Working at Home? Here's How to Keep Your Home Office Clean

Posted on 28/10/2015

Keeping the Cleanliness of Your Home Workspace

One of the downsides of having a home office is that there is no janitor or cleaning lady to do the office cleaning for you. It is up to you to keep the cleanliness of your workspace, and considering that you will probably be spending a lot of time there, you will have to do it often. You cannot rely on the intermittent home cleaning sessions to keep your office space clean enough for you to spend a third of the day, every day. Of course, you can rely on a cleaning company to send a cleaner every few days to keep your workplace shining, but is it really worth it when you can do a proper job yourself? You will need the proper equipment and knowledge about office cleaning, and lucky for you, it is quite simple.

The Tools of the Trade

Your office will need much less cleaning tools than, say, house cleaning. It is only one room, with very specific equipment, that will require only a few services which you need to provide. A microfiber cloth can clean pretty much everything an office can be furnished with. Get a few cotton buds, rubbing alcohol, and some all-purpose cleaner, or, if you can, make a home-made spray with water and white vinegar. And you are done. No need for item search parties, this really is all you need.

Dealing with the Dust

Unsurprisingly, the microfiber cloth can and will take care of all the dust problems. You do not need to dip it in anything, or use it with anything. Take the cloth and start wiping all the surfaces around your workspace, starting with the monitor and desk. No, dusting is not only for feather dusters. They will raise more dust than absorb, and you don’t want dust mites in the air while you work. The microfiber cloth will immediately take in all the dust and will not miss a single speck – it is the tool that is as immaculate as you are. You can use the cloth to wipe electronics as well. If you have a printer or a fax machine, use the cloth on them too, it will do a good job on any type of device. Cleaning it requires only water as well, so it is the ultimate cleaning tool when it comes to offices.

Erasing Stains from Surfaces and Electronics

Once you are done with the dust, you can focus on taking care of annoying stains that you don’t want bothering you. Take the spray bottle with the cleaner of choice inside, and spray over the stain you want gone. Either use a damp sponge, or, again, the microfiber cloth, and scrub away until the stain is no more. Office equipment stains rarely need more maintenance than this. The desk and monitor, however, do. They need to be regularly – daily even – cleaned. You don’t have to be thorough and spend hours upon hours over a single spot – just clean until polished and stain-free, and you are done.

Keeping the Keyboard Intact

A home office’s main tool is a computer. A computer means a keyboard which you use every single day. This is something that should be cleaned as often as possible. You touch it coming from every other room or after touching everything, and so it needs to be sanitised on a regular basis. The dust and gunk that gathers in keyboards can be quite tricky to get rid of, but it is no big deal as long as you can spare the time. Take a clean paintbrush and gently dust around the keys to get rid of the dust problem. After that take the cotton buds, dip them into rubbing alcohol and, again, gently rub them against the sides and edges of the keys. Yes, every single key.

And that is pretty much it. Simple enough, right? All it takes is some devotion to keeping your workplace clean just like you would keep your home clean. Exercise that devotion to have a spotless and efficient workplace.