7 Ideas For Your New Home Office

A good home office is something you can’t underestimate the importance of. With a good office, you’ll feel motivated to get your work done and stay organized. With a bad office, you can feel constantly distracted and unmotivated. If you’re looking to upgrade, redesign, or even build a home office, below are a few ideas to help.

Make It a Stand Alone

If there’s nowhere in your house for you to use as your office, you should consider building a small structure in your backyard that can work as your home office. Although you may think it’ll be costly, time-consuming, and inefficient to build an office on your property, if you opt for modular construction, that doesn’t have to be the case. Modular construction is when you choose a pre-fabricated design that is then assembled relatively quickly since the builders already know how to put everything together and there is no time spent designing the space. In addition, it’s much less expensive — it can reduce the cost of construction 9% to 20%. This is a great option if you know there’s nowhere in your home where you can set up a usable office space.

Think About What You Specifically Need For Your Job

Once you have an area picked out for your office, it’s time to start thinking about what you actually need in it. This is entirely dependent on what your job is. Are you a full-time fashion blogger? You’ll likely need an area to be able to shoot looks, somewhere to hang clothes sent to you by brands, and a spot to edit your videos. If you run a small business alongside your blog, you may need space to shoot images of your products for your site. The general aspects of an office, like a desk and ample storage, might be a given, but these specifics are much more dependent on the job that you have than these basic aspects.

Prioritize Organization

Organization is the most important thing about an office. If you have a poor organizational system, it’s easy to let clutter build-up, which can lead to a less productive workday as you have to continuously tidy up. When you’re creating the organization for your office, think about how you personally function. Are there certain things you need to have within reach at all times, like a notepad and a pen? Are there things you need to store, but don’t use as often, like specialized camera equipment? Make sure to think about these things while you’re planning out your office.

You may also want to consider the aesthetics of different storage options for your home office. For example, cabinetry can be a great option that fits into many different aesthetics, but it may be more convenient for you to have open shelving and storage bins. With whatever option you choose, you can stick with the style that you’re looking to achieve with the rest of your office since both cabinetry and shelving are so easy to customize.

Think Vertically

An empty wall is a wasted wall. If you have high ceilings in your office, it’s an opportunity to include more shelving, decor, or storage. Walls are a great area to utilize to include more decor in your office without creating unnecessary clutter on other surfaces. For example, if you have a picture, painting, or print that you really want to display in your office, you can hang it higher up on your wall. This not only means that the frame won’t be cluttering a surface — it also will draw the eye up, making the office feel taller than it would have been.

Consider a Standing Desk

A standing desk is a great option if you spend long hours just sitting at your desk. Standing desks are ergonomically designed so you can stand without having to strain your neck to see your screen. This can be good for a multitude of things, like ensuring that you aren’t getting unnecessary neck and back pain from sitting for too long.

While you can buy a desk that is only designed for standing, the more popular version is a convertible desktop version. These desktop additions can be placed on a normal desk with an average height, and when they’re extended, they’ll extend up to become a standing desk. This is a great option if you already have an existing desk that you want to use.

Get High-Tech

Technology has advanced far beyond anything that was once imagined, and there are many small gadgets that can be used to improve daily life. In your office, you should make sure to include the best technology that you can. For example, you could include a solar-powered phone charger in your office for those times when your phone starts to die. Solar energy makes up about 1.8% of the electricity generation in the U.S, and it’s a very eco-friendly way to power essential things, like your phone.

Make it Personal

One of the best parts of a home office is you can make it as personal as you want it to be without the fear of judgemental coworkers. This means you can display any art, photos, or mementos that you have in any way that you see fit. Maybe that’s why 69% of entrepreneurs in the U.S. start their businesses in their homes — they are able to create in a space that is completely their own.

A gallery wall is one great way to include a personal touch in your office. All you need is framed version of whatever you feel is personally inspiring, like photos of your friends and family, inspiration posters, or even a college degree. Try planning out the layout before you start hanging things up so you don’t end up running out of space for anything you want to display.

Making your own home office is a great way to increase your productivity and make sure that you have a place to work that actually makes you excited to get to work instead of it becoming a place you dread.

What do you love about your home office? What do you wish you had in your office? Let us know in the comments!