The custom of spring cleaning goes far back into history. It may originate with Norouz, the Iranian New Year, which occurs every year on the first day of spring. It could also come from the Jewish holiday of Passover, for which the religious thoroughly clean their homes to remove any remnants of leavened food. Of course, it may just be that it’s far more pleasant to clean the house during temperate weather, but regardless of where it came from, it has become a tradition observed not only in the home, but in the office.

For small business owners, Productivity @ Home has published a 10-step “to-do” list for spring cleaning the office. Item one, “clean your computer,” is especially useful, and has a link to a directional video. Item two, “clean your computer keyboard,” is also linked to detailed directions. Another 10-step list for home office users can be found at Get Organized Now.

All Business takes a different approach: Rather than offering a specific task list, the site coaches readers on how to achieve the best attitude for getting the cleaning done. It offers advice not only on cleaning up one’s office, but on cleaning up some bad habits as well. This increases the chance that the office stays tidy and organised all year round (one clever suggestion is to pretend you are an ER doctor and “triage” the work that awaits you).

Business Coach Evan Carmichael offers a plethora of spring cleaning ideas, some of them geared especially towards office managers. One helpful idea is to facilitate employees to clean out any old grievances towards coworkers by writing them down and ceremoniously burning them together, thus allowing the whole office to move forward with a clean slate.

And finally, to further simplify your office life, consider cloud computing. This recent article at Chief Home Officer provides several online sources to learn more about this new trend of storing files online and freeing up hard copy space, while ensuring that important documents are accessible from anywhere in the world.

Dee Hock, founder and former CEO of Visa once said, “Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.” If that’s the case, imagine what will happen when you clean out your entire office…

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