Making sure that your workplace is clean and tidy at all times is a very beneficial thing, but not only for aesthetic purposes. When we know exactly where to look for an item that we need during our working hours, we maximize the efficiency and the overall productiveness, making our time spent behind the desk more valuable.
However, cleaning your desk is not the only thing that you need to do, because how your entire office looks and feels like is also a huge factor that can impact your motivation to work. If you’re someone who regularly has clients coming over, making sure that everything is tidy and organized will make those clients form a better picture of you in their heads. Nobody likes to be labeled as the one with the untidy office space.
Today we decided to give you a few tips on how to keep everything tidy and organized, and since there’s a lot to talk about, let’s end the intro right here and jump straight into the content. Here’s what you need to know.
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Schedule cleaning
No matter how much you avoid bringing in unnecessary things, sooner or later they’ll start piling up, which is why you need to schedule a cleaning, at least once or twice per month. This can be anything as simple as re-organizing, getting rid of unnecessary items, and doing things such as dusting. It’s best to schedule this on days when you don’t usually get a lot of work, perhaps at the end of the week so that you can start on a fresh and clean desk once you get back to it on Monday.
A great tip is to purchase a small and portable vacuum cleaner that you can use without making too much noise and interrupting the other employees. They are not expensive, and they pack more than enough power to help you get rid of the dust in your entire place. Much easier to use than full-sized ones as well.
Avoid papers
It’s 2024 and a lot of businesses are transitioning to everything digital. It’s very rare to see those extremely large piles of papers stacked up in an office these days, and even in businesses that rely solely on paperwork, these things don’t happen as often now. Everything that’s in the form of a document is now stored in a computer, on an external hard drive, or a cloud service, depending on how the company operates.
If you can get something done without using a paper and by using your PC instead, do it because you won’t ever have to experience mess again. A computer allows you to do a lot more organizing, which is why so many businesses transitioned already.
Choose the furniture
Your office size plays a huge role in all this, which is why we recommend that you choose your furniture for it, regardless if you already have something placed in it. Maybe you got your job position in an office that was once used for managing huge amounts of paperwork, but now that you’re using a computer, you don’t need huge wardrobes just to place all of those sheets there. Thousands of files can be stored on one hard drive that doesn’t take even one percent of your office space, while a wardrobe can make your life difficult.
Purge monthly
Cleaning is different than purging, which is why we suggest that you schedule a purge day once or twice per month. Purging means permanently getting rid of things that you no longer need, so whether that’s old furniture or thousands of old paper files, you should be doing this at least once per month.
If you let things stack up, it will be a lot more difficult to clean afterward when you finally decide to do so. Stockholms Allstad is a company that’s based in Stockholm and focuses on providing cleaning operations for both smaller and larger businesses. If you happen to be in a situation where cleaning or purging cannot be done all by yourself, considering an option of this kind is a good idea. This is also great if you’ve inherited an office that had a previous owner who didn’t maintain it.
Purchase hard drives
How are you going to store all of those files if you don’t have enough hard drives? Well, the answer is you can’t, so make sure that you get as many of them as you need. We doubt that you’ll ever need to use more than two or three of them, unless you’re working with some really large files, but then probably the company has to set up a local server. USB sticks are not large enough, so investing in a few hard drives is not a bad idea, especially if you have to digitalize a lot of papers by scanning and storing them as computer files.
Purchase only the essentials
We know that everybody wants to have an office that’s full of interesting things, but let’s leave that for our homes. At work, we need to be productive, fast, and efficient, meaning that a great idea is to keep things as minimal as you can. If you need only a chair and a desk for yourself, don’t purchase entire sofas and cupboards. This will make it a lot easier for you to clean the entire place when the time comes for it as well because you won’t have to lift those heavy objects all by yourself.
Clean it yourself if possible
It’s a lot easier to hire someone else to do all the cleaning at your office for you, but is it the most optimal way to do it when it comes to productivity and efficiency? We don’t think so. Why? Because someone else can easily mess up your organization, and then it will be difficult for you to find the things you need. This can lead to frustration and decreased productivity. So, unless you really cannot do it on your own, try to avoid hiring another person to clean your desk and office.