Spring Cleaning called—and it wants to meet with you right away. You have to talk about that folder of handwritten meeting notes, that drawer of stale snacks, and those melted promotional ChapSticks from the company’s inaugural year. In fact, Spring Cleaning has sent your team a calendar request for an entire day of office cleaning.

Here’s the meeting agenda that leads to a successful day of spring cleaning:

• Get rid of grime. Start with your dedicated workspace, then work together on common areas like storage rooms and employee lounges. Make sure your team is well equipped with dusters, cleaning sprays, sanitizers, and plenty of recycling bins, shredders, trash cans, and Dumpsters. You’re going to need them!
• Conquer clutter. Five pens is plenty for your desk drawer, so rehome the rest in the supply closet. And how about that filing cabinet? Keep the company’s records retention policy in mind as you archive or toss out-of-date or seldom-referenced files, BUT hold on to tax records, master documents, and legal documents, including contracts, licenses, and warranties. Remember, you can always scan your files into electronic format. One year after scanning a document, you can discard the paper copy. And then you can use cleanup day to organize your electronic files, too!
• Encourage employees. Positive peer pressure: it’s how you motivate employees to clean instead of chat about who will win the Iron Throne. Promote the day well in advance—it’s a cleaning party, hurray!—and make sure it gets on everyone’s calendars. Remind the team one week before cleanup day, keeping your tone lighthearted and fun. You can even hold awards for most improved, most creative use of space, and so on.
• Freshen the future. Is the community fridge stuffed with month-old takeout boxes? Start cleaning out the fridge every Friday, with a notice that any takeout boxes will be tossed at EOD. Is the sink filled with dirty dishes? Take turns serving as dishwasher for the day or week. Better yet, think about a system that holds “abandoned” dishes captive until their owner comes to claim them—for $5. Work out a sliding scale for repeat offenders. Money collected can go toward a fun office activity.

Sure, Spring Cleaning might sound like a taskmaster, but it only asks for one day a year to make a big difference in your office’s appearance, morale, and possibly smell. With a little imagination and a lot of elbow grease, your annual cleanup day can pave the way for a fresh office every season! Just set that calendar request to an annual recurrence.