Oh, those were the days, a tidy desk with trays neatly labelled ‘In’, ‘Out’ and ‘Pending’, a monitor stand, an ergonomic keyboard, a comfortable chair for me and modern stacking chairs for visitors, deep drawers to house all the essentials, not to mention the four-drawer filing cabinet and double door cupboard. Yes, in the days before children when I worked 9 am until erm? 6 pm I think??? I used to have an office, not a playroom/office, not a bedroom/office and not a dining room/office. I had a fully functioning office and dare I say it, I miss it!
Finding your space
These days my office consists of my dining table, a dining chair, my laptop, sometimes a bar of chocolate and a cup of tea but ALWAYS, ALWAYS big piles of mess all over the place (we don’t get to eat in here very often). I never really intended to become a stay-at-home/work-at-home Mum, it just kind of happened, the end of my maternity leave came and went and now here I am over 4 years down the line working from my dining room whilst my tiddlers sleep or are at school and I love my life. That said, I don’t LOVE my workspace and I dream of the day that one day I will once again have a working office.
Home Office Synergy
Every now and then I see a little glimpse of the future, a couple of months ago we switched the playroom and the dining room around and now the playroom looks fantastic (post to come on that one!!) but the dining room/office is still somewhat of a shambles. I don’t want to rush in and do a ‘make do’ job, I want it to work so this time I am doing my research. A few days ago I was reading this article about Home Office synergy and how to plan your home office to achieve the best results for your business. Some people might be put off by this because it is written by a Feng Shui Consultant but it is something which I am interested in and would love to have my whole house planned around Feng Shui practices.
Office Storage
I guess the first place for me to start is looking at the furniture, we already have a computer desk which shuts away to look like a cabinet and thankfully it matches the dining table/chairs well but I still need to find suitable storage which will be dual function. It needs to house files, folders and box files yet still have space for photographs and ornaments. I need to sort out some decent lighting because the current woven lampshade makes my eyes feel tired before I’ve even started and I need to find a supportive chair. I was hoping to have it all completed by Christmas but someone told me yesterday that’s only 5 weeks away and with the best will in the world I don’t think that’s going to happen!
What are your best tips for creating a home office without it taking over?
Oh yes – I remember the “military precision” of your desk when we worked together 😉 , in fact it was so good a lot of it rubbed off on me and now I hate to have loads of unnecessary trays, pen pots and numerous calendars (I mean, how many flipping calendars does one person need???) cluttering up the desk space – Can you tell that I now have to share a desk!?!?! x
Lol I would HATE to share a desk, I’m pretty good at sharing but not my workspace!!!! I’m pleased to hear that I have some good traits which have rubbed off on people x