Home Design Elements has done some great work on home office renovations.  From built in cabinetry to shelving units and systems, we’ve done it all.  There are many things you can do to make your office space work better for you.  RISMedia recently sent out an email with some great information about how to make your office space better.

Some of the items are no-brainers but listing them out should get your creative space-making juices flowing:

Here is some of what they said:

“Check that everything is ergonomically suitable for you. It’s easy to become despondent and start making a mess when your working arrangements make you feel uncomfortable. A chair that makes your legs feel deadened or a table that just doesn’t have the space needed will soon have you wandering off and trying out other parts of the house to improve your comfort levels.

Remove the superfluous. Clutter will make it impossible for you to remain organized in a home office. Being at home, you’re at greater risk of things “migrating” into your work zone that have nothing to do with your work. Deal with this by getting rid of every object that is not useful for work. Take a close look at what you’re dealing with and define carefully what you need and what you don’t.

Manage the cables. You’ve probably found out through experience that the tangled cords under your desk are great at achieving three things: they trap dust balls, they make you look disorganized and they snag your feet, occasionally pulling over something else in the process. Don’t live with that rat’s nest of cables lurking behind your workstation; even if you’ve never thought it was possible to straighten out your office cables, give it a try.

Go wireless. Now that you’ve got that mess under your desk cleared up, think about getting rid of the cord clutter on your work surface. Wireless keyboards and computer mice are terrific gadgets that will free up both your space and your movements. Just imagine not having to tug the cord of your computer mouse free ever again.

Keep your printer off your workspace desk or table. Purchase or find a suitable printer table for it instead. If this small table or cabinet has shelves for storing printer paper and cartridges, this is even better.

Ensure adequate lighting. A home office needs good lighting to help you see properly at all hours of the day. If you’re stuck in a basement or somewhere that’s darker than normal, consider using a daylight bulb to brighten up your working space and to help you feel that the light is more natural.

Label everything. Stop squinting at the handwritten chicken-scratch on your file tabs and invest in a label maker instead. Having a label printer around will not only keep the contents of your filing cabinet looking neat and professional, it’s also very handy for organizing discs, office supplies and storage cabinets.

Sort. Sort through papers and shred the ones you don’t need. We’ve all dealt with it: the mountain of paper that comes from repeatedly putting off sorting through junk mail and paperwork. You have it in your power to keep that paper from piling up in the first place.

Straighten up at each day’s end. Before you call it a day, do a small tidy up. By taking just a few minutes to put everything back in order, you’re making a useful transition out of your workday, and ensuring that your office will be a much more pleasant place to return to the next day.

These are all good points.  So, if you need help getting some work done on your home office – give us a call!