While many people might think of spring cleaning as something to do in their homes, it’s also a great idea to spring clean your work environment as well. The benefits: more organization, a healthier place to work, improves clarity, decreased clutter and better productivity. How do you do it?
Sharon Schweitzer, an international etiquette expert, author, and the founder of Access to Culture, offers these 10 tips to do it right:
Root Out Rubbish: Go through your drawers and toss wrappers, old pens, empty chap stick tubes, or errant debris cluttering your storage. By making a habit of cleaning out unnecessary messes, you’ll save space and be able to find that missing flash drive in seconds.
Keep Clean: Keep disinfecting wipes or spray on hand and wipe down surfaces regularly. If your office space is comprised of tight quarters, consider wiping down surfaces more often to eliminate germs, especially if someone is sick. However, if you do find yourself struggling to keep larger rooms clean then there’s always the option of commercial cleaners. Hiring people such as Ideal Cleaning can make your life easier thanks to their services such as daily routine cleaning, periodical deep cleans and window cleaning. They can come into your office (or building) and get it looking like new again.”
Filing Finesse: Alphabetically, by date, color, or in order of priority, there are endless ways to organize files. Select the method that works best for your work style. However you sort your documents, review them every month or so to ensure that everything is properly placed and that no important records or documents are lost between the files.
Love Your Labels: Label folders and filing systems with the proper name and date. Take the extra few seconds to properly order each item. Use labels for organized office supplies to ensure paperclips, pens, and stationery stay in the proper place.
Orderly Drawers: Invest in a drawer organizer to keep office supplies in place. No more scrambling to ferret out a paper clip or find a forgotten calculator in the conference room. Make sure everything has a designated spot.
Scan and Save: Want to reduce paper clutter and minimize the paper? Scan documents in your computer and save them as PDFs. Not only does this save precious physical office space, it eliminates the risk of losing important documents in the black hole of your bottom drawer.
Electronic Organization: When tidying your workspace, don’t forget about your computer desktop. Sort every document you create as soon as you hit “save,” and avoid those frantic searches through hundreds of unorganized files. Consider using Dropbox or a backup cloud storage to guarantee important files aren’t permanently deleted.
Minimize Distractions: The saying “Out of sight, out of mind” is especially true for your workspace. If you find yourself reaching for your cellphone or flipping through magazines during office hours, designate drawer space for things that distract from productivity.
Designated Dining Space: While we all have days when working through lunch is unavoidable, stick to the kitchen area when dining. Not only will this keep your desk free of crumbs and wrappers, but the change of environment will refresh your mind and help you get back to business rather than lingering over your meal.
Daily Declutter: Make it a habit to clear away any coffee mugs, candy wrappers, old post-its, and unneeded papers before you go home each day. Set out any materials needed in the morning and give surfaces a final wipe down. This will leave your desk fresh and clean for the next day, ready for business first thing.
