More and more professionals these days are choosing to work from home. You'll need some sort of home office space if you either work from home or end up taking a lot of your work home with you. Fortunately, setting up a home office doesn't have to be expensive. Whether you work from home or just want a home office for the family, there are plenty of ways to build a budget-friendly office space that will fit your needs.
Sectioning a Portion of a Room for Office Space
It's a common misconception that a home office has to be a completely separate room. Certainly having your office in its own room is nice, but it isn't at all necessary. Unless your business needs a lot of storage space, a home office can be set up in a closet or in a corner of another room, such as the dining room or kitchen. As a matter of fact, a corner of a room or a closet can sometimes work better for work-at-home parents, particularly if they need to keep an eye on younger children or monitor their teens' computer time.
Converting a Closet into a Home Office
Turning a closet into a home office is simple. Just take the doors off the hinges and remove the closet bar. Next you need to find a simple wooden desk and comfortable chair that will fit in the space you have. If you want to, you can include shelving and any organizational or storage options you might need on the back walls of the closet. To keep your office private, simply hang a long curtain over the front of the closet. All in all, this is a very inexpensive option for a home office that doesn't require a lot of space.
Adding Shelving and a Desk to Any Room
For many people, a home office might be as simple as a built in oak bookcase or storage area, or a computer armoire. Whether it's the dining room, the kitchen, or the bedroom, this type of inexpensive home office can be added to just about any room.
For those of you who are lucky enough to have a separate room for your home office, you can still create a budget-friendly space. You can make a big difference in the room, simply by painting the room your favorite color or a mellow color like light green or blue.
This space can be easily decorated by simply adding photographs in frames to the wall. You might choose photos of nature scenes or of your family, if you wish. You might also consider adding some shelves or shadow boxes to the walls, as they can double as both storage space and a decorative item.
If you need books for your business and they are nice-looking, they can likewise double as decorations. Decorative boxes and trinkets can be filled with office supplies, so they are functional as well as stylish.
The great thing about a home office is, if you are just starting up your business and you don't have many resources, you can easily build it up slowly. In the beginning, all you really need is a desk and a chair. You can wait till you find deals or sales on decorative and storage items to use for the room. No matter which way you proceed, know that there's no need to go into debt creating a home office before your business is even profitable.
Home Office Furniture Ideas
Your home office can be a huge source of wasted energy if you're not careful. With all of those electronic devices, it's easy to spend a lot on powering your office. If you're concerned about your energy bill and your carbon usage, it's important that you get your power situation under control. Fortunately, there are a few simple steps that you can use to make your office energy efficient.
The first step, if you haven't already done this already, is to change all the lighting in your home office from standard light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. Most people do this throughout the house all at once. CFLs use less energy and last up to five times as long as regular bulbs, so it's worth the extra cost associated with them.
The biggest power usage in your office probably comes from your computer. If you're using a desktop model, it's important that you make the switch from a CRT monitor to an energy-saving LCD flat screen monitor as soon as possible. Although this can be expensive, you can find a good monitor for under $200. This switch will save you even more on energy costs.
You can also save energy (and money) by changing the way that you use your computer. If you are accustomed to leaving your computer on 24/7, you are setting yourself up for having an energy usage problem in your office. You need to shut down your computer each day when you are done using it. If you pop off and on the computer several times per day, as many people do, you should set up your computer's automatic timing so that it goes into sleep mode after 10 minutes of inactivity. This way your computer will still be available, but it won't be using so much power all the time.
Speaking of powering down, make it a habit to turn off your printer, fax machine or scanner when they aren't in use. If you leave them on all the time, they are draining power when you don't need them. Many machines and appliances will still draw power from the source, even when they are turned off. Put your office equipment on a power strip, so that you can switch off the electricity to all appliances at once. These devices don't take that long to power up and it's just easier to get them up and running when you need them instead of leaving them on all of the time.
If you're really serious about energy consumption, you could hire a professional energy auditor to come and evaluate your office for energy issues. However, there's a new device available called Kill-A-Watt that can help you do the same thing for much less money. The Kill-A-Watt device plugs into the wall, and then you plug your power strips and electronics into the device. The device will track how much energy is being used by each electronic so you know where you can cut back and how much you are actually using. For about $40, it's are an excellent example of spending a little to save a lot.
With a few purchases and a few changes in your habits, your office can be energy efficient. It's important that you not let the trend stop here. Once you've learned the basics of energy efficiency, take this habit to the rest of your house and you'll be surprised with a lower energy bill.
Both Verra Ricci & Jamie Jefferson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Verra Ricci has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Management, Install Flooring. Verra Ricci writes for and is currently remodeling her downtown loft. To learn more about home improvement, interior design or. Verra Ricci's top article generates over 1000 views. to your Favourites.
Jamie Jefferson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Family Travel and Online Dating. Jamie Jefferson writes for Momscape.com and Susies-Coupons.com, where she shares as well as the latest discounts on. Jamie Jefferson's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.
