As flexi hours and entrepreneurship gain popularity, more and more of us are working from home. The problem: we don’t have the luxuries of HR departments and office managers to make our workspace clean and organized. That’s all up to us! Luckily, here are a few quick ways to get started:
Split the space up
Are you creating a home office for more than one person to work in? Do you have different workspace needs for different jobs? If so, you need to split the space according to your needs. Then position the office furniture in each area near the walls. This will create the illusion of space in the centre and allow for easy access to plug points.
Invest in great storage
Before you start sorting through your home office junk or new stationery, think to yourself: where is this all going to go? Before you do anything, you need to invest in some solid, modern storage solutions for all the items you’re going to arrange. Get yourself a great set of shelves, a filing cabinet, drawers, and a few extra storage boxes that can be labelled, moved and transported as needed.
Think about furniture on wheels
A home office isn’t necessarily something you’re going to keep forever, and it’s not always going to be used in the same way. Your job needs might change, you might hire other people, you might start working at a company. The best way to keep it efficient is to buy portable furniture and storage on wheels so you can rearrange your office as and when needed.
Get labelling
It might sound like a dreary job, but we’re more likely to respond to visual clues than others. So get a few clear files and use coloured labels or stickers to make them instantly identifiable. Group colours together by job – all finance-related matters in one colour for example, or workflows everything to do with a single job from start to finish such as printing fliers from design to dissemination.
Look up!
If you have a small home office space and you’ve filled each corner with drawers or cabinets, don’t forget to look above! A well-placed floating shelf above your desk or boxes that can stack on top of each other can really help to give you a little more wiggle room.
Get creative
Don’t forget, this is an office, but it’s also part of your home. Make sure it matches your taste and style so that it looks like it’s part of a whole and not just a tired old back room. No one likes that!