Want to boost your productivity? Consider cleaning your workspace. Clutter, dirt, and disorder can creep into a work environment and suck up your time, space, and energy. Raise your hand if you’ve ever searched for a document unsuccessfully in a jumble of physical or digital files. 

In the spirit of spring cleaning, we’ve adapted a handful of tried-and-true household tidying tips to rejuvenate your workspace and level-up your productivity.

Spring Cleaning Hack #1: Take out the trash.

Spring cleaning calls for getting rid of more rubbish than usual. You might donate well-loved clothes from your bedroom closet or recycle brush piled up in the backyard.

Disposing of work-related trash demands more care. Employer policy might require you to shred paper documents or deposit them into a secure container. You might need to back up digital files to the cloud or move them to another hard drive before deleting them from your computer. 

Spring Cleaning Hack #2: Get your docs in a row.

If you collect as a hobby, this hack will resonate. For example, if you collect rare vinyl, you likely have some means for organizing and protecting your records.

Remember the physical and digital documents in the first hack? Do this with the docs you keep: Organize them–using tags, standardized file names, etc.–and keep them secure.  

The trick is maintaining your system going forward. Your future self will thank you.

Spring Cleaning Hack #3: Deep clean where it matters the most. 

If you chose an area in your home for a thorough cleaning, wouldn’t it be an attic or garage that’s become a default storage space?

Similarly, letting unneeded messages hang around your email account is too easy. Meanwhile, new messages flood your inbox faster than you–or anyone–could ever handle without help. Your email deserves a deep clean. 

SaneBox Email Deep Clean cleans out old emails and frees up valuable storage space. How it works: 1) Deep Clean scans your email for old, storage-wasting messages, 2) you browse the resulting list, and 3) select which ones to trash. 

Deep Clean works with any email service. You’ll never pay for extra storage space again.

Spring Cleaning Hack #4: See your workspace in a new light.

Use this year’s spring cleaning to make yourself more comfortable. How’s your lighting? A dark desk area can be depressing. Overly bright lights might keep you awake but are unpleasant and unflattering during video calls. Changing bulbs or adding dimmers are simple but impactful remedies. 

Does your chair support you where you need it most? Are your desk, monitor, and keyboard at ideal heights? Do you need ergonomic accessories like wrist or footrests to keep you feeling good and performing at your best?

Spring Cleaning Hack #5: Reset your mindset.

Look closely at the keyboard on your work computer or personal laptop. The grime isn’t for the faint of heart. It might even motivate you to adopt a few new habits. 

Cleaning keyboards on the regular might not be something you do–but why not? It’s so easy. If you fill your coffee mug two or three times a day, you only need to clean it once at quitting time. It’ll be much nicer to sit down tomorrow morning with a mug that’s ready to tackle the workday with you. 

Develop good habits. Making your bed is a highly recommended way to start the day with a sense of order and accomplishment that will find its way into your work.

Make a clean break from old ways.

These tips should help you hack your way to greater productivity. Try out SaneBox’s brand-new Deep Clean feature for 14 days, free of charge. You don’t have to wait until spring has sprung.