Today I want to talk about how to set up and organize your Home Office. Since most of us are working from home due to Covid19 have you been able to set up an efficient home office where you can be productive and inspired? I’ve had an office at home since 2000.
What I find is that every office typically has these 3 elements:
- A work surface with room for active projects and daily supplies
- A file cabinet
- Storage for reference materials, extra supplies and tech gadgets
Work Station
It’s important to have a comfortable work station for you to sit in an upright position since we don’t need aches and pains after working. Some of you might be using your dining room, kitchen or bedroom tables – once you see some of these very cool work stations, you might want to create a new area just for you.
I think there are a lot of areas that can be distractions especially in the kitchen or family room so finding a place that you can feel good in and have the least amount of interruptions is best. I also believe that getting dressed and not sitting in pajamas helps your day get off to a more productive one as both your work station and your appearance can be a happy place and help you be more creative and productive.
Desk
We used to have U-shaped desks or large work areas with all of the tech equipment like printers that needed to be attached. My first desk had all kinds of compartments and was quite difficult to put together as that was one of my first projects to do as I wanted to work from home and found a perfect size for the space I had. I had a company create a work space for both my husband and I at the house we live in now. We had very different set up requirements and the company we used created perfect work spaces for us at a very reasonable price. I absolutely love my work space and so does my husband which I think is pretty important since we live in this area a lot.
Supply Storage
The biggest mistake I see with a cluttered work space is that people keep bulk supplies in their work space – i.e. all of your paper, pens, all of your post it notes, business cards etc. Keep only what is needed and the rest in a supply cabinet or closet. Everything has a place – not on your desk!
One Project at a Time
One active project at a time should be in your work space as each night you should be able to put everything away in its place. Do not leave piles of paperwork. Use clear file folders so you can see what’s in them as you are working on them.
Reference materials
You do not have to access them on a daily basis. Change a hanging closet by adding shelves to keep your tech gear, bulk
office supplies and other reference materials away from your work area.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi has given us the freedom of having our printer, file cabinet and
tech equipment stored away from your work space
Cabinets
If you don’t have a file cabinet, there are plenty of bin type cabinets you
can purchase to be able to store your paperwork and other items in so
you can keep a tidy work space.
Scan Paperwork
If you can’t fit your files into a one or two drawer cabinet, maybe you are keeping to much paperwork. Everything can be scanned! If you don’t have a tax or legal reason to keep your paperwork, now would be a time to recycle and shred all of that paperwork.
An app called GENIUS SCAN can be used with your camera on your phone and scans several pages into one file in order for you to digitize your documents when you are trying to get rid of paper work and eliminate manual filing.
Shred Documents
SHREDDERs are a necessity to get rid of confidential paperwork that has account numbers, social security numbers, and personal data that you don’t want others to have. IDENTITY THEFT STAMP is a great tool that can be found on Amazon for less than $10 that saves lots of time shredding as the stamp blocks any personal data you don’t want to be seen and then the document can just be thrown away. This saves money as well since time is money.
I don’t know about you, but I like to put everything away each night so I can start fresh the next day. It makes me feel good to have order and that I can find what I’m looking for in less than 5 minutes. That’s my goal for my clients when they hire me to organize their work space. I help set up bill pay, scan documents, shred/stamp docs, organize paperwork and supplies in order for my clients to enjoy their work space.
I hope I’ve given you some great ideas & inspiration for setting up your home office. If you need help you can contact me.
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