Small Business Today Magazine APR 2014 MONTGOMERY ROTH | Page 23

EDITORIALFEATURE

Getting Organized:
Creating a Functional Home Office
By By Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers

I

f you are one of the millions of business people in Houston
who work out of your home, you may have realized that it can
be a challenge to set up a functional home office.

 The following are some tips and techniques you can use to
create an office in your home that works for you:

Office Space

Determine the best space for your office.

When deciding where to put your office, take several things
into consideration.  What type of space do you need to do your
work?  Do you stay seated or do you walk around?  Do you see
clients in your office?  Are you willing to give up or share the dining room, garage, or spare bedroom?  The key is to find the space
that works the best for both you and your family. 
 Be sure to consider ventilation, lighting, color, and accessibility
for your clients.  Don’t discount the isolation factor either; many
people who work at home deal with isolation from the business
world and putting your office physically away from the rest of the
household serves to further isolate you.
 My experience tells me that a great option is a spare bedroom followed by an unused formal dining room.  They both
typically have enough room for the furniture and equipment
you need as well as having adequate lighting and ventilation. 
They are both also separated from the hub of the house but
are not isolated.

Furniture

 Look first for function then for form.  Before you buy any piece of equipment or furniture for your office, make sure you know what you
want it to do for you.  People can easily be seduced by the form
of the item not realizing it doesn’t provide the function they need.
Avoid built-in furniture and equipment.  If your furniture is flexible, you
can re-arrange it and/or add pieces to it as your needs change or
your company grows.  You can move a desk or bookcase if you
need to; you can’t move built-ins.
Buy bookcases with adjustable shelves.  Having adjustable shelves allows you
to change the height of the shelves as well as the number of shelves.
Bookcases are great places to store both reference and reading material.  Using decorative boxes and containers, they can also hold
anything else – office supplies, marketing materials, CDs, etc. 
 Invest in a good quality chair.  Your chair is probably the most important piece of furniture you can buy; make sure it fits you.  Take it
home for a trial.  A good chair should adjust up and down as well

as forward and back and be sure you can make adjustments while
you’re sitting in it.
Don’t buy a cheap filing cabinet.  A good quality cabinet will be weighted; you won’t be able to open more than one drawer at a time
and it won’t tip over.  It will have ball bearing guides, which means
it will consistently open easily and quietly.  There are great deals
on used cabinets; for the price of a new poor quality cabinet you
can get a used good quality one.

 Family Interruptions

 It can be difficult for the family to not interrupt you when you’re
working at home, but with a little communication and ground
rules, it can be successfully done.  It’s important that your family
understand that this area is now a place of business; it’s no longer
a dining room or spare bedroom and your work is not a hobby
so they should keep their interruptions to a minimum:
Create Boundaries.  You can create walls and doors with plants, office
furniture, and room dividers.  You can even use rugs to create
imaginary boundaries - everything on this side of the rug is in my
office; everything on that side is not.
Be ‘Gone’.  Let your family know that during normal working hours
you are at work and are in effect ‘gone’.  If they interrupt, let them
know that they’ll have to wait until you get ‘home’.
Set a Timer with Kids.  Tell them that when the timer goes off, you can
play or talk with them but when it goes off again, you have to go
back to work.  This gives them the anticipation of spending time
with you and it allows you to spend time with your child without
feeling stressed or guilty. 
Change Hats.  You can also wear a different hat to indicate to a small
child when you are available and when you’re not.  When Daddy’s
wearing his red cap, it’s play time but when he’s in his blue cap,
he’s working.
Give Them Their Own Supplies.  The family’s scissors, tape, markers, pens,
and pencils should be in an area that is easily accessible to them
so they won’t have to interrupt you in order to use your supplies. 
Make sure they understand that your office is not the family’s
office supply store. 

Office Organizers, founded in 1993 by Holly Uverity, is The Entrepreneur’s Organizer.  They work with business people to create solutions for their organizational
challenges.  Contact them at 281-655-5022, www.OfficeOrganizers.com, or www.
fb.com/OfficeOrganizers.
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