How to Maintain a Clean Office

We all know the expression tidy house, tidy mind, but perhaps equally important to motivation and attitude is to have a clean workplace. You don’t want your staff to be in the middle of an important phone call, and lose focus because they’re trying to brush crumbs off their keyboard, or lose four hours trying to find something when it would have been a 20 second search if your storage areas were organised correctly and everything was where it should be. Obviously the most popular solution is to hire professional office cleaners, but for those who are, for whatever reason, unable or unwilling to do so, by working as a team you can still maintain a pristine working environment just fine.

Benefits for everybody

If you tell anybody that they’re about to clean, you will hear a similar tone of groan from the majority of people. But everybody accepts that a clean working environment is a boost to the mood and productivity of everyone who works there. The first thing is to make sure your staff are willing and keen to clean, so put it within their work hours. Start with the last hour on a Friday afternoon, everyone’s getting tired, work has become monotonous, all eyes are on the weekend, so add a bit of variety to the day by getting everybody involved with the cleaning.

People may be hesitant at first, but after the first time you all come in, bleary eyed on a Monday morning to a fresh, bright, clean office, you may find that there is a lot less convincing necessary the following week. Then try to incorporate basic cleaning practices into the day-to-day running of your business. In no time that you will find that these practices become automatic to your staff and your Friday afternoon group cleaning sessions start to take a lot less time.

How to avoid having to clean your office

Give everything a place, no matter how small or insignificant it appears, from important documents, to printer cartridges to staples. If there is a lot to organise, then label each place and create a laminated chart listing which types of product are kept in which places. Suggest that your staff minimise desk clutter by placing their rarely used and non-vital items in the storage spaces you have created around the office. This should limit the amount of mess there is around your office, taking the pressure off for you and your staff to clean.

Be prepared

Firstly, make sure you are fully stocked with essential cleaning products, glass cleaners, surface cleaners, dusting sprays and a variety of cloths, sponges and paper towels. Also make sure you have all the equipment and products necessary to deal with inevitable spillages, carpet cleaners, floor cleaners, a mop and bucket, a dustpan and brush, a hoover and anything else that is needed to clean spillages and stains from your floors and surfaces.

Invest in some gadgets, most computer stores will sell computer cleaning wipes, tiny hoovers to clean your desk and computer, and various other ingenious inventions with which to keep your desk and computer as clean as possible. Create official cleaning procedures, for example what to do in case of a spillage or how to deal with mud that has been walked into the office by a client. Laminate this chart and make sure your staff are familiar with the procedures.

If you plan ahead and make sure you are prepared for most eventualities, you will find there is minimal necessity to take time clean your office, as you have created an environment in which cleaning as you go is automatic to you and all your staff.