Spring Cleaning: Taking it to the Office

Spring Cleaning: Taking it to the Office
By Emily DiTomo, Vice President
Buchanan Public Relations, a PRGN member agency in Philadelphia

This post originally appeared on the blog of Buchanan PR, our PRGN affiliate based in Philadelphia.
Each year around this time, I get the urge to purge my closets of old clothing, steam clean my carpets and scrub every surface in my home. As a Type-A PR practitioner, I often take this energy into my office, using a designated Friday afternoon to rid my desk of excess paper and computer of outdated files. Here are a few tips for making the office spring clean efficient, effective and – dare I say it – even fun:

• Shred it and forget it. When it comes to spring cleaning around the office, there is no greater enemy than excess paper. Used Post-It notes, media clips from publications no longer in print and press kits dating back to the Bush administration are all keeping you from having a clean and orderly workspace. The answer? Take them to the office shredder. Be especially prudent to shred any documents that might contain sensitive client or confidential company information.
• Death by email. It happens to all of us. We’re blindly typing away, responding to the 1,000^th email of the day when, without warning, it flashes across our screen – that dire Microsoft Exchange message relaying the dreaded news: our mailbox is full. One of the best ways to avoid this catastrophe is to purge email on a regular basis. If that causes too much anxiety, how about earmarking one time a year to rid your Inbox of excess email? There are many ways to organize your electronic files for easy reference and fewer headaches. Find a system you like and stick with it – trust me, the payoff will be well worth it.
• Carpets, desks and bookshelves, oh my! The average desktop contains 400 times more bacteria than a toilet  Yes, you read that statistic correctly! During spring cleaning, it’s important to remember that surfaces are just as important as paper and electronics when it comes to getting rid of dirt and grime. Run the vacuum, grab the glass cleaner and raid the office closet for the broom and dust pan. In no time, your office will be spic-and-span, and, just as importantly, you’ll be ready to start the season with vim and vigor.

Happy Spring!
Questions or comments? Please let us know in a comment below or send an email to [email protected].