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How to clean up your home office in a flash

Our top tips on keeping your home workspace clean.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, workers worldwide had to learn to adapt to working from home.

Subsequently, hybrid working has remained a fixture of our new work culture.

Whether commuting to a home office, kitchen table or bedroom, keeping your workspace clean benefits your productivity, mood and health.

To commemorate national organise your desk day, the cleaning experts at Merry Maids have compiled a list of simple things you can do to tidy up your at-home workspace.

Cleaning your Desk

Your desk, whether at home or in the office, is probably where you spend most of your working day.

As a result, it likely sees a lot of traffic from your hands, papers and stationery, keyboards, phones, laptops and computers, and even lunch.

With the average desk containing more germs than a toilet seat, knowing how to properly clean them is imperative. You should be:

  • Cleaning your desk frequently

We all grew accustomed to carrying out proper sanitisation and cleaning procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, you should still be sanitising your workspace regularly using antibacterial spray and a damp cloth.

Most shop-bought cleaners will do, or you could also use a combination of 1:1 water and vinegar to get rid of germs on your desk.

  • Ridding your desk of marks

Though less important from a sanitation standpoint, if you have a hardwood desk that has been marked, you can clean them with household items.

Use bicarbonate of soda and a damp cloth to scrub marks from your hardwood.

If this doesn’t work, you can also try using a clean tennis ball.

Simply rub it on marks like an eraser and watch the marks disappear! Similarly, you can…

  • Remove watermarks

Water rings from cups of tea and other beverages can be an eyesore and foster germs.

You can remove them by turning a hairdryer onto a high setting and pointing it directly at the mark; voila, water rings vanished!

Don’t eat at your desk

Working from home or in the office, it can be easy to forget to take time away from your desk to eat.

Eating at your desk can be an easy trap to fall into. Especially when working from home. For the sake of cleanliness, as well as your general health, we wouldn’t advise it.

Studies have found that you should be leaving your desk/screen for at least five minutes every hour, to benefit both your productivity and overall health.

As well as this, food can easily fall into your keyboard and foster germs and odour.

Cleaning your Keyboard

Speaking of your keyboard, how do you clean it to avoid germs and smells?

  • Turn everything off

First things first, you’re going to want to disconnect your keyboard from your computer or monitor.

If you’re using a laptop, then make sure it’s turned off before you start.

  • Flip it

Start by turning your keyboard or laptop upside down to get any initial crumbs, hair, and other debris out of the nooks and crannies.

  • Hoover up debris

Use the duster appliance on your vacuum cleaner or a can of compressed air to eliminate any remaining debris lingering between the keys.

  • Sanitise the keys

Take an antibacterial wipe, cotton bud or piece of kitchen roll and dip it into some antiseptic disinfectant. This can be purchased at most supermarkets.

Rub it between and along the keys of your keyboard.

Make sure to use a light touch, as getting your electronics too damp is an obvious no-no.

  • Wipe up

Use a microfiber cloth to clean up the remaining disinfectant and give the keys a little polish.

Cleaning your Computer Screen

Your computer screen will also likely be home to a surprising amount of dirt and grime as a potentially high touchpoint area.

Luckily, cleaning your computer screen follows the same process as cleaning a TV screen. 

Cleaning your Office Chair

Your office chair follows the same principle as your desk, but when upholstered can be even more stained and more difficult to clean.

To give it a proper clean, your best option is to start by vacuuming it to get rid of dust and hair etc.

Then follow up with a damp cloth or an antibacterial wipe to disinfect it.

You should be aiming to do this regularly, at a minimum of once a fortnight.

If your chair’s upholstery is looking tired or too difficult to clean, you can call on the ServiceMaster family of brands.

Our furniture repair business Furniture Medic offers services to repair damaged upholstery and ServiceMaster Clean offers bespoke upholstery cleaning services.

If you want to leave your home cleaning to the professionals whilst you work from home, get in touch with your local cleaning experts.

Find your nearest Merry Maids business today to book a free quote or to find out more about our services.

Simply call 0800 021 3072 or book online now.

How to declutter your desk

The best way to declutter your desk for clean your desk day.

In need of a January clear-out? There’s no time like the present!

We can all be guilty of letting our workspaces get cluttered and messy. But we can also all admit that it’s not the best way to work. Nor the most hygienic, with the average desk containing more germs than a toilet seat!

Thankfully as many get back into the swing of the work week now that the festive season has passed, today is officially clean your desk day.

At Merry Maids UK, our experts love to clean and have been committed to delivering the highest standard of home cleaning for over 30 years. So, we know clean.

That’s why, in honour of clean your desk day, we’re sharing our top tips for decluttering your workspace.

Decluttering your Desk

At home or work, a clutter-free desk is a clean desk.

Really, how can you be expected to work at your best or concentrate when you’re fighting to find your keyboard under a pile of papers and other junk?

  1. Clear the deck!

That’s why the first thing we recommend you do is clear everything off of the desk. Yes, everything.

To properly start the cleaning process, you can’t afford obstructions. You need to be able to clean everything.

So, put the contents of your desk into a box or away from you on the floor – whatever suits you the best.

  1. Sort through clutter

Now that you have all your items out of the way, it’s time to sort them.

Put the items you use a lot in a “Keep Pile”, and any important documents that don’t have to be constantly on hand in an “Archive Pile”.

If we’re being honest, we all have stuff in draws that we don’t need.

Anything you don’t want that is not in either of the existing piles can go into a “Bin Pile” pile.

To make sure you’re putting the items back onto a clean space, check out our tips on how to clean your home office.

  1. Wipe it down!

As much as we love cleaning, there isn’t much point putting everything on your desk in order if it isn’t going to stay that way.

Now that you know which items to chuck and which to donate, clean and disinfect everything you’re putting back.

  1. Organise! Everything!

Assess the layout of your desk. Are you making the best use of space? Would this be better in a drawer? Ooh, what if you moved that over there?

Think about how you can systematically rearrange everything.

For us, organising is great fun. Not because we’re sad. But because there can be great satisfaction in creating order from chaos.

It might seem like a mammoth task, but desk organising needs only follow simple logic.

Keep items you use regularly close by and store your other items in drawers and shelves. That way, they aren’t obstructing your workspace.

  1. Make use of organisation tools

Now that your desk is all clean, we want to make sure we avoid everything to a messy pile.

You can do this by using the many handy dividers, shelves, and cabinets on offer where all good organisation tools are sold.

Take it from us, it’s far more satisfying (and useful) to know what’s in what tray and to be able to see where everything is!

And why stop at your desk? Check out our list of handy organisation tools we found on Amazon.

  1. Stick to it!

Now that you’ve given everything a place, ensure you stick to your system and put things back where they need to be.

There is nothing more annoying or stressful than not being able to find something when you need it. Putting a system in place helps your desk stay clean and means you work more efficiently.

Need help cleaning?

We know that sometimes we are a little more enthusiastic about cleaning than most. Not everyone shares our passion for cleaning and organising. Luckily, we’ll do it for you!

If you’d like help and support with your cleaning from the experts, find your nearest Merry Maids business today to receive a free, no-obligation quote on our bespoke home cleaning and organisation services.