9 Ways to
Make More Elbow Room
in Your Home Office
Simple Steps to Increase Your Home
Office Work Space
By Karen
Porter,
Editor
EasyHomeOrganizing.com
Can't
fit into your own home office? Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but perhaps you
find yourself taking notes on a pad balanced on your kneecap while you're
speaking on the telephone. Or maybe your keyboard sets on top of a stack of
manuals with no better home. And putting them in your lap isn't an option
because you've already got a stack of files balanced there so you can reach
another stack that was beneath them. It sounds like you need to make a little,
maybe a lot, more elbow room in your home office. Here are some simple ideas to
help:
1.
Invest in a flat panel monitor.
I
recently went from a full-size monitor with about a 14-inch depth to a flat
panel monitor with a 3-inch depth. You do the math. Now I even have room to
store behind it a few containers of items that I want nearby, but don't use
constantly. My former full-size monitor encompassed the desk depth making this
option zilch. And if you don't have a keyboard tray that slides out from
underneath your desk, get one!
2.
Choose furniture with lots of cubbyholes in various sizes and shapes.
Some
people may think that lots of cubbyholes mean too many choices and confusion
when trying to locate items. This is not so as long as all the nooks and
crannies are facing one direction, preferably in a direct line of view from your
office chair. In fact, the divided cubbyholes allow you more organization. You
can separate the #10 envelopes from the #9 envelopes; have a place to stash all
your hardware and software manuals upright and away from your office supply
catalogues; use a section for postage supplies; and more.
3.
Stash extra office supplies.
Everything doesn't have to be, and shouldn't be, kept in your desk drawers or
cubbyholes. Put a generous helping of the office supplies you use daily in
nearby spots like a shallow desk drawer or desktop cups and containers. This
should be some writing instruments, staples, adhesive pads, paper clips, etc.
But don't keep your whole lifetime supply there. Put the majority of your supply
refills in see-through containers and stuff them on a closet shelf. My favorite
containers for this usage are the Sterilite® Show Offs, translucent tote
containers with handles, available for just a few bucks each.
Plastic Container
 sold
by
Stacks and Stacks.
4.
Hang pocket baskets on your walls.
These
are baskets with a flat back, allowing them to easily lay flat against the wall,
and open pockets for stuffing things inside. They come in a variety of sizes and
materials. I have variations of willow, wire and rattan wall pocket baskets in
my home. Use them for some of the same content that you might put into "action"
files in a stand-up file or sorter on your desk, such as to hold and separate
invoices, credit card receipts or outgoing mail. Find them at craft stores, home
decorating stores or even major discount retail chains in the craft department.
5.
Go vertical with shelving.
While
wall-to-wall vertical shelving would hold a lot in even a small home office, it
would undoubtedly remind me of being in a room at the public library, and a very
claustrophobic one at that. But at least one floor to ceiling book shelf or
storage cabinet in the home office is a definite plus for holding not only books
but supplies, like reams of copy paper, stacks of 9" X 12" envelopes and boxes
of folder supplies. A few strategically placed free-standing wall shelves placed
high also can add some space and dimension to your decorating scheme.
6.
Use rollaway file carts and bins.
Some
bins, such as the inexpensive EKCO Flip Top Storage File Crates I purchased
during a back-to-school sale, come with casters. I can fit a couple dozen
hanging files inside one of these crates, roll them up to my chair when I want
to see them and push them back to some faraway spot in the corner or under the
desk when I don't need them. If I want to store them for a while, I can pull the
casters off and stack them in the closet. If you've got a small two drawer file
cabinet, buy an adjustable metal frame with casters on it for this purpose to go
beneath it, and you can do the same. Most office supply stores sell these
frames. Files ready for the archives can be more permanently boxed in cardboard
archive file boxes and stashed away where you see fit.
7.
Only save pages.
File
any articles you'd like to keep from magazines, newspapers or even seminar
notebooks and booklets in a catch-all binder with labeled tabs on notebook
divider pages or in manila file folders by topic or periodical title. And my
next advice, though some may cringe at this idea, is to only save chapters,
cover and credit pages from some books. I recently ordered a 340 page book for
reference in my article writing, but realized only one chapter of this book
would ever be of use to me. As much as the concept of dismembering a perfectly
good book pains me as a writer, it's just not sensible for me to keep 307 pages
of material in my files that will never be of use or interest (Okay, it eases my
conscience that it's a used book with scribbled notations and dog-eared pages.).
8.
Print on both sides of
paper.
This
is not about recycling to save wear on the environment though this tip certainly
benefits that area too. This tip halves your paper expenses but that's not the
point here either. The point is you'll save elbow space because if you print or
copy a lot of reference material and then file it, you're halving the home
office storage
space needed as well.
9.
Do double duty with
utility and filing cabinets.
Put
your books, files and supplies in utility and filing cabinets. But always buy
cabinets with surfaces large enough, and sturdy enough, to hold equipment such
as your fax machine, scanner or portable copier or to provide you with work
space such as for sorting and preparing notebooks for a workshop you're
teaching.
Lateral File
 sold
by Stacks and Stacks
|
