Princeton Happenings

5 Tips for Keeping a Tidy Workspace

Whether it’s your desk at work or the one in your home office, it’s important to keep your work space clean! Stacks of paper, pieces of mail and other items can really start piling up causing a cluttered mess. Follow these five steps to keep your desk neat and tidy every day!

1. Clean your cluttered piles weekly. Designate a time of the week (maybe Friday after lunch) to spend some time going through your piles of paperwork and other clutter and put things back in their place. Shred anything that is unwanted to get rid of it for good.

2. Make sure everything has a home. You can purchase stack-able, plastic holders for all of your desk supplies at your local office supply store. You will feel much tidier if all of your pens, flash drives, notepads etc have a place to call home.

3. Clean your keyboard and wipe down your work space weekly. Use an air duster to clean the keyboard and wipe down your desk and phone with a disinfectant.

4. Use file cabinets. Misplacing important documents can be easy to do if you don’t have a proper filing system in place. Hang some folders and start organizing your paperwork to keep it out of sight.

5. Start labeling. Whether you like to use a label maker or you trust your own penmanship, having things labeled will certainly give your workspace a sense of organization. You can label your trays for outgoing mail, our drawers on your file cabinet and your folders.