Spring cleaning … at work

It’s almost time to get out the brooms, vacuum, dusters and disinfectants for spring cleaning. Tidying up shouldn’t solely apply to your home, however. Your office could probably use a bit of organizing and cleaning as well. De-cluttering and sanitizing your desk may not only help your productivity, it could improve your reputation at the office too.

According to a survey from Adecco, a staffing firm, approximately 57 percent of office workers said they judge their co-workers based on how clean and organized their workspace is. And I can’t imagine clients would be too impressed with a messy desk, either. Once you’re done with your spring cleaning at home, take your organizational skills to the office:

Clear off your desk
What’s sitting on your desk right now? Maybe it’s stacks of paper, pens, binders and manila folders. Out of all these items, figure out what you actually use on a regular basis. All of the other things should find a place in drawers or on shelves, otherwise, they’re just cluttering your workspace. The only items you may actually need on your desk could end up being pens, a coffee mug, business cards, a desk calendar, a lamp and a notebook.

Sanitize
Use some disinfectant wipes on the surface of your desk, along with your keyboard, phone and mouse. You may not realize it, but these areas of your desk can harbor bacteria that could be making you sick. You may even be surprised to find out that office cubicles typically have higher levels of bacteria than the common areas of the office, according to Entrepreneur. The dirtiest piece of office equipment is definitely the phone. Think about it – you put this object near your mouth every day, but when was the last time you actually cleaned it? Entrepreneur also said that the next dirtiest include the desk, keyboard, mouse, fax machine (if your office still actually uses that), copy machine and the men’s toilet seat.

Less is more
Don’t try to stuff all of your belongings and office supplies onto your desk. You may have a good amount of space to work with, but if you have too much stuff, your desk area is going to seem much smaller than it actually is. Plan to throw away and recycle items that you don’t need anymore. And if you have five mugs on your desk right now, maybe narrow that number down to one or two.