5 Ways to Keep your Office Tidy and Clean

There are so many benefits to working from home. However, it is now up to you and not our friendly manong or manang janitors to keep your home office clean and functional. Here’s how to keep productivity high and maintain a sanitized work space.

The good news? With fewer human co-workers, there are fewer virus particles floating around you.

The bad news? There are still plenty of other ways makulit germs can infiltrate your home office. And without a professional cleaning team, you’re going to need to tackle them yourself.

1. Keep your office equipment clean

A university study found that desks can be home to around 400 times more bacteria than toilet seats. One common bacteria lurking in office keyboards can cause nasty stomach infections. Kaya linisin parati ang keyboard para iwas sakit.

So, you’re going to want to sanitize your home office equipment regularly (ideally once a week). Obviously, you can’t spray cleaners on sensitive electrical equipment. Instead:

• Unplug everything.

• Turn your keyboard upside down over the wastebasket and gently shake off any crumbs. Blow into it to loosen dirt. You can also blast the dust out with compressed air or use a keyboard vacuum cleaner.

• Wipe the keyboard with a cotton bud dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Keep the cotton bud away from input ports and make sure it’s damp, not soaking wet. ·You don’t want to fry your keyboard.

• Clean your mouse and screen with an antibacterial wipe designed for office electricals.

• Wipe everything with a microfiber cloth to make sure all your equipment is completely dry.

• Disinfect your desk and chair. In most cases, you can just use a regular antibacterial cleaner for this.

• To keep your keyboard clean for longer, you might want to buy a latex cover. It stops dirt from getting stuck between the keys and can be easily wiped down.

Keep office clutter (AKA dust traps) to a minimum. If you work in a room shared by other members of your household, you might also want to put notebooks, pens and other items inside a drawer or cupboard each night para iwas alikabok.

2. Take out the trash and clean the air

Home office wastebaskets aren’t used as much as kitchen trash cans, so minsan we forget to empty them. But they can still host all sorts of germs and bacteria. Make sure you line yours with a plastic bag and take out the trash regularly.

It helps to switch to a smaller wastebasket, to force you to empty it more frequently. Covered cans are more hygienic, but choose one with a foot pedal so you don’t need to keep touching the lid.

And while plants help to clean the air, they don’t come anywhere close to a good air purifier, which can kill up to 99% of germs. If you don’t have an air purifier yet, make sure your home office is well-ventilated. Open your windows whenever possible and allow air to circulate through your home.

3. Make a cleaning schedule

One-time cleaning is not enough. The key to fighting germs is to clean regularly, so create a routine and schedule for you bucketed into daily, weekly, and monthly actions.

Syempre, please remember the importance of handwashing after cleaning routines as well as throughout the day.

4. Keep those pets clean

Pets might not be able to fetch you coffee or take their turn in the carpool, but they’ve become part of the family.

Kaya lang a dog or cat still doesn’t know how to wipe its feet. So, if you do share your home office with furry (often muddy) companions, you might need to level up your cleaning.

You might also want to groom your pet more often and treat it to its own bed in your office.

5. Steam your way to a cleaner home

Steam cleaners can kill germs on hard floors, as well as in carpets, curtains and other soft furnishings. Make sure you’re using the right tool for the job. Steam mops are usually only suitable for hard floors. Open windows to help speed up drying time. And please remember that wet carpets can encourage fungal growth. Read our top tips for steam cleaning.

Do you want to learn which household cleaning tasks cause the most stress?  Then read our Heated Household data analysis.