Guest Article

Home offices are now more popular than ever – many jobs don’t require a full-time presence in the office and an increasing number of stay-at-home parents decide to run their own businesses. Depending on your profession, home offices can take a number of different shapes. Here are some smart ideas for all those in need of a practical and clutter-free home office.

The Room Question

First of all, you need to ask yourself a question: Will my activity bother other members of my household? If your job requires instrument practice or lots of phone calls, you should think about an office in a separate room. This could be your spare room, which can act as both guest room and home office. In this case, choose simple accessories, small storage units and a soft color palette – and remember not to scatter your office work all over the room.

If what you do doesn’t create any unwanted noise, you can accommodate a corner or section of a room to serve as your home office – provided that you don’t get distracted by family life taking place nearby. Keeping the space organized is more important than ever – if your desk is cluttered, everyone will suffer from looking at it. The key is to keep things simple and hidden – use storage units or decorative accessories to keep your workstation in order.

The Furniture Issue

After redesigning the existing free space in your living room or arranging an altogether new space, you can start to look for suitable furniture. For a living room corner office, a wide desk and comfortable chair might be enough to make the space feel ready for some serious work. Remember that in this case, the furniture you choose should match the decor of the living room.

For a more serious home office that will serve for several members of the family, try corner desks and mix-and-match modular storage units that can sit flush with the walls and keep the room open. This kind of furniture will provide you with a lot of counter and storage space. If you get tired of the arrangement, you can easily move your furniture around to create a fresh look.

The Walls Problem

To avoid cluttering your workspace, it’s best to take advantage of all the vertical space in your home office – the walls. An acrylic page board, for instance, will keep all your essentials in order and within reach. Pin boards will add additional color to the room and give you a great space for all your lists, notes and photos. If you’re in a creative business, you can even set up a mood board.

Engage in Some DIY

Setting up your walls can allow you to get creative. You can screw in old drawer handles and create some clever hooks for keeping your keys or glasses. Use old curtain clip rings to hold important pieces of paper. A different idea – vintage forks, which you can hang to your walls with self-adhesive hook-and-loop fastener dots. Here, you could hold your important receipts or business cards. Now, imagine all this cluttering your desk – makes a big difference, doesn’t it?

Bulletin boards or memo boards are another great idea for keeping your desk free from flying papers. All your photos, mementos and invites can be posted here, right above your desk. You can make one yourself from an old picture frame – remove the glass and backings from it, cut a foam core to fit, wrap it in a nice, colorful fabric and voila! You can paint the frame to suit the color scheme of your room too.

Organizing a home office can be fun – especially if more than one family member will benefit from it. Most importantly, it offers a chance for creative reorganization of space that can revitalize other living areas in your home as well.

Professional Couple Working From Home courtesy of Ambro / www.freedigitalphotos.net

About the Author: Kelly Smith works at CourseFinder, an Australian online education resource. She also provides career advice for students and job seekers. She is interested in online marketing.