Summary

Spring is in the air, and it’s time to give your IT environment the deep clean it deserves! In this episode of Hands-On IT, host Landon Miles shares nine essential spring cleaning tips to help IT pros declutter, optimize, and future-proof their systems. From cleaning workspaces and dusting off hardware to reviewing patch policies, auditing backups, and addressing tech debt, Landon walks you through practical steps that will boost efficiency, enhance security, and set you up for a smoother year ahead. 

Tune in and learn how a little proactive maintenance today can save you countless hours of reactive troubleshooting tomorrow!

Episode Transcript

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Automox’s Hands On IT Podcast—I'm your host, Landon Miles.

Spring is here, and while you might be thinking about cleaning out closets at home, today we’re focusing on a different kind of clutter: your IT environment. We'll cover 9 key tips every IT pro should tackle to set themselves up for a cleaner, safer, and more efficient year ahead.

Let’s jump in.

Tip 1: Clean Your Desk and Workspace

Your physical environment plays a bigger role in your workday than you might realize. A cluttered desk can subconsciously add to your mental load, making it harder to focus and prioritize. As IT Professionals (speaking for myself at least) our desks tend to pile up with laptops, cables, and just about everything else. Take a few minutes to toss outdated papers, organize gadgets, and wipe down your surfaces—keyboard, mouse, monitors, and shelves included. A cleaner space naturally encourages better productivity and clearer thinking.

Or, as I like to think about it: cleaning up last year’s junk leaves more room for this years junk. Before you move on to bigger IT tasks, set the right tone by making your immediate space clean and welcoming.

Tip 2: Dust Off Hardware and Check for Wear

While your desk might look pristine, the real trouble often hides inside your hardware. Servers, desktops, laptops, switches, and just about anything else electronics gathers dust over time. That dust can trap heat, leading to performance throttling or even hardware failure. Power down devices, pop open cases or access panels, and use compressed air to clear out vents, fans, and heat sinks. If you’re not in a specially designed server room - dust it. 

Don’t stop at just the computers. Inspect printers, mobile devices, and anything else with moving parts or vents. While you're cleaning, look for signs of physical wear—like bulging capacitors, loose connectors, or frayed cables. Addressing these small issues now could prevent much bigger, much costlier problems later.

Tip 3: Untangle and Manage Cables

Cable management is often overlooked because it feels like a purely cosmetic task—but in reality, it impacts airflow, troubleshooting speed, and even device longevity. Whether you're a cloud-based IT admin working from a home setup or managing racks in a data center, cable organization still matters. Even in smaller environments, a tangle of power cords, ethernet cables, and peripherals can cause unnecessary frustration during maintenance and day to day organization.

Start by bundling, and organizing cables using Velcro ties, zip ties, and cable channels. (If it’s going to move again, velcro ties are great because you can remove them without wire cutters)A clean cable setup also means quicker, less stressful maintenance in the future. When something goes wrong—or when you need to replace hardware—you’ll be able to trace connections easily without playing a game of "Which cable is it?"

Also take this opportunity to remove abandoned cables and replace damaged ones. Check your phone chargers, USB cables, chargers, and ethernet cables. If they don’t work, throw them away! There are few things more frustrating than troubleshooting something, and realizing that the cable you’re using to test it is bad. Tip 4: Review Patch Policies

Patching is the IT equivalent of eating your vegetables: essential for health but easy to put off. Servers, endpoints, VMs, firmware, networking gear—everything needs regular updates. Spring is the perfect time to review patch compliance, ensure systems aren’t lagging behind, and confirm your automated update policies are working as intended. If you’re using a patch management platform like Automox, double-check your policies and reporting to make sure no devices are slipping through the cracks.

Beyond immediate security, timely patching helps with system stability and performance. Addressing known vulnerabilities closes easy attack vectors and ensures you're running supported, reliable versions of software. And with major events like Windows 10 end-of-life looming (October 2025!), getting proactive now will save you from mad scrambles later.

Tip 5: Purge Old Accounts and Review Software Contracts

If you've worked in IT long enough, you know that user accounts have a bad habit of outliving their owners. Former employees, interns, or contractors often leave digital footprints behind in Active Directory or cloud identity systems. Spring is the time to audit user accounts, disable or remove unused ones, and tighten up group memberships to follow least-privilege access.

At the same time, review your organization's software and SaaS contracts. Subscriptions often linger even after users leave or projects end. Cancel licenses you no longer need, renegotiate contracts where usage has dropped, and update your documentation. Managing accounts and licenses together helps reduce costs, improve security, and keep your environment clean and compliant.

Tip 6: Declutter Local Systems and Storage

Just like a cluttered closet, your servers and endpoints can accumulate digital junk—old apps, outdated files, temp data, and duplicate archives. This bloat eats up valuable storage, slows down systems, and can even expose you to unnecessary security risks if outdated software or forgotten services are left running. Spring cleaning is the perfect time to give your file systems a hard look and clear out anything that's no longer actively needed.

While you're decluttering physical storage, don't forget to optimize your virtual environments too. Review your VMs and adjust resource allocations where necessary. Maybe that old file server doesn't really need 8 vCPUs and 32GB of RAM anymore, or maybe a production database is starving for memory. Right-sizing virtual machines improves performance, frees up host resources, and can even delay expensive hardware upgrades. 

A cleaner, better-balanced infrastructure—both physical and virtual—sets you up for a more efficient year ahead.

Tip 7: Audit and Test Your Backups

Backups are only valuable if they actually work when you need them. While backup reports might show "success," it's crucial to perform real-world tests: restore a file, a folder, or even an entire VM to verify the integrity of your backups. Catching gaps or corruption now could be the difference between a quick recovery and a catastrophic loss later.

Also review your backup policies and schedules during this cleanup session. Make sure all critical systems are included, that backup retention periods make sense, and that off-site or cloud backups are up to date. Reliable backups are the safety net that every cleaned-up IT environment relies on to stay resilient.

Tip 8: Review Digital and Hardware Tech Debt

Spring cleaning isn’t just for physical spaces—it’s a critical time to take stock of your IT environment’s technical debt. Review your hardware inventory to check the age, warranty status, and performance of your critical infrastructure. Identify any servers, networking gear, laptops, or peripherals approaching end-of-life or end-of-support. Proactively planning for replacements or upgrades helps avoid unexpected downtime and emergency purchases.

At the same time, audit your digital infrastructure: firmware versions, outdated systems, unsupported software, and neglected configuration updates can quietly accumulate risks over time. Prioritize addressing vulnerabilities and retiring aging systems before they turn into major problems.

By taking a hard look at both your physical and digital tech debt now, you set yourself up for a smoother, safer, and more predictable year ahead.

Tip 9: Update Documentation and Refresh Policies

Last but never least: documentation. In the chaos of everyday IT, documentation often falls behind. Use your spring cleaning session to update asset inventories, network diagrams, runbooks, and configuration files so they accurately reflect your environment as it stands today.

Accurate documentation isn’t just nice to have—it’s crucial when something breaks at 2 a.m. or when new team members need to get up to speed. Plus, refreshed IT policies ensure your processes—like onboarding, offboarding, patching, and backup—stay aligned with your organization’s current realities.

Wrapping It Up

And that’s it—9 practical spring cleaning tips to help IT pros get their house in order. A little proactive maintenance now can save you countless hours of reactive crisis management later.

Thanks for tuning in to Hands On IT. If you found today’s episode helpful, follow us and share it with your IT crew. We’d love to feature them in a future episode. Until next time, stay patched, stay organized, and have fun.