Tips to Prepare Your Office for the Christmas or New Year Shut Down

9 October 2019

The weeks leading up to the end of the year are an exciting time in offices all across the globe. To ensure you arrive back to your office plants still alive and a clean and orderly office, take some time to prepare for the festivities and the incoming return to work.

The festive break is an exciting time for offices all over the globe. Often involving planning a party involving a little gift swapping between co-workers, a merry get-together and an early locked door as everyone heads home to enjoy some time with their family.

Although a great way to end the working year on a high, it may lead to a rude shock when arriving in the New Year when the office is left in the same state you left it, minus the pre-holiday buzz. Unorganised files and desks, bins left full, dirty dishes left unwashed and the once-loved office plants dry and dead.

Here are our tips on how to get your office through the holiday period without killing your plants or returning to an untidy office.

Team Workspace Organisation

Although the plan of a quick last-minute clean sounds great, we all know it never ends up happening. Minimise what you need to do on the last day at the office by scheduling a few sessions in the days leading up to the final day to tidy the office up. Set aside a few hours to clean out what is no longer needed, put files into storage and set your office space right for the New Year ahead.

Clean the office

Although your office is now tidy with supplies and paperwork stored away, two weeks is a long time for food scraps and other waste to linger in your office space. To avoid arriving back to some uninvited rodent guests, ensure someone is responsible for removing the trash or hiring a cleaner.

An often-overlooked cleaning area and one that a hired cleaner typically is not responsible for is your office fridge. No one wants to return to work and be faced with the odours of week-old meals and milk. Make it a priority to leave the fridge spotless and ideally powered off to make the arrival back to the office pleasant and save on power.

Adopt-a-plant

Keep your beloved office greenery green by allocating a plant to each employee to take home over the break. Even if they’re going away, leaving the plant in your yard or on your balcony will ensure it gets the sun and rain to keep them alive.

Encourage Sustainability

The shutdown is a great time to get repairs or sustainability-focused improvements made to the office space. Fit energy-efficient lighting and appliances to reduce energy use and increase product lifespans. Over the shutdown it is also a great idea to shut down and unplug all appliances, saving energy and money!