I am happy to say that I am eventually upgrading my home office and this is something I am really looking forward to.
My current office layout is now nearly 8 years old and a lot has changed since then. Time for a change and time for me to start with a blank canvas and plan an ideal and productive home office.
My home office 9 foot x 7 foot, so a pretty good size for just me and all the techie gadgets I can fit into it!
I am trying to get quite a minimal layout within my office whilst building a great working environment. My current office is rather cluttered and does become a dumping ground for a lot of things.
So, the essentials I need as far as I can see are a chair, desk, filing cabinet, inbox trays, and some cabinet to hold my printer.
I am totally clearing my office and buying everything new. I am going to take down my wall units and get the office painted and new carpet.
I currently have a desk with two drawers down each side. One is a drawer and filing cabinet and the other is three drawers. The filing cabinet is bad as it is hard to get my files in and out due to the layout of the drawer and the fact that it does not fully open. I currently have quite a cheap fake leather chair. My printer is on the top of a nice Ikea wooden cupboard.
For my new office I want a big, curved desk to hold my MacBook Pro and 30″ Monitor. I have seen one in Ikea from the Galant range. I want to do away with pedestal drawers as I just seem to fill these with junk, as most drawers are in most offices.
I am looking for a nice premium but trendy chair. Not really started looking but one in Costco does take my eye although it is quite expensive at £250.
I currently do not have a great filing capability and I must have a good filing cabinet in my new office. I want at least two drawers with the ability to utilize my manila folders and A to Z system.
I do not implement the Tickler File so no need for the 43 folders!
I have a laser printer that I do use quite a lot when I need to print anything out. It is only a small footprint but I still need some cabinet to keep it in, ideally out of view.
I am also really fancying a scanner to go totally paperless. I currently have a HP OfficeJet All In One but this has a large footprint and takes an absolute age to scan from.
I therefore will purchase a Fujitsu ScanSnap. The models I am looking at are the S300M or the S510M. These are not cheap scanners but the ability to duplex scan as well as use the ability to load the document tray with up to 20 sheets makes these a very attractive proposition.
I love Evernote and the ability to scan from the ScanSnap scanners straight to Evernote looks amazing, and one of my main drivers for trying a totally paperless office.
If I implement a paperless office I am going to need a good shredder. I currently have a bin shredder but it is quite lightweight so I may look at the cost of updating to something more heavy duty as I plan to shred everything I can.
I will take photos and keep you all updated of my new workspace.
Also, the photo at the top of this post is NOT my current home office 🙂
I would love to hear any recommendations anybody has about building the ideal home office or the choice of equipment to place in the office to make it as productive as possible.