Keeping a Clean Office is Easy With These 9 Helpful Tips

Did you know about 57% of Americans judge their coworkers by the state of their office or desk.

A clean workspace leaves a good impression, but they correlate a dirty workspace with being a slob. This negatively affects your professional relationship with other employees and clients.

Avoid this by keeping a clean office. That’s quite easy to say, but the implementation is rather hard. As long as you have the will, though, you’ll be able to do it especially with these tips for doing an office clean-up and maintaining it.

Read on to learn the 9 steps to keep your office clean.

1. Purge Papers and Other Items

First, remove the clutter. That points to papers, trash, personal effects, and others that make a mess in your office. Go through the drawers and shelves as well and take out the items that don’t belong in that space.

To help you organize later, get a trash can and some boxes where you’ll put every stuff that you pick up. Trash goes into the trash can, of course, while every paper goes together into the same box, for example.

To minimize the clutter, get a “take home” box as well. Put the items that you don’t really need for your office in that box, while those that don’t have a place to go can go to another box.

2. Clear Your Desk

It’s also the time to learn how to clean your desk and keep it that way. Do you need all those pens on top of your desk or can you put away those that you don’t need every day in an easily reachable drawer? Do you need all of those toys on your desk as well?

A clean workspace boosts your productivity and it allows you to have more space for actual work. You may leave photos, a trophy, or some other things that make you feel at home, but remember to not overdo it.

A cluttered desk may work better for some, especially for the creative types. Do what works for you. If a clear area clears your mind, maintain its cleanliness by following the next tip.

3. Give Every Item a Home

Now it’s time to put those items in the boxes in their home. Don’t have anywhere to put them? Rethink if you can take them home instead or find a new home for them.

Upgrade your desk to include more drawers or get a storage cabinet to make space for more items. Put your paper clips, pens, and other stationery items in a drawer nearest to where you normally do your paperwork. Store papers in a filing cabinet.

After assigning everything a place to go to, make sure you put away those items in their assigned home.

4. Use Organizers For a Clean Office

Using organizers is a great way to further minimize clutter. For example, clutter can also happen inside a drawer. Even if there are minimal items on your desk as well, it can still look messy if there’s no system in place.

A tray is good for papers, while a cup or something to that effect can hold all the pens you use. Drawer organizers are great for keeping different items separate and there are wall solutions if you don’t have any more space to spare.

5. Develop a Filing System You Can Stick to

Papers are one of the biggest culprits of messes in an office setting, as employees often stash them somewhere if they don’t know what to do with them. From now on, force yourself to either file it or shred it when you don’t have a use for it anymore.

Sorting papers is easier if you already have a filing system. Start with the papers in your office and arrange them by importance, by type, by the subject matter, by date or however you want. Keep them in separate folders or compartments, whichever your office space allows you.

Doing this, you’ll also minimize the time you’ll spend looking for that important document, boosting your productivity as well.

6. Relocate Furniture and Equipment

You always need that printer but it’s across the room? Move it closer to your desk or if possible, put it next to you so you don’t have to stand up every time you need to print a document.

Place everything you need many times a day within reach. On the other hand, you can place filing and storage cabinets the farthest from you.

7. Clear Your Pathways

When relocating furniture and equipment, take note of the pathways as well. The path from your desk to your filing cabinet, for example, should have no obstructions. Make sure that you don’t have to contort your body like an acrobat only to get to another corner of your office.

Although this can also boost your productivity, it also minimizes the risk of getting injuries in the workplace. Your pinky toe will be safe and you won’t make it harder for yourself to file those documents.

8. Set a Purging and Cleaning Schedule

Cleaning is a never-ending job. Every day, you have the duty to maintain the cleanliness of your office that you worked hard for. You don’t need to purge or do a deep cleaning every day, though.

At the least, clear and clean your stuff once a week. This should also give you an idea if your organizing solutions are not working. Don’t be afraid to re-organize to suit your habits and needs better.

9. Outsource the Job to a Cleaning Company

For other cleaning tasks, such as window cleaning and sanitation, it’s better to leave those at the hands of professionals that specializes in keeping windows clean. Outsourcing to a cleaning company is a great idea as they already have guidelines on how to clean an office and sanitize the items within.

Outsourcing the office clean-up also gives you time to focus on your core activities instead of worrying about the cobwebs accumulating on the light fixtures.

Learn More Tips

Maintaining a clean office keeps it healthy and motivates you and others to stay productive. With the tips above, you can achieve this with as little effort as possible.

For more tips on how to keep a clean office or other work stuff, visit our blog and learn more about the corporate life. Have an inquiry? Send us a message now and let’s talk.