By Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers
If you are one of the millions of business people in Houston who work out of your home, you may have realized that it can be a challenge to set up a functional home office.
The following are some tips and techniques you can use to create an office in your home that works for you:
Office Space
Determine the best space for your office.
When deciding where to put your office, take several things into consideration. What type of space do you need to do your work? Do you stay seated or do you walk around? Do you see clients in your office? Are you willing to give up or share the dining room, garage, or spare bedroom? The key is to find the space that works the best for both you and your family.
Be sure to consider ventilation, lighting, color, and accessibility for your clients. Don’t discount the isolation factor either; many people who work at home deal with isolation from the business world and putting your office physically away from the rest of the household serves to further isolate you.
My experience tells me that a great option is a spare bedroom followed by an unused formal dining room. They both typically have enough room for the furniture and equipment you need as well as having adequate lighting and ventilation. They are both also separated from the hub of the house but are not isolated.
Furniture
Look first for function then for form. Before you buy any piece of equipment or furniture for your office, make sure you know what you want it to do for you. People can easily be seduced by the form of the item not realizing it doesn’t provide the function they need.
Avoid built-in furniture and equipment. If your furniture is flexible, you can re-arrange it and/or add pieces to it as your needs change or your company grows. You can move a desk or bookcase if you need to; you can’t move built-ins.
Buy bookcases with adjustable shelves. Having adjustable shelves allows you to change the height of the shelves as well as the number of shelves. Bookcases are great places to store both reference and reading material. Using decorative boxes and containers, they can also hold anything else – office supplies, marketing materials, CDs, etc.
Invest in a good quality chair. Your chair is probably the most important piece of furniture you can buy; make sure it fits you. Take it home for a trial. A good chair should adjust up and down as well as forward and back and be sure you can make adjustments while you’re sitting in it.
Don’t buy a cheap filing cabinet. A good quality cabinet will be weighted; you won’t be able to open more than one drawer at a time and it won’t tip over. It will have ball bearing guides, which means it will consistently open easily and quietly. There are great deals on used cabinets; for the price of a new poor quality cabinet you can get a used good quality one.
Family Interruptions
It can be difficult for the family to not interrupt you when you’re working at home, but with a little communication and ground rules, it can be successfully done. It’s important that your family understand that this area is now a place of business; it’s no longer a dining room or spare bedroom and your work is not a hobby so they should keep their interruptions to a minimum:
Create Boundaries. You can create walls and doors with plants, office furniture, and room dividers. You can even use rugs to create imaginary boundaries – everything on this side of the rug is in my office; everything on that side is not.
Be ‘Gone’. Let your family know that during normal working hours you are at work and are in effect ‘gone’. If they interrupt, let them know that they’ll have to wait until you get ‘home’.
Set a Timer with Kids. Tell them that when the timer goes off, you can play or talk with them but when it goes off again, you have to go back to work. This gives them the anticipation of spending time with you and it allows you to spend time with your child without feeling stressed or guilty.
Change Hats. You can also wear a different hat to indicate to a small child when you are available and when you’re not. When Daddy’s wearing his red cap, it’s play time but when he’s in his blue cap, he’s working.
Give Them Their Own Supplies. The family’s scissors, tape, markers, pens, and pencils should be in an area that is easily accessible to them so they won’t have to interrupt you in order to use your supplies. Make sure they understand that your office is not the family’s office supply store.
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Office Organizers, founded in 1993 by Holly Uverity, is The Entrepreneur’s Organizer. They work with business people to create solutions for their organizational challenges. Contact them at 281-655-5022, www.OfficeOrganizers.com, or www.fb.com/OfficeOrganizers.
