National Clean Off Your Desk Day
Celebrated on the second Monday of January each year, encouraging people to declutter and organize their workspaces.
History of National Clean Your Desk Day National Clean Your Desk Day is designed to herald the arrival of warmer climes and the beginning of spring, a time of year that many of us associate with cleaning, decluttering, and saying sayonara to stuff we don’t want or need.
This is a day to ensure you start the New Year with a clear head and a clean, tidy desk. If there’s junk everywhere and stacks of papers overflowing, it’s not only more difficult to find what you need, but there’s also a risk of important things getting misplaced. Tidying is an excellent habit to get into, and National Clean Your Desk Day could be the start of a brand new attitude to cleaning, filing, and conquering clutter.
Stress is a common ailment in today’s society, and working in a clean, bright, open space is proven to promote serenity and calm. What could be better than turning up to work on a gloomy Monday morning to find a pristine workstation with not a scrap of junk or a pile of paperwork in sight?
But what are the origins of the modern desk? And why does it matter?
The word desk actually comes from the Latin word desca, meaning “a table you write on,” and was first coined in the middle of the 14th century. During the middle ages, people hardly referred to “desks” at all, since the vast majority of the population worked the land. The only people who could write were legal professionals and the clergy.
By the turn of the eighteenth century, however, the term desk was finding common currency. Not only was it a feature in more and more places of work, but it was also making an appearance in the home. The head of the household would use their desk as a place to do administrative work, such as preparing accounts or writing letters.
Desks, however, didn’t have a single origin. Some manufacturers made writing tables called scriptors, which featured a panel that folded down to provide the writing surface. Others were more like cabinets – what we might call today a French bureau.
By the start of the 19th century, however, all these items were virtually the same thing, with relatively few people distinguishing between them. Some had drawers underneath for storing papers, while others stood on legs, providing the user with space to put their feet.
As the needs of enterprise and commerce became more complicated, desk management issues came to the fore. People needed office spaces that afforded the organization they needed but didn’t harm their productivity. Coming up with solutions that worked was difficult. Until the rise of the PC, the best that manufacturers could do was offer people extra drawers.
National Clean Your Desk Day ties in nicely with today’s workplace culture. Research shows that people get more done and feel less stressed when their desks are clean and tidy. It helps support wellbeing and makes long days in the office more bearable.
Source - Days of the Year.com
