I've heard that my experience with an office move is not uncommon. We change laptops and take our own pens with us, but for the most part, computer hardware, furniture and staple office supplies come with the literal territory. And sometimes, those hand-me-downs haven't been wiped/cleared since the dawn of enterprise!
For instance, my keyboard could very well have been untouched by anything but sticky fingers, sandwich crumbs, hair follicle dust, Slurpee spittle ... (ew, I'm eating) for about 8 years... that's how long it was with the previous owners. And those are just the years that I know of!
So upon light inspection of not only the keyboard but the whole room, one would conclude that 10 minutes spent wiping up on the front end could save for hours of sorting/replacing/cleaning on the back end. I always keep a few things on hand (or hope that the office keeps a few things on hand) to help employees help themselves in the cleanliness department. I got to work with my supplies:
Sanitizing wipes
Can of compressed air
Trash can and recycling
A Paperclip
I wipe down the shelves, desk, draw handles (if not the whole drawer), cabinets, door handle, keyboard, mouse, speaker buttons, phone (receiver and dock), docking station for the laptop, and any other accessories like a printer with a sanitizing wipe. They are more portable than a bottle of spray and more durable than office kitchen paper towels that may leave fuzz behind.
I sort remaining items as I go. Did they leave behind a box of paperclips? Put that in the drawer with push pins. Did they say you could do what you want with their scrap paper but you have your own lot of note-taking paper? Then recycle theirs. Damaged items like chipped coffee mugs, pens without ink, weak magnets, etc. can be pitched at this point. Use this an opportunity to purge your own stuff as well.
The keyboard and the mouse have some of the most annoying crevasses that can harbor dirt and germs. I shake the keyboard upside down while tilting it in all directions (and honestly, banging it on the desk as well) to get out crumbs below the keys. Then I use a can of air to dislodge other things that are sticking. THEN, I wrap a sanitizing wipe around the end of a folded paperclip and use that to dust between each key. For the mouse I unwrap one end of the paperclip and use that to scrape out little crumbs from between the left and right click and along the sides. Then I wipe it all down with a sanitizing wipe. The same process can be repeated on the phone. Tedious, yes. Rewarding, of course!
Not my office, but wouldn't it be fun?
This only took me about an hour in the morning and I was so glad I did that. I think the mouse even glided more smoothly after I cleaned the accumulated dust off the bottom of it!
You could do it the long way too, and use the paperclip to pick off each of the keyboard keys and then vacuum, sanitize and wipe-up the whole things like in this tutorial!
Do you guys go to any length to keep your office clean? Are you an office-hopper? My friend B.Lill used to carry her own cleaning supplies with her because she switched work stations all the time, but now she's a personal trainer and will be dealing with more sweat than crumbs!
