Small Office Clean

Small offices are deceptive; you can think that such a little space doesn’t need much Each cupboard needs a different system, but all of them need to be cleaned.
Au contraire! Dust piles up easily. Piles pile up easily. All of a sudden you have an office that you can’t work in.

Small offices are deceptive; you can think that such a little space doesn’t need much cleaning. Au contraire! Dust piles up easily. Piles pile up easily. All of a sudden you have an office that you can’t work in.

A few simple steps can keep your office in order, your business in order and help you avoid that ‘I don’t want to do it’ feeling.

Give yourself some time to work out what needs to be done every day – think about little tasks that take no longer than ten minutes, then work out when would be best for you to do those little tasks. Like a cat trying to find a comfy spot to sleep, I find that I naturally need to fiddle around with my workspace before I can really sit down and get productive, so it’s perfect for me to spend ten minutes neatening up, moving paper around and organising.

Each day I have a specific task, as well as standard things I do every day. Each morning, I get my water jug filled, the window opening and the laptop switched on so I can sort out my e-mail before I move onto the chores and the proper parts of my working day.

Every evening, before leaving the office, I sort my desk out, neaten it all up, take out any plates or cups I’ve used during the day, so that I know when I get into work the next morning I’ll be ready to get effective.

On Mondays I go through the drawers and pull out anything that is broken, in a mess, or needs to be replaced. This way I can keep the drawers clean and organised, and be sure that I will find what I want when I need. While I do this, I also take an inventory so I can buy any replacements next time I need a break. A multipurpose wipe cleans the bottom of the drawer quickly before everything jumps back in the drawer.

On Tuesdays I dust the monitor, my desktop and my laptop. I have one of those funky little keyboard cleaners, but you can also use a cotton bud, if you so desire. Why not ask for a keyboard cleaner for your birthday? Go on? They’re cracking little gizmos and ever so handy. Screen wipes come in small packets, so you can store them in your drawer – don’t forget to inventory them as well on Mondays! Tuesday can be used to clean and organise computer cables as well as wiping down your desk.

No-one really likes Wednesdays, they are the half-way point, but the afternoons at least feel like you are moving towards the end of the week! Nearly the weekend. Why not take stock on Wednesdays and clean out your inbox and in-tray? Organise your e-mail inbox into folders, so instead of having thousands of e-mails in your inbox, you can go directly to a client’s folder, or a suppliers folder and be able to put your hands on their account immediately. Do the same with your in-tray. Don’t let it build up – at the end of every day, get all your filing done.

Thursday is perfect for organising any little bits of paper that have come your way during the week – business cards, post-it notes, school letters that need to have a signature. File them away. Business cards can go in a wallet, post-it notes share information that should either be filed officially, or give you a direction you need to get done – so do it! Make sure you sign school letters ASAP and stick them in your child’s schoolbag, so they can deliver it when they go to school on Friday.

On Friday, if you haven’t managed to file each day, clean everything up and file it in the right place. Don’t leave the office until everything is put away. If you don’t need to keep the piece of paper, then shred it. Make effective use of your laptop or desktop, and store as much as possible digitally instead of in file boxes.

Before you close the door on the week, clean away any books you’ve been using in the week. Whisk around your desk and clean the room quickly. Come Monday morning, not much is as motivating as a clean desk and a clean room that will inspire you to be effective and productive all week. A few minutes a day could make a massive change to your business.