How To Clean Your Home Office and Keep It Clutter-Free So You Can Be as Productive as Possible
Working from home certainly has its perks — your favorite being the ability to wear your flannel pajama bottoms during weekly meetings.
Lately, you’ve found it difficult to stay organized.
Papers and notebooks tower haphazardly atop your desk, littered with a week's worth of your to-do lists. Coffee mugs outstay their welcome lining your shelves. You open your desk drawers only to find more paperwork, nonfunctional pens, and dried Play-Doh (How did that even get there?).
You have work deadlines and a busy family schedule, and you can’t seem to find your laptop charger under all this clutter — you need to clean, but where do you start?
Keep reading as we polish out how to clean and organize your home office for increased work and home life productivity.
Table of Contents
Why Is It Important To Keep Your Home Office Clean?
The importance depends on how you as an individual function in a disheveled environment.
If you’re a person who flourishes in complete disorder, it may not matter. But if you find that clutter and disorganization hinder your ability to focus or be productive, it’s important.
One study examined remote workers' perceptions of home office clutter. Results showed indecision and procrastination were related to high degrees of office clutter. The study also found that home office clutter can correlate to emotional work exhaustion, job-related tension, and overall job performance.
When misplaced items, stacks of papers, and tangled cords lead to frustration and distraction, a clean home office may provide you with a conducive environment for the efficiency and concentration you're lacking.
Thinking about getting services for house cleaning in Portland? Tidy Up Portland! can lend you the helping hand you’re looking for.
How To Clean and Organize Your Home Office in 5 Steps
Step 1: Declutter
Trying to clean in a cluttered space can be overwhelming. When a tornado has passed through your home office, your initial thought may be, “Where do I even start?”
The first step, declutter.
Grab a trash bag and start throwing away anything that doesn't belong.
Filter through the jumble of trash, recyclables, and food waste — it will feel liberating to rid your office space of unnecessary items.
As you declutter, you may find items located in the wrong places. Most likely you have been looking for these things for a while now.
That sticky pad with important dates and times on it? Put it in the drawer.
The pen you found under the biodegradable salad container? Put it back in the pen holder.
Step 2: Tackle the Dreaded Paper
Bills, notes, cards, flyers, coupons — paper piles up quickly, and you add to it daily.
Decision fatigue sets in, and you choose not to do something with a single piece of paper the first time you encounter it. Then it gets thrown into a never-ending pile.
Keep your home office clean and your paper pile under control by sorting through it regularly. One strategy is to sort all the papers in your office into four different piles:
Toss paper you don’t need that doesn’t contain personal information like your social security number, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc.
Shred paper you don’t need that does have personal information. You can invest in a small personal shredder or take your paper to an office supply store for shredding service.
Keep important documents you’ll need in the future and file them away. Keep in mind, many documents such as instruction manuals, receipts, tax forms, and pay stubs can be accessed online.
Take action and address the papers that require action, such as paying a bill or filing your taxes. Take care of these paperwork items as soon as you can to avoid an overwhelming pileup or missing a deadline.
Only the take action paper pile should be left out in sight and have a designated place to stay until it has been taken care of. If there is room on your desk, you can add a small bookshelf or file trays to store this paper. You may also add a bulletin board on the wall above your desk to organize these important to-do papers.
Step 3: Deep Clean
The best way to deep clean is to work your way through your office space cleaning as you go. You should focus on one step at a time before moving on.
Here are the areas you should work through step by step:
Desk and Other Furniture
Clear everything off the surface.
Use a rag and cleaner to disinfect the surface and any handles.
Dust the top, front, and sides to be sure you get every area.
Finish by polishing with a rag.
Computer and Other Electronics
Use a damp microfiber cloth to clean your computer, laptop’s LCD screen, printer, mouse, keyboard, speakers, monitor, and smartphone.
Shake your keyboard to rid the debris around and under the keys, then wipe the keyboard with alcohol and water.
Fixtures
Unplug any electronics before cleaning.
Wipe any light fixtures, ceiling fans, shelves, and wall art using a rag and surface cleaner.
Finish with a rag to dust and polish.
Floors
If you’re able to, move the desk, cabinets, and furniture so you can vacuum, mop, and sweep under them.
Use the correct tool for the flooring you have (broom, vacuum, mop, etc.) and clean the entire area.
Windows
Start by wiping down the window frames with a damp cloth.
Dust any trim that is on the windows.
Vacuum any curtains to remove dust.
Use a hand glove to quickly dust blinds.
To clean the glass, work in sections using a cleaner and newspaper for a streak-free shine.
Step 4: Reset
Now, it's time to reset your home office surfaces by:
Putting your work necessities back on your desk and shelves.
Keeping only what you use or what makes you happy.
If looking at a picture of your three wild rugrats, your adorable puppy, or that trip you took to Italy makes you smile as you work, it’s okay to keep that picture frame in your workspace.
Organization does not have to feel empty. Keep the things you love to brighten your work day.
Step 5: Organize
The goal of home office organization is to make it easier to find what you need quickly to maximize efficiency and work productivity. One study found that 53% of participants surveyed believed their motivation was negatively affected by their workspace disorganization.
It’s advantageous to set up a good system to keep your office space organized going forward — establishing proper places to find and put away items after you’re done using them.
Here are some ideas that may help keep your home office clean and organized:
A well-organized filing system: Separate the filing system into color-coded categories and label each hanging folder according to your needs.
A desktop organizer: Pens, notepads, paper clips, and sticky notes can remain on your desk and not be an eyesore for distraction.
Containers or drawers: Putting office supplies out of sight helps minimize clutter.
Create a printing station: If you have a wireless printer, it doesn't need to go on your desk. By placing it in a cabinet or other area in your office, you’ll gain much more space.
Utilize wall space: Hang filing systems, calendars, whiteboards, and shelving. There’s so much more space available when you go vertical.
How To Keep Your Home Office Clean
Create a Closing Time Routine
Developing a clean-up ritual at the end of the day can help sustain a clean home office. You can stop worrying about all the tasks left to do because it can set you up to get started right away the next morning.
Here are some tasks that can become part of your daily routine:
Put away notepads and pens.
Sort any paperwork that may add to your clutter.
Gather mugs or water glasses to remove from your office space.
Toss any trash that may have accumulated throughout the day.
Write your to-do list for tomorrow and store it in a designated place that is easy to access in the morning.
Enforcing a short daily closing time routine can make future deeper cleans a whole lot easier for you.
Add a Weekly Cleaning To Your Schedule
Cleaning your office once a week will ensure that you’ll get to the little things that got left out. Plan to:
Dust the surface of your lamps, shelves, and desk
Wipe down hard surfaces where necessary
Empty your trash bin
Organize any paperwork
Water plants
Sweep, mop, or vacuum
Have a remote meeting scheduled that you can just listen to?
Squeeze in this weekly clean-up during this meeting — turn off the camera, mute your mic, and get down to cleaning business while you listen.
You can also set a weekly appointment on your calendar to make sure you spend a few minutes on these things.
Bring in the Professionals
Keeping your home office immaculate can be tiresome. Home cleaning services offer amazing results.
Hiring professional home cleaners for maintenance cleaning services is money well spent, saving you time and energy. Research has shown that spending money on time-saving services is linked to greater life satisfaction.
Professional cleaners will bring all cleaning equipment necessary and handle everything you need to properly maintain your home office. You can help boost your work efficiency and productivity during your lunch break while they tackle the cleaning for you!
Tidy Up Portland! Efficient Home Office Cleaners in the Greater Portland Area
Tidy Up Portland! is the answer to how to keep your home office clean.
We understand the importance of professionalism — when inviting someone into your home, you want to know you can trust them.
Here are the steps we’ve taken to ensure trustworthy and quality services:
All of our cleaners have up-to-date, clean police checks.
Our business is insured, and all cleaners have public liability insurance.
Cleaners are vetted, interviewed, and required to pass a strict cleaning workshop.
Our team is devoted to making your life easier. With our convenient, easy-to-use online booking portal, you can schedule a one-time clean or regular cleaning service for your home office:
Weekly
Biweekly
Monthly
Looking for the best house cleaning in Portland? Book with Tidy Up Portland! today so you can get back to being productive!
