Office Tips 

Whether you use your home office just to pay bills or to run your own business, you can use these tips to help you get organized.
 

 

Finding Office Space

If you will use the office space daily and plan to leave work out, a separate room is usually the best place for your office.  For example, you may want to turn the spare bedroom into a work room.  Simply take down the bed and replace it with a fold out sofa bed for guests if you still need sleeping arrangements. Even space in the garage, attic, or basement can  work if you can get the proper temperature and lighting.

If you don't have a seperate room at your disposal, look around for nooks and crannies that could serve as an office.  I use my dining room (which I don't use as a dining room, but as a play room).  I have one area set aside for my computer work station desk, printer table and another little table to keep some books on.

If you can afford to buy a new piece of furniture for your office, you can find beautiful computer work stations with doors that close to cover the clutter.  Everything pulls out for easy access and can be pushed back inside afterward behind doors that close.  These items look like just a beautiful piece of furniture--it's only when you open it up that can you see a whole home office inside.   When most of us set up a home office, we don't have a lot of money to spend on the project, so we've got to be clever.  Try your hand at these substitutions and innovations.

One of the most expensive furniture items can be the desk.  If you buy a small, inexpensive desk, you may find you actually have no room at all after you get it home and put the computer on it.  For a larger desk, consider using an old dining room table.  If you don't have one at home, check around at garage sales.  If the table looks rough, put a plastic tablecloth over it.  You can also make your own large "desk" by setting a prefinished hollow core door on top of two short (two drawer) file cabinets.  You can stain or paint the wood, or even put a plastic tablecloth over the top.  Another  item that makes a perfect desk is a commercial quality folding table.  These usually have a fake walnut finish over a melamine top, and you can usually buy them from an office super store (such as Office Depot or Staples) for $30 to $30 each.  These tables are very sturdy and are big enough to hold a computer, printer, and all the other goodies you'll have on your desk.

You can never have enough bookshelves--always keep your eyes open for these at garage sales.  Even if the shelves you find aren't in perfect condition, you won't notice scratches and nicks after you loaded them up with books and papers.  In the meantime you can make some bookshelves just like the college kids do: stack bricks on each side, and put boards on top.  I know they do look rustic, but they do the job and can be arranged as your needs change.

When buying a filing cabinet, consider how much stuff you are going to put inside it.  A lightweight file cabinet might seem like a good deal--until you load it up  and find that the drawers are hard to open and close with all that weight.  You're better off buying a little better quality cabinet that will hold up when you load it up.  Most new file cabinets have sides that are ready made to accept hanging file folders.  Before you buy a file cabinet, make sure this is the case.  If not, you'll have to buy special racks to hold the file folders.

When organizing your office space, place the computer so that the screen won't get a lot of glare from windows or lights.  If you can't completely eliminate the glare, you can buy a glare reducing screen for your computer.  Measure your monitor to find out the size you need.

It's better to turn your computer on in the morning and leave it on all day instead of turning it on and off several times.  I leave my computer on all the time except if I get a screen freeze and have to reboot or if my user resources are running low.  Each time you turn on your computer, a surge of power goes through it, so the fewer times you turn it on and off, the longer it will last.  Just make sure that if you do leave your computer on all the time that you shut off your monitor when it is not in use.  You don't want to burn it out.

Clean your monitor frequently to reduce eye strain.  Usually a quick wipe with a clean dry towel will do the job.  Never use window cleaner on the screen; a waxy film will slowly build up and will attract dust, which in turn will eventually yellow your screen.  You can buy commercially prepared solutions to clean your monitor, but washing it with a slightly damp rag (dipped in warm water and wrung out completely) is the most economical way to get it clean.  Do not spray water or any commercial cleaner directly on the monitor--instead, spray the liquid sparingly on a lint-free cloth, and then use the cloth to clean the screen.
 

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