Is A Clean & Clear Workspace Good For Your Mental Health?

You may have heard the old saying that a tidy desk is a sign of a tidy mind. You may have wondered just how true it is. After all, everybody’s an individual. Some people love clear surfaces. Others find them clinical. The truth is that clean and clear workspaces really are good for people’s mental health. Here’s what you need to know.

Blog Contents:

The benefits of a tidy desk

A lot of the benefits of a tidy desk are totally practical. Tidy desks are more secure. It’s harder for someone to access items or data without it being noticed. They’re also more hygienic. If your desk is visible to others (even if only by Zoom), then it looks more professional.

Tidy desks are unlikely to be health-and-safety hazards. In particular, papers will be stored away from heat, cords will be tidy and sharp objects will be kept safe. Tidy desks can also help to reduce basic office costs. Because people know where everything is, it’s less likely that resources will be lost or wasted.

Adopting a clear desk policy

Clear desk policies ensure that any employees within the workplace clear their desks of any belongings or clutter, either when their shift finishes or at some point throughout the working day. Clear desk policies can help businesses to keep workspaces much tidier and organised for the benefit of staff morale, as well as organising what documents are needed within the workplace, and what aren’t.

Everybody has a breaking point

Every single person in the whole world has a point at which an excess of anything becomes overwhelming. As soon as something becomes overwhelming, it has a negative impact on a person’s mental health.

One of the benefits of working from home is that people can set up their own workspaces exactly how they like them. Communal workspaces, by contrast, need to work to a combination of the law and common denominators. This typically means aiming for a clean and clear workspace in general while allowing a time and a place for acceptable clutter.

Understanding organisational styles

Just as there are different personality types so there are different organisational styles. Accepting these different organisational styles and working with them is often the key to keeping desks tidy and employees happy.

You can generally figure out an employee’s organisational style by asking two key questions.

Do you prefer to have everything put away or do you like to see what you have?
Do you prefer to have items in large groups or in detailed categories?

Once you’ve worked this out, you can provide (or recommend) organising solutions to suit each employee.

The law and workplace organisation

There are three main areas of the law that should have a strong influence on workplace organisation. The first is health and safety law. Clean and clear workplaces tend to be the healthiest and the safest for all kinds of reasons.

At a practical level, keeping a workplace clean protects against the issues that come with a lack of hygiene. Keeping working areas clear also reduces hazards to people in the area (including any non-employees). Clean and clear workspaces are also less likely to trigger or exacerbate mental health issues such as anxiety.

The second is security, both physical and digital. The more cluttered your workplace is, the more cover there is for malicious actors. Part of the reason for this is that clutter (physical or digital) makes it harder to keep track of items. This means it can take much longer to spot that items are not where they should be. It can take even longer to determine if they are lost (or stolen) or just mislaid.

The third is the Equality Act 2010. Employees with some recognised medical conditions may need clean, clear and ordered surroundings to feel secure at work. Failing to provide these conditions could potentially give rise to a discrimination claim.

Workplace organisation and employee mental health

Even without the law, it makes sense for employers to ensure that workplaces are kept clean and clear. Very few people thrive on permanently high levels of clutter. Most people need a reasonable level of cleanliness and clear space in order to feel comfortable at work.

If employers don’t provide this, their employees’ mental health may suffer. Alternatively, they may simply go and look for employment somewhere the working environment suits them better. They may also adjust their working activities to reflect their discomfort with their working environment. For example, they may try to avoid bringing clients to the office.

As a final point, it’s also worth noting that clean and clear workspaces tend to be the places where it’s easiest to be productive. This means that they give employees the best opportunity of doing everything they need to do in the time allocated for them to do it.

If employees are hindered by an unclean and/or disorganised working environment, they may become stressed and/or resentful. They are also likely to become demotivated. After all, if they perceive that their employer does not care about working standards, then why should they?

Dealing with paper-loving employees

Even though the 21st century is clearly a digital age, the paperless workplace is clearly still a long way off. Employees may not do everything on paper by default anymore. There are, however, still a lot of employees who can generate a lot of paper for various reasons.

Some of these may be able to be addressed by technology. For example, if employees are printing out meeting notes, then giving them tablets may allow them to stop. With that said, it’s still generally more comfortable to do extended reading on paper rather than on a screen.

In other cases, however, employees need to use paper to express themselves. Again, this is likely to be particularly true of creatives. Scribbling thoughts on paper is a bit like thinking aloud but more acceptable in workplaces.

With this, the best approach is often to allow employees to create their clutter. Just insist that it’s tidied up as soon as possible, at least by the end of the day. If employees don’t know what they want to keep, have them photograph the paperwork. That way, they have the image, but the paper can be recycled.

Allow zones for clutter

Some people do need to be allowed to create a certain level of clutter (and/or dirt) to be able to function. This is particularly true of creatives. One effective way to deal with this is to give these employees a zone where they can create their clutter.

Set down rules for how messy they can get and how long the clutter can be allowed to stand. Provide easy solutions to keep their clutter within limits. For example, if employees are physically building models, give them storage boxes to put them in between uses.

Eliminate cables and cords whenever possible

There are definitely still advantages to using cords. In smaller workspaces, however, these are often counterbalanced by the issue of cable clutter. Generally speaking, therefore, it makes sense to go cordless as much as you can.

Have different types of storage

Closed storage is generally the default in workplaces and for good reason. There can, however, also be a place for other types of storage.

For example, you could use open-topped baskets on open shelves to keep items corralled but easily accessible. Pegboards keep items visible but organised. Translucent containers provide closed storage but still let people find items quickly. These, and other solutions, can all play a useful role in modern workplaces.

Employees who like closed storage tend to get on well with traditional office organisation solutions such as closed bins, drawers and filing cabinets. Employees who like to keep items in large groups may simply need some dividers or bins. Employees who prefer more detailed categories may need a larger range of storage options.

For visually-oriented employees, the key to success is often to split out items they only need occasionally from items they need often. Items they only need occasionally can be put into open-top and/or clear storage containers. They can then go into the same closed storage solutions as employees who like closed storage use.

Give employees time to tidy up

This may seem like stating the obvious but it’s actually very important. If you simply give employees time to do their exact job and no more, you can expect dirt and clutter to build up. You need to incorporate time for them to clean and tidy after themselves if you want to keep a clean and clear workspace.

Declutter with RADS Storage

If you’re looking for places to store any documents lying around on your desk, we can offer off-site document storage services for your office clutter. Alternatively, we can also digitise your documents through documents scanning or shred any unwanted documents. For any of these services, please get in touch with our team today.