With a change in Season comes a change in allergy triggers, temperature and a fantastic opportunity to spring (or in this case, autumn) clean. They don’t call it a seasonal clean for nothing – each season it is actually worthwhile to tidy up and clean around your office, particularly in autumn and winter due to their alignment with the cold and flu season.
Working in a hygienic and refreshed office space can help you to stay one step ahead of allergies and illnesses. Not only this, but working in a clean environment has shown to improve general happiness and productivity. Below are our top tips for cleaning your office this autumn.
Recycle Reports and Papers
There are surely old hard copy reports and documents lying around the office which are no longer needed. For those that were printed on a single side, you can still use the other side for printing drafts, writing notes or brainstorming ideas. If you don’t have a use for the paper, you should recycle it. You can often help clear even more space by photocopying old reports and documents into digital versions which you can keep a good copy of forever and clear up the physical space.
Organise Your Documents
When people are short on time, they will often take an easy path and storing documents is no exception. Particularly as a business owner, it’s important to stress the importance of document and file control in terms of naming and filing structure. If an employee decides to move on from your business, you can then manage an easy handover to a new replacement as opposed to struggling to find the right files and file names for projects and day to day tasks. The folder structure should be logical and the names of files should include important identifier information.
Sanitise The Surfaces
Cleaning and disinfecting the surfaces in the office will reduce the risk of spreading germs throughout the office and therefore help to limit the number of illnesses passed around between employees. Staff members who are feeling unwell should be encouraged to take time off work so as to not spread anything, and upon their return their desk space should be disinfected.
Wipe The Memory
In order to maximise the local drive or cloud memory usage, every few months this should be looked into and the old documents and files should be deleted if they are no longer required, or transferred to external storage devices. This will help to create the space needed for future files and will ensure all of the documents accessible are relevant.
Freshen Up The Furniture
An often overlooked first impressions factor is the condition of the furniture around an office. If you haven’t replaced or professionally cleaned your furniture in a while, it’s definitely worthwhile to look into. Not only will it give your business a refreshing change, it can also make a better first impression with potential customers and make a positive difference to your employees. You might like to consider investing in furniture to benefit the productivity and health of your staff too, such as standing desks or ergonomic chairs.
Make Space On Your Hard Drive
There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to get work finished while working with a slow and unresponsive computer or laptop. At the start of each new season is a great time to check on the status of your hard drive and reevaluate whether you need to clear some files in order to help the operating system. If you’re working with mostly older machines, you should run more frequent checks to compress and optimise the files stored on the hard drive. This can improve the performance and speed of the laptops and computers drastically, which will help to boost productivity and limit technical frustrations.
Clear The Vents
Air conditioners aren’t the only things with vents around your office. Your printer, laptops and computers will likely all have vents to help them remain cool and avoid overheating. These vents can easily become blocked with lint and dust though, so it’s very important to regularly clean them. You can clean your electronics’ vents with a microfibre cloth and cotton buds to get rid of any dust and dirt. To clean your air conditioner filter, you should book in a professional to come in and complete the job to ensure no parts are damaged in the process.
Focus On Your Phone
You might find it hard to believe but your office phone can be one of the dirtiest places in the area because of the bacteria on the buttons and where people grab the phone by. You can purchase anti-bacterial microfibre cloths at most supermarkets which will do the trick if you wipe them down thoroughly. If you don’t want to purchase these, you can always mix alcohol and water (40% alcohol, 60% water) and use an electronics-safe cloth to wipe the germs away.
If you would like to find out more about cleaning your office or would like to book in a professional office clean, contact Gretams Cleaning Services today on (07) 3892 4900.