Tips and Tricks to Spring Clean Your Office

It’s time for spring cleaning! You may be focused on your home, but don’t forget your office could use some attention too. A clean office and desk will increase security, cleanliness, professionalism, and efficiency. And, more importantly, help to reduce sick days! Employees spend 4.5 hours a week looking for files and 58% of security threats are internal (Leadership & Management, 2018). The typical office worker’s hands encounter around 10 million bacteria per day and workers lose on average 9.1 days per year to sickness (KitchenerClean, 2017). You, or your company, may pay for a professional cleaning service, but there are things within your office that you should give some extra attention.

In Your Office

The electronics in your office are magnets for bacteria and germs. Wipe down keyboards, your computer mouse, cell phone, and desk phone weekly. Other frequently touched surfaces that are often overlooked are door and desk handles, light switches, and frequently used desk tools like staplers, scissors, or hole punches. If you notice a lot of dust, dirt, lint or food crumbs stuck between the keys of your keyboard, use the sticky end of a post-it note to grab the small pieces or gunk. Just slide the sticky side in between the keys and swipe.

Next up, all the miscellaneous items that have filled your desk drawers. Dump that junk drawer and sort out the post-it notes, staples, pens, paper clips, and all the other items that have made your desk their home. Use bins to organize office supplies in your desk. Only keep items you use daily on the top of your desk to keep it looking clean and organized. Throw away unnecessary or unused items, like that calendar that is stuck in February 2021.

Have your scissors become rusty or sticky? Dip a cloth into some white vinegar and wipe them down. This trick will work for hole punches, can openers, or anything metal.

If you are anything like me, you let piles of papers grow until they have a personality of their own. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but the piles get so big that it takes hours to deal with them and so you find other projects to focus on to avoid the piles. This is not a good strategy. Create a system of trays or file folders that are clearly labeled and get in the habit of filing and processing papers as they come in. In the end, this habit will be a huge time saver!

Digital clutter can be as frustrating and time consuming to deal with as physical clutter. Clean out your inbox. Read, reply, sort, and delete emails you don’t need. Organize your desktop by filing documents into folders and removing unused programs.

Accidents happen and sometimes permanent marker ends up on the whiteboard. Before you throw it out, grab a dry erase marker and scribble over the permanent marker marks. Erase or wipe clean!

Outside the Office

Most of this area is probably cleaned by the cleaning crew, but two areas that are often neglected are the INSIDE of the fridge and microwave. Use distilled white vinegar to clean and disinfect the inside and shelves of the office fridge and microwave. If your microwave is speckled with baked on food particles, microwave water in a microwave safe bowl for 3 minutes and then wipe it out. The steam from the hot water will loosen all the stuck-on food.

Use these hints to freshen up your office space. You won’t regret it.

About Office Evolution Cedar Rapids

At Office Evolution Cedar Rapids, we provide virtual office, coworking, and private office solutions at our shared office center. We offer meeting rooms, offices, hot desking in a shared workspace coworking lounge, a shared reception, a business address, and virtual receptionist services. We have many options and price points, and all terms are flexible. Plus, you become part of a community of like-minded professionals.

Whether you live in Cedar Rapids, Fairfax, Robins, Marion, Hiawatha, Palo, Iowa City, Waterloo, Mount Vernon, Springville, Center Point, North Liberty and other communities nearby in Linn and Johnson counties, choosing Office Evolution Cedar Rapids will help you be more professional, productive, and profitable.