If you do nothing else for your office IT this year, spending one afternoon on the things in this article will probably prevent at least one future emergency. None of it is hard. Most of it just takes attention.

Here's what we walk through with clients when we do a network spring cleaning.

1. Label Everything

Walk over to wherever your router, switch, and modem live. Look at the cables. Can you tell which cable goes to which room or device just by looking? For most offices we visit, the answer is no.

The fix is simple and old-school: stick labels on both ends of every cable. A roll of label tape and a marker is enough. When something goes wrong six months from now, you (or whoever you call) can trace problems in minutes instead of unplugging things to test what they do.

2. Find and Remove the Mystery Boxes

In every office network we touch, there's at least one mystery device — something blinking on the floor or in a closet that nobody remembers buying or plugging in. Common suspects:

  • Old WiFi extenders from before the office had proper access points
  • An unmanaged switch added in 2018 to solve a problem nobody remembers
  • A printer's wireless adapter when the printer has been cabled for years
  • A modem from the previous internet provider that's still powered on for some reason

If you can't identify what something does and who uses it, unplug it and see what breaks. If nothing breaks in a week, get rid of it. Mystery devices are how networks get insecure — they're the ones never patched, never updated, and often using default passwords.

3. Document What's Actually Online

Make a simple list of every device on your network: router, switch, access points, network printers, cameras, servers, and any "smart" devices (thermostats, doorbells, etc.). For each, write down:

  • What it is
  • What it's connected to
  • Who needs access
  • What its IP address is (your router can show you this)

This list is the most useful thing you can hand to any IT person — including future-you — when something goes wrong.

4. Update Firmware

Every device on your network — router, access points, switches, even printers and cameras — runs software called firmware that gets security updates over time. Most small business networks haven't had firmware updates in years.

This is genuinely important. Outdated firmware is one of the most common ways small offices get compromised. Set aside an hour, log into each device's admin panel, and check for updates. Most devices these days can auto-update if you turn it on.

5. Test Your Backup. Actually Test It.

We've said this in our backup post and we'll say it here: a backup you've never tested is a guess. While you're in spring-cleaning mode, pick one file from yesterday's backup and actually restore it. Verify it opens. Verify it's the right version.

Most "backups" we discover during spring cleaning haven't been working for months. Better to find out today than the day you need it.

6. Review Who Has Access to What

Walk through your accounts:

  • Are there ex-employees still in your business cloud, email, or admin panels?
  • Are there contractor accounts that should have been removed when the project ended?
  • Are admin accounts on your business systems using strong, unique passwords with 2FA?
  • Are there shared accounts (everyone uses the same login) that should be individual?

Spring cleaning is a great time for the cleanup nobody else thinks about.

7. Make a Simple Network Map

You don't need fancy software. Open paper, a whiteboard, or a basic drawing app, and sketch:

  • Internet → Modem → Router → Switch → Devices
  • Where the WiFi access points are
  • What's wired and what's wireless
  • Where the printer and any servers sit

Hand this to anyone who walks in to work on your network and you've just saved them — and yourself — an hour of detective work.

Quick Check Before You Call Walk to your network closet (or wherever the router lives). How many devices are blinking that you can't identify? That's your homework for the afternoon.

When It's Time for a Real Network Cleanup

If you read this list and decided you'd rather not spend a Saturday in your network closet — that's something we do for clients on a regular basis. Audit, label, document, patch, secure, and leave you with a network map. Most small offices need this every couple of years.