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  • 5 Tips for Cleaning Your At-Home Workspace

    Your desk at home is likely teeming with dust, grime and bacteria. Here are five tips and can’t-miss spots for a deep clean of your desk.

    Five ways to make tidying and disinfecting your desk part of your cleaning routine. Woman using a laptop at a desk.

    With 41% of remote-capable workers now working from home at least part-time, our home workspaces are getting used more than ever.¹ Translation: They are also getting dirtier than ever.

    And even if your dedicated workspace is solely for personal tasks—like paying bills or booking your next vacation—tidying and disinfecting your desk, electronics and other accessories should be part of your regular cleaning routine. Here are five tips and can’t-miss spots to get you started.

    Reduce clutter and organize.

    Those piles of bills, receipts and other miscellaneous papers are more than eyesore. They’re also major dust-collectors, polluting your workspace with dirt, allergens, dander and pollen. Purge what you can and create designated spaces for the rest. It will help foster an environment that improves focus and reduces stress and anxiety.

    Wipe down your desk.

    Remove everything from your workspace, such as your computer, keyboard, monitor and mouse, so you have unobstructed access to the desk surface. Using disinfectant wipes or a homemade cleaning solution of vinegar and water, wipe down your desk from corner to corner to get rid of grime, coffee cup stains and bacteria.

    Clean all electronics and desk accessories.

    The electronics in our at-home workspaces are teeming with bacteria and germs. Here are some general tips to keep your most-used devices clean, but check with your manufacturer for specific product cleaning and disinfecting information:
     

    • Phone: When your phone isn’t charging, wipe it down with a microfiber cloth dampened with soap and water, taking care to avoid any openings. Don’t spray cleaning solutions directly on your phone.
    • Laptop or monitor screen: Mix dish soap and/or vinegar with water, and spray it onto a microfiber cloth before wiping down your powered-off screen. If you don’t want to make your own solution, you can purchase electronic wipes.
    • Keyboard: Use a can of compressed air to remove trapped dirt and debris from your keyboard, then spray a microfiber cloth with isopropyl alcohol to wipe down the keys.
    • Mouse: Run a toothpick through the grooves of your mouse—or use compressed air—to remove stuck-on debris. Next, gently wipe your mouse with a microfiber cloth dampened with soap and water.
    • Other desk accessories: Staplers, tape dispensers, scissors and pens can be cleaned with a disinfectant wipe.

    Dust bookshelves.

    Bookshelves in a workspace allow you to display the knick-knacks and books that showcase your personality. They also create more surface area for dust to accumulate. Starting at the top: remove and wipe down all items, as well as every shelf surface, with a slightly dampened, dust-trapping microfiber cloth. Repeat this process for each shelf until you reach the bottom.

    Wash reusable water bottles.

    Raise your hand if you’re guilty of letting your favorite water bottle sit at your desk unwashed overnight. While you may not think that’s a big deal (it’s just water, after all!), reusable water bottles are filled with bacteria. It’s crucial to wash yours with soap and hot water every day.

    Sources

    1. “About a third of U.S. workers who can work from home now do so all the time.” Pew Research Center. 2023.

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