A tidy and clean home office can be the difference between a comfortable, productive space, and a mind-fuzzing cacophony of visual input. A home office is supposed to be a place where the distractions of home life don’t seep into the work environment, enhancing productivity and creating a comfortable atmosphere that is totally adaptable to how you work best. However a home office is one of those environments that is particularly susceptible to rubbish.
After all, post-it notes, dust, food from those times you need to work through your lunch breaks, the nick-nacks that allow you to inject a little bit of personality into your office space can all contribute to an accumulation of clutter and even rubbish and mess over time. And in a space that fosters focus on everything other than the outside world, it can be easy to forget that rubbish needs to be cleaned and a space maintained.
However, the best way to remember to do something is to have a reminder of it somewhere, so the team here at BISSELL have put together this home office cleaning checklist with the best tools to clean your office to help all you work-from-homers maintain your sanctuary of productivity.
Home Office Cleaning Checklist
Step One: Create A Home Office Cleaning Supply Kit
Step Two: Decide On Your Home Office Cleaning Method
Step 3: Clean Your Desk, Chair And Computer
Cleaning any room starts with knowing what you’re doing. Obviously we can’t speak for all home offices everywhere, but generally cleaning offices has a few universal steps which we’ll go over shortly. But the first thing we want to do is introduce a few best-practice concepts that will make cleaning up a little easier.
Step One: Create A Home Office Cleaning Supply Kit
The first thing is to have prepared is your cleaning products for the home office. Just like any other room the office is a space where there’s many different kinds of surfaces, and all of them will have a different product tailored specifically for them. Whether that be the hard plastic of a laptop casing, the LCD screen of a laptop or computer, the wood of a desk or bookshelf, or your office chair. There’ll be something on the market designed specifically for that surface, and using ill-optimised cleaning products can turn your clean into a real slog, or even cause damage to your surfaces.
If you want to get a dedicated vacuum cleaner for your home office cleaning, due to being low on space, we recommend a cordless stick vacuum. This will save time and space, helping your clean up go that much smoother.
It’s generally a good idea to hang your stick vacuum or keep it tucked away in a quiet corner of your office. That way it’s easily on hand when you need it, and at the end of the work day or week you can just give your office a quick little go-over with your easily reached products and equipment.
Step Two: Decide On Your Home Office Cleaning Method
Second is to know how to clean a home office. What we mean by this is more than just which products to use where, but actually the order in which you do things. We recommend a top-to-bottom approach, starting with the ceiling and light fixtures, followed by walls, shelves, chairs, desks, computers, and objects, before finishing with the floors. This is because over the process of cleaning, dust and other debris is knocked from the higher surfaces and lands on the lower ones.
Cleaning top-to-bottom means that you are more likely to clear any wild debris that your cleaning, in and of itself, may have caused.
Therefore, your tidy home office cleaning plan should look something like this:
TOP:
- Dust ceiling.
- Dust light bulb/fixture.
- Dust ceiling-level vents.
- Dust wall+ceiling corners.
MIDDLE:
- Dust walls.
- Dust wall+wall corners.
- Clear desk.
- Organise papers.
- Recycle+dispose of rubbish as appropriate.
- Dust desk and bric-a-brac.
- Clean computer/laptop body and peripherals.
- Clean computer/laptop screen.
- Dust bookshelves+books.
- Clean chair with a portable deep cleaner
BOTTOM:
- Organise cabling.
- Pick up+dispose of large rubbish.
- Vacuum floor.
- Deep clean carpets/rugs if you have them
While we reckon you know your way round these tasks, there are a few little specifics we’d like to just go over in a little more detail.
Step 3: Clean Your Desk, Chair And Computer
The main workstation of any office is the desk, chair, and computer. Together these form the main well of productivity, and therefore it’s imperative to keep it tidy, not only for ease of access to your office equipment, but for peace of mind. Everything about people works better in a clean environment and the office is no exception to this. To maintain the best standards of work in your office, use the following guides on maintaining this space:
The Desk
The desk is the central place of productivity in your office. The whole reason desks were built was to provide a comfortable working surface. Therefore, the importance of keeping this space clean probably isn’t lost on you. Obviously the eye and mind can be a lot more settled when it doesn’t have a million things in its peripheral vision providing constant distractions.
The first thing to do is to make sure that your desk is clear. Depending on how deep of a clean you’re doing, it may even be worth removing your computer from the surface, allowing you to really get a good dusting going.
Depending on the type of surface of your desk, you may want to dust with just normal water rather than a chemical-based cleaning product, though you can find versions of these that are fine for wood surfaces. Plastic and laminate surfaces can generally handle the chemical products better, and are easier to clean of erroneous pen marks etc. Before you dust however, you have to clear the clutter. Take anything that doesn’t belong on the desk or in your office either back to where it belongs, or the rubbish/recycling. This rule is doubly important for plates and food leftovers that may have been the result of working through breaks, as left unattended, this specific kind of rubbish can result in attracting insects and other pests to your office.
Computer Chair
Depending on your job, this chair can be sat in for 8 or more hours per day. Not that we’re judging, but any chair that someone has sat in almost continuously for 8 hours per day is gonna end up being pretty unfriendly on the nose. Not only that but through the process of cleaning it’s likely that your chair has become littered with dust and debris. This is why we recommend our top-to-bottom approach.
Hard chairs shouldn’t require more than a simple dusting and then a spray with your favourite deodorant. This will keep the chair clean and comfortable, and prevent odours from building up. However, fabric office chairs may require some more work. We recommend using an upholstery cleaner like our Stain Eraser Turbo or SpotClean that lets you clean stubborn stains quickly and easily.
Computer
This is possibly the most important part of any home office. Computers are often the central working hub for pretty much every industry these days. From productivity apps, communication, email, entertainment during breaks, the computer is a hugely important asset, and cleaning it properly is a major concern.
When dusting the outside make sure your cloth is only barely damp with whatever product or water you’re using. If any excess water gets into any of the ports it will cause significant and detrimental damage to your machine. When cleaning the screen, make sure that you’re using an electrical-screen specific cleaning wipe to prevent damage and streaks. When it comes to keyboards, use a can of compressed air to clean between the keys.
Maintain Your Fresh and Clean Home Office
Cleaning can be laborious and intimidating, but with this list, our handy tips, our blogs, and range of awesome cleaning gear, we’re here to help you make that task a little less arduous. If you’re looking for premium cleaning equipment, check out our online store today, or contact us and our friendly staff will be happy to help you pick the best appliance for your tidy home office.
Read our other cleaning guides for more inspiration.