Spring Cleaning

Spring has arrived, although we had such a mild winter it sometimes felt like we went straight from fall to spring. The annual spring cleaning has begun and people are starting to clear their homes of the winter funk. The garage sales will be starting up so people can be out with old and in with the new. It is a cleansing cycle that many people go through every year.

Have you thought about doing some spring cleaning around your office? How often do we go through that pile of papers in the back of the cabinet or wipe down our furniture? Did you move into an office that was already setup but haven’t had a chance to put your own personal touch on it? Take some time to make those changes to your office so that you can be more efficient and feel less bogged down by items that you no longer need.

 Brittany G. from The ServiceMagic ProConnection has four helpful hints for office spring cleaning. 

1. Pick a place to start – your office is obvious, but come up with a plan about how you will go through items, make a system to know what you have to keep, file, or pitch. If you have a plan before you start the process it will be much smoother.
2. Remove the clutter – That seems like an easy step, but most of us still wind up with that stack of papers on our desk for a week. If you’ve mapped out your plan as suggested above, then organizing, filing, and throwing away items will be a breeze. Once you organize your files and put the papers away you will be more efficient in your space and be able to access items easier.
3. Keep it close – If there is something that you use every day then the most logical place to put it is within your reach, your favorite pen, the stapler, tape, etc. Items that you don’t need as often can be organized in a drawer so you can access when needed. This might be a good time to invest in some kind of organizational product, either to hold your pens, post it notes, papers clips, etc. so that you can keep those items on your desk but it looks organized rather than thrown together.
4. Don’t just clean in the spring – It would be helpful to go through this process every week or once a month so that you can stay on top of it. By organizing your office space you are going to be more efficient so if you keep up the clean and organized space you can be more efficient throughout the year. Wouldn’t it be nice to clean up on Friday and come in on Monday to a nice clean, organized desk?

To give you an example of how this can impact your work space, check out my before and after pictures below and tell me which one looks better!

Before:

 After: