How to Clean Up Your Home Office in a Flash

With many people in the UK returning to working at home, we’ve put together a list of quick tips to help keep your home office clean.

With the current Coronavirus guidelines encouraging UK residents to work from home where possible, many of us have returned to working remotely. Whether you’re commuting to a home office, kitchen table, or bedroom, keeping your workspace clean and tidy can help your productivity and mood, as well as reduce the spread of COVID-19. As a result, the cleaning experts at ServiceMaster Clean have put together 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 stationary, keyboards, phones, laptops and computers, and even lunch. And 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’ve all become a little more accustomed to carrying out proper sanitisation and cleaning procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and you should be doing this as regularly as you can by 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 and damaged, you can actually clean them up with some household items. Returning to the kitchen cupboard, you can use some 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. Yes, a tennis ball. Simply rub it on marks like an eraser and watch the marks disappear! Similarly, you can…
Remove water marks – Water rings from cups of tea and other beverages can be an eyesore and foster germs. You can remove them by turning a hair dryer onto a high setting and pointing it directly at the mark and voila, water rings vanished!

Don’t eat at your desk

Working from home or in the office, it can be easy to get into the swing of things and forget to take time away from your desk to eat. But as much as 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 own 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 get rid of any remaining debris that’s still lingering in between the keys.
Sanitise the keys – Take an antibacterial wipe, or a cotton bud/piece of kitchen roll and dip it into some antiseptic disinfectant (which you can purchase at most supermarkets) and 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 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, which you can find a step-by-step guide to from our the cleaning experts at Merry Maids – another member of the ServiceMaster family of brands here.

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 normally to start by vacuuming it to get rid of dust and hair etc. and 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. We, at ServiceMaster Clean offer bespoke upholstery cleaning services and our furniture repair business Furniture Medic offers services to repair damaged upholstery.

If you want to leave your cleaning to the professionals whilst you work from home, why not get in touch with us? Our cleaning operatives are well-prepared to continue working safely and professionally in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and can get your home looking shiny and new in a flash. Find your nearest ServiceMaster Clean business today to find book a clean or to find out more about our services.  

Written by Tom Page