Organizing Solutions for the Home Office

by Lee Wyatt
(last updated August 16, 2016)

  • The purpose of a home office is to allow you a place where you can work, study, or have time with your hobbies—at least that is what they are supposed to do. There are times though that a home office, like any other office, can become a disorganized mess. That's where some organizing solutions for the home office can come in handy. Keeping these guidelines in mind from the very beginning can help you create the most effective home work environment possible, or at the very least help you reclaim your home office from the demands of the rest of your family.
  • Location. There has long been an adage of real estate that says "location is everything." This is equally true of the home office, as it is of any real estate property. When looking to create your home office, you will need to decide where in the home you want to have it. Keep in mind that this should be an office that you will be working in. That means that it should actually feel like you are going to work, rather than simply going to another room in your home. Pick a location in the home, if at all possible, where you will have to have some kind of a transition, such as going downstairs, upstairs, or some other kind of transition.
  • Measure the space. Once you have allocated a room for your office, take time to measure the space and create a little map based off of those measurements. This map will be an invaluable tool when you are planning out your office space. In fact, by having a map that you can play around with, you can actually save time and back ache from having to rearrange all your furniture time and again.
  • Experiment. Use your map, and experiment with your office layout. Even as you are placing the furniture into the office, be open to change. Find the layout and design that will help you not only focus on your tasks at hand, but help create the most organized space possible. You will find as you experiment that some designs and layouts will be a little more inherently organized than others.
  • Multitask. As you are decorating the room, and choosing the furniture that you will be using, try to use furniture that will, or can be, used for more than one task. What you basically want to do is use furniture that is capable of multitasking. Some great examples of this would be to use desks that have drawers, bookshelves, and filing cabinets. All of these pieces of furniture can be used in more than one way, and can provide extra storage space.
  • Create clear cut sections. As you lay out your office, try to keep separate work areas as clear cut as possible. For example, if you are going to be shipping things out of your home office, then you should create a "shipping" or "warehouse" area that will hold the products you are shipping. If you have need for a lot of reference materials, but won't be accessing them from your desk, then create a "library" section that you can easily access.

Author Bio

Lee Wyatt

Contributor of numerous Tips.Net articles, Lee Wyatt is quickly becoming a regular "Jack of all trades." He is currently an independent contractor specializing in writing and editing. Contact him today for all of your writing and editing needs! Click here to contact. ...

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