Many people are concentrated on cleaning up their homes during the spring cleaning season but it is important to also clean up the other area where you spend the majority of your time, your office. Having a dirty or cluttered office can hurt productivity and employee morale, create an unhealthy working environment, and affect the impressions that people get of you as an individual and of your company as a whole. You should take some time this spring to do some office cleaning and make your workspace cleaner and more comfortable, and if you are an office manager, you can get the employees of your office to pitch in and clean up the entire space.
The following are some office cleaning tips to create a clean and healthy workspace.
Create Zones for Different Tasks
Dividing your office space into different work zones will help you get better use of your space by designating certain areas for specific jobs. This can help reduce overall clutter in your office and make office cleaning much easier because you can divide up the cleaning effort between the different zones.
De-Clutter your Desk
The surface of your desk can become cluttered very quickly as people often let items pile up, including items you don’t need. A good rule of thumb is to clear your desk of anything that isn’t essential to getting your work done and keep everything that you do need at about arm’s length. Any additional supplies or personal items should be stored in a separate area.
Manage your Paperwork
Even in the digital age we live in, it is still impossible to escape the need for physical paper in the form of files, reports, magazines, forms, and others. Piles of paperwork can get out of hand fast and keeping all your papers organized will help you avoid clutter and work through them at an efficient rate. Important paper work for a certain client or project should all be stored together somewhere with easy access and “incoming” papers should be put in the same place where you will see them and work on them at an efficient pace.
Limit yourself to Available Storage Space
Offices can not only become cluttered from items such as files, paperwork, and other supplies, but also from large objects such as filing cabinets and bookshelves to help store extra stuff. A good way to save space in your office is to limit yourself to one filing cabinet or bookshelf. When these storage spaces become full, it is time to go through and get rid of things you don’t need so that you do not have to go beyond this space for storage.
Organize your Desk Drawers
Clearing the clutter from the top of your desk is only half the battle, this clutter often ends up in your desk drawers as well. It is easy to fall into the habit of throwing things into a desk drawer with no means of organization, making it difficult to find anything. Keeping your desk drawers organized will make it much easier to find things and discourage you from throwing things haphazardly into the drawers.
Provide a Place for Coats
Another way to prevent clutter in individual workspaces is to provide a place to put coats, umbrellas, purses, and other items. If there is nowhere to store these items, people will just end up throwing their coats over their chairs and keeping their purses on or under their desk. Providing hooks or a closet to store these items will help keep the office organized and clutter free.
Short Term Storage
Many office employees receive periodicals such as newspapers and magazines that can pile up quickly and take a lot of space. The most efficient way to handle these types of materials is to have a basket or something similar for short term storage so you can read through your periodicals and throw away the old ones when the storage space becomes full.
Clean and Disinfect your Office
Your office is vulnerable to more than just clutter; dirt, dust, food crumbs, and other debris regularly build up at your work station. Cleaning and disinfecting your workspace regularly well help create a healthier environment by eliminating dust and debris that could affect your health. In addition to removing noticeable dust and debris, you should also disinfect objects that you touch on a daily basis such as your keyboard, phone, mouse, and the surface of your desk.
During this spring cleaning season, make sure you follow these office cleaning tips to improve the cleanliness and efficiency of your office. A clean office will result in happier and healthier employees, increased productivity, and better impressions from outsiders on your employees and businesses as a whole. If you cannot devote resources to effectively cleaning your office, you can hire a professional that provides commercial cleaning services such as carpet cleaning to help clean and restore your office. The office is where many people spend the majority of their time outside their homes making it equally as important for the office to be a clean and healthy environment.
