning times, security, and socialization.

Installing PlexiGlass

The pandemic halted everyone’s lives. It doesn’t matter whether you were a student or a teacher. You no longer could go to your respective institution to study. We found ourselves adopting safety precautions in our day to day life. These standard operating procedures soon became our means of a new normal. This is why, before the re-opening of schools, specific safety procedures are also put in place.

While social distancing and personal hygiene were the means of the norm, it was the installation of PlexiGlass in classrooms and offices that took center stage. These plastic panels isolate the volume around each student in a classroom. It provides them ample space to move around yet remain secluded from each other.

The set-up of these panels in high traffic areas helps limit air interactions. The virus won’t transmit itself through airborne means if you have a barrier covering you. This would be an essential piece of installation for contagion control standard operating procedures. It can significantly reduce the contagious effect of the virus.

To suggest that you install the PlexiGlass on the seats of students in a classroom is a good option indeed. Thus, without restricting freedom of movement, you can limit the possibility of future contagion.

Professors can also opt for this plastic paneling on their desks. Similarly, you can line the school administration’s office corners with these PlexiGlass panels to separate one from another. Every area of the school experiencing high traffic should have these separators.

Storing excess Items

Daily cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces are essential in the school. It would be best if you did not forget that this public place is subject to a lot of germ exchange. It is a risk you cannot take on during a pandemic. This is why school supplies are set in place. Each piece of equipment is available on-demand and goes through standard operating procedures for disinfection.

Using contaminated high-touch furniture has never been riskier until now. Reports have been coming in that the Coronavirus can live on these inanimate surfaces from a few hours to days. Its stay-time depends on the type of surface. While consistently disinfecting surfaces is the optimum solution to this problem, storing them in a clean and dry place is also essential.

Storing out excess furniture has another advantage. You can clear out corridors and pathways for social distancing. This is why you should move all of those extra desks, chairs, furniture, and rostrums to a separate room. Each piece of furniture used in school needs proper disinfection every other day.

Converting Spaces Suitable For Learning into Classrooms

Most of our classroom spaces are not that spacious. They were not designed to ensure social distancing. On the other hand, most classrooms are closely seated spaces to encourage more interaction among students. This is something that is highly discouraged owing to the current climate. This is why other sections of the school are being converted into classrooms.

Some of the areas that are commonly selected are the auditoriums and hallways. It is always better to opt for open spaces instead of enclosed ones. There is a greater risk of contagion in a closed environment as opposed to an open one. Even then, it would help if you encouraged students to practice all SOPs. They need to equip themselves with all of the essential safety gear.

These open spaces allow the effective implementation of social distancing. Each student’s desk is placed at least six feet apart from the other one. This greatly reduces the risk of contagion.

Liquidation

Most schools are open for alternate days. Some of them are still operating through online means. This has greatly reduced the need for all that extra furniture that fills up most school buildings. Limited resources are being utilized by students and teachers alike. Donating this additional furniture seems like a suitable option. Not only will you be able to save up on the maintenance of these supplies, but they will also be able to find a fair use for them.

Hoarding up on supplies that will not be used frequently is not practical or efficient. Some furniture and equipment require maintenance and servicing. School authorities should come to a consensus regarding them. You can either choose to liquidate your assets until further notice or donate them for a good cause. This will also clear out more space. The ultimate goal is to maximize the distance between students and staff. A lower volume of traffic allows for opportunities to tackle projects such as cleaning and liquidating excess furniture and equipment.

Bottom Line

Keeping classrooms and campuses safe is everybody’s responsibility. Management, faculty, staff, and students all have a part to play to ensure they keep themselves and others safe. Practicing health and safety rules will significantly reduce the risks of exposure to personal attacks, theft, and the effects of covid-19.