Tips from an office cleaner to keep your workspace clean and organized

Studies show that individuals tend to be more productive when working in a clean and organized office. It is believed that a disorganized office can be distracting mentally, and this is likely to lead to lethargy, muddled thinking, and reduced productivity.

The task of maintaining a clean and organized office should not be the sole responsibility of commercial office cleaners. Every employee in an office needs to take proactive steps toward maintaining a clean and organized work environment.

To help you attain this, read below for some tips that every office cleaner wishes you knew about maintaining a clean and organized office-:

Start by removing everything

To create a truly great workspace and to do away with clutter, you need to start from scratch. Remove everything from your desk, shelves, and drawers. Sort all the items and only keep necessary ones.

This process is likely to reveal many stored items that you don’t really need. Once you are done sorting, arrange the remaining items neatly. But before taking back the items, be sure to wipe down all the surfaces, including your computers and all the associated accessories.

Create more storage space

Offices and workspaces are likely to get cluttered due to poor storage or lack of adequate storage facilities. It is this kind of clutter that usually generates a lot of dirt and makes the place look less attractive.

Every office cleaner wishes for less clutter, and creating more storage spaces can accomplish this aim.

One way of increasing the storage in your office is to add shelves or creative storage solutions on the walls. If this is problematic, rely on properly-sized boxes to store some of your stuff.

Deal with clutter immediately

An extremely cluttered office is not just an eyesore, but also a real productivity killer. One thing to understand about clutter is that it never materializes instantly, but builds up gradually, and eventually becomes a major issue.

Thankfully, it is always easy to deal with this kind of problem. All you have to do is cope with the clutter the moment it appears, even if it is minimal.

If you can always pay close attention to what constitutes clutter in your office and you are prepared to act immediately, then you won’t have to worry about doing extra cleaning as a result of the dirt generated by the clutter.

Use an efficient filing system

We live in the digital age, and paper is used less than before, but there is still a need to maintain paper files.

Poor organization of these files or the adoption of a less efficient filing system is a potent recipe for cooking up clutter and making the office look dull and unsightly.

Fortunately, there are lots of efficient filing systems that you can adopt to completely change how you handle your paper filing in the office.

If you are struggling with paper buildup in your work environment, then use these tips to enhance your current filing system-:

• Unless you need the originals, scan papers that can be stored digitally so that you don’t have to keep them within your workspace.
• Separate your folders for documents needed for meetings, awaiting responses, and those that need immediate attention.
• Have a proper system for categorizing papers before storage so that you can retrieve them easily when you have to.
• For documents that you need to archive, store them safely in boxes so that they are not left collecting dust on the shelves.
• For hard copy reminders, use sticky notes that you can easily place and remove from your desk.
• File papers regularly so that you don’t let them pile up to levels that can easily overwhelm you.

Tame the office cables

With a typical office having lots of electronics and gadgets, a typical workstation could end up with a myriad of cables that can make the place look chaotic.

These cables not only make the area around the work station look untidy, but can also be a hindrance to free movement and may sometimes cause accidents on the office floor.

To tame your cables, there are various cable organizers that you can use to hold them together neatly and securely.

Here are some tips you can use to take total control over the cable menace in your office-:

• If possible, mount the power board to your office desk.
• Label each cable according to the corresponding hardware.
• Unplug everything from the power board.
• Invest in a good surge protector power board.
• Buy suitable cable organizers that can contain all the cables you have around your workspace.

Create a work zone

It is always a good idea to establish work zones in the office so that you are not confined to your desk and its immediate surrounding area. For example, if you happen to have a single sofa and a coffee table in the office, you can use this space for reviewing paperwork as well as for reading.

Another corner of the office, for example, can be reserved for shelves and drawers to help with the organization of the files and folders. By creating different working zones, you won’t be confined to doing everything work-related in one spot, which will help you break the monotony and improve productivity.

Clean daily

After you do away with all the clutter and improve workplace organization, you have to ensure that you clean daily. At the end of each working day, return everything to its original position, then wipe down your desk with disinfectant wipes to remove the daily dust and germs that may be lingering. Such a simple practice will help you stay organized in the long run.