Coffee Talk #226: Spring Clean Your Workspace

It’s SPRING CLEANING time at FWA and I want to get into all of those spaces!

Today’s topic: Clean your Workspace

This past year, more people have worked from home. As a result, any space – kitchen table, countertop, dining room table—has transformed into a workspace. I have a designated office space in my home, and even I have made use of every available space in our house, including the front porch and the back deck.

While I love the flexibility of being able to move around my home to complete work tasks, it’s important to designate one space for focus and work. There’s a better chance for productivity and a greater chance for flow when there’s one specific spot for work in the home.

I have three office spaces—my office at the school, my home office, and my fitness ‘office’ which is really my studio. I have different uses and reasons for using each space, which helps to

A cluttered workspace leads to a cluttered mind. An organized workspace looks more inviting and will motivate you to get to work. Giving this process a little energy can breathe life into your work. The changes don’t even have to be big—even some small shifts can make a big difference.

An organized office can:

• Help with productivity
• Boost your mood
• Provide positive impressions for colleagues

Spring cleaning can mean refreshing a space OR even declaring and designating a new space. With this in mind, I have some tips for spring cleaning a workspace:

• Designate the space.

While it’s great to have options, the best thing for focus is to designate one space for work. As I mentioned, I love having flexibility in my home to work in any space, and sometimes the change of scenery is really needed. But the reality is that flow and the most productive time happens when you can go to a designated space. Declare your space for work if you haven’t done so already!

• Consider Workflow.

Paramount to a successful office is the workflow capability. It’s great to have a beautiful space, but is it functional? If everything matches but all of the tools you need are buried in a bookshelf or deep in a desk drawer – you’re so not going to use that space for work! Think about your main 3-4 tasks each day and consider the items you need to accomplish those tasks. Need quick access to a charging station? Need access to your colorful markers and pens for planning? Need easy access to a printer? Consider these items when creating your space.

• Dust and Sanitize.

Move everything off the space and CLEAN it. Really clean, not just use a dry towel. You can choose whatever cleaner or sanitizer makes you happy. I love something with a fresh orange or lemon scent. As you put items back onto your desk or in your space, wipe them off, too.

Consider cleaning windows, lights/lamps, filing cabinets, shelves, baseboards – everything. You’ll be able to feel such a difference by just deep cleaning the space.

• Choose a color or mood.

Spring gives me all the vibes to refresh my space and choose a new color scheme or theme. Since we just moved last year, I’m not updating the theme (since it’s still so new). Instead, I’m focusing on updating some of the accents in my space – new picture frames, new plants, new pattern for my agenda and laptop sleeve, and more.

Feed the senses. I always recommend a bright color or a fun pattern (used sparingly), complementary colors (blue & orange is my favorite combination), and items that make you happy. Choose a lovely photo of your family, significant other, or pet, or add plants to your spaces.

I also love to select a new scent for my diffuser each season.

• Less is more.

This is key. It’s super easy to junk up a space, to build clutter, to have too many things on the desk. After clearing everything off the desk (see item #3), consider each item individually before placing it back on the desk or shelf. Do you really need this item? Does it go with your office colors or theme? Is it there for sentimental reasons? I find that I keep things on my workspaces for the silliest reasons and don’t really need them on my desk to be productive.

Keep the desk cleared. Purchase shelves for the knickknacks.

• Go Up.

Instead of piling items on the desk or on top of a filing cabinet, consider adding shelves, a bulletin board, a dry erase board, or even pegboard. Consider the wall spaces. I love a good floating shelf to hold items and keep them off my workspace.

• Ditch the desk tray.

If you provide a space for papers to collect, they will collect. It’s that simple! By ditching paper trays in my office, I now either file important papers or toss them. I don’t keep post it notes or papers on my desk for too long. If I write a task on a post-it note, it has to be completed by the end of the day or the week. There’s no room for messy papers in your clean and fresh space! This will also help you become more productive – you have to complete the tasks on the paper so you can toss it.

• Cord management is key.

Confession: I didn’t realize this was a thing until I got married and moved into a space with my husband. He’s the NEATEST person ever when it comes to tech. All cords have ties, they are neatly tucked away, he even will go into the attic and drop cords down so they can be inside the wall instead of all over the shelves or floor.

I appreciate this so much. One of the biggest space wasters are those cords! I keep mine coiled in my desk when not in use, since my desk is in the middle of my office and not near the wall. But other cords? They are tied, tacked to the wall, or neatly coiled.

I swear this is the easiest thing to make your desk feel cleaner. Cords get jumbled and collect dust and it’s the actual worst. Clean up the cords and you’ll appreciate your space so much more!

• Refresh supplies.

This isn’t just about purchasing new markers and pens and office supplies – but it can be if that’s your jam. This is a good time to test your markers and pens, make sure you have staples in your stapler, change the photo on your desk to a newer one, and more.

Use any of these tips to refresh your workspace and give it a great spring cleaning! What other tips would you share?