by Gail Kavanagh

Created on: February 15, 2009

The kind of home office you can build depends on the size of your home. It can be anything from a corner of the kitchen to a whole room or recycled garage, but the basic requirements are the same. You need a decent work surface and a comfortable place to sit.

Your work surface should be the right size for your equipment. You can get away with a smaller desk, for example, if you use a laptop, but a larger computer should not be crammed onto a small desk, as this leaves you very little room to do anything other than type in a cramped and uncomfortable space. If you cannot have a large desk, you must have one that offers shelving for computer components.

The more space you can spare for your home office the better. A home office in the corner of a kitchen is problematic for many reasons. For work at home moms, it means they are always in the kitchen, and in the minds of their families, always on call. A screen or curtain may give you the privacy you will need. Alternatively, a large walk in pantry can be utilized.

Having your papers, office equipment and other supplies in the kitchen also puts them at risk of damage and stains from cooking and food preparation. If you regularly mail out submissions to publications that do not accept email submissions, for example, you may have to reprint your manuscripts often. If you make crafts or other items for sale, you will need a safer place to store the finished products.

A corner of a bedroom, lounge room or family room is far preferable. Even better is a dedicated room, no matter how small, because you can set up a home office quite cheaply with second hand furniture. A filing cabinet is always useful, but a chest of drawers or simple raw pine cupboard with shelves will do just as well. Boxes or crates can also be used for storage.

The most important consideration for your home office is being able to stop work without having to put everything away, so you can simply return to it later without missing a beat. You can get by on a shared computer, for example, but you will be much more productive with a dedicated computer containing all your files, which you can be sure will be left undisturbed while you do other things. For writers and graphic artists, an external drive is recommended for storage.

Once you have your chosen space, and the basic office components, you need to consider how best to make your home office a pleasant place to be. This is not just vanity - you will be more productive in a space that adds to your sense

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