Keeping your home office clean and organised is crucial to maintaining productivity. Maintaining cleanliness can be quite a challenge, however, especially if you’re not used to working from home. In addition, your company may also have hired professional office cleaners. They may have done such a great job straightening up your workplace no amount of cleaning you do at home can compare.
Still, it’s not a very complicated task to organise your workspace at home. Here a few tips and hacks to get you started:
Start With Your Desk
It helps to think of your work desk as the central hub of activity (because it is). Simply put, everything will look and feel messy if your desk is in disarray. Thus, it only makes sense that you start organising your desk before you take care of anything else in your home office.
To keep your work desk tidy, invest in trays or document holders for your paperwork. Mugs or other kinds of containers for pens, scissors, and other tools also come in handy. Finally, you should also get some cable organisers or even simple twist ties. These will keep charging cords and other wires out of the way and keep your desk looking neat.
You should also regularly wipe the surface of your work desk with a clean cloth dampened with some antibacterial spray. You can also use a simple combination of equal parts water and white vinegar. Why? It’s because your desk gets dirtied by more than just dirt and dust. (Admit it: you’ve probably eaten lunch while working and gotten crumbs all over the place.)
For wooden desks, sodium bicarbonate works well in removing scuffs and other marks. A hair dryer, on the other hand, works beautifully on water rings.
Organise EVERYTHING
Unlike in a traditional office where work areas have clear delineations, the boundaries aren’t as defined in a home office. Thus, you need to be extra organised. Luckily, there are a lot of simple solutions to help you keep things in their right places.
First, make sure to have a dedicated space for your books and notebooks. For your paperwork, use trays or document holders; if you have a lot, invest in a filing cabinet. For taking down notes, have a notebook instead of relying on scrap papers (you shouldn’t be printing too many documents, anyway).
Then, for the non-work stuff that makes its way into your home office, have a bin or basket ready. Place everything in it while you’re working. At the end of the day, it’s all a matter of scooping up the bin or basket and returning things to their proper places.
Handheld Vacuums Are Magic
Keeping your home office dust-free becomes easier with the help of handheld or mini vacuum cleaners. Aside from dust, these small but powerful appliances can also pick up human and pet hair, pollen, and other debris.
What’s great is that you can use a handheld vacuum for almost any surface in your home office, from top to bottom. You can also use it to clean your office chair, particularly if it’s upholstered. Make sure to use the correct attachments to really get deep into the nap.
Don’t Forget Your Computer Keyboard and Screen
When you’re cleaning and organising your home office, it’s easy to overlook things like your computer keyboard and screen. The problem is that when you leave these things as they are, they can quickly accumulate dirt, dust, and grime. This will not only ruin aesthetics, but can also make these seemingly innocent objects into breeding grounds for germs.
The good thing is that it’s easy to clean these computer components. For your keyboard, you can use various items you can find at home. Use the brush attachment of the above-mentioned handheld vacuum or a can of compressed air to remove debris. For stubborn dirt stuck between the keys, use a cotton bud dipped lightly in alcohol. Finally, for the faces of the keys, you can use a microfibre cloth to wipe away the oil and dirt.
For the screen, you’re going to need a soft microfibre cloth to prevent scratches. If there are any greasy residues (such a fingerprints), dampen the cloth with distilled or filtered water or a gentle cleaning solution. Don’t spray the liquid directly onto the screen. For regular maintenance, even eyeglass cleaning cloths will do.
Daily Maintenance
The key to maintaining your home office organised is to be consistent about it. Don’t let things pile up. At the end of the work day, wipe or dust exposed surfaces. If there are things that aren’t in their proper place, return them immediately. The key is to get the small tasks out of the way as soon as you can so that they don’t become bigger tasks that will make you want to procrastinate. Besides giving you a productivity boost, a clean and organised working space can also do wonders for your psyche. It’s difficult to thrive in a dirty environment; with a spick and span work area, you can do your job better and faster. Keep these simple tips in mind to make organising your home office a breeze.