Until recently, Sara Rimer had the kind of home office where a filing cabinet ended up as just another surface for clutter piles. Then she called some home office designers, reconfigured everything, and shared her experience.
Rimer's story in the New York Times goes into detail on how her design consultants determined what she'd need as a writer, how it was implemented, and why the softer stuff—inviting lighting, familiar sights, a really comfortable chair—is just as important as proper organization. And if you've ever felt like the label maker needs its own federal holiday, Rimer's office designers can relate.
You probably won't be spending $1,500 or so to have someone else tell you what you're doing wrong and point you to the right stores. But Rimer includes some thumbnailed tips from her excursion into efficiency. Here's a few tidbits:
Lighting is important: beyond a room's general illumination, which could be overhead lighting, you can use task lighting, to work at your desk, and accent lighting, like a hanging light, to create an inviting space.
Choose containers that are an appropriate size to hold what you're putting in them. They don't need to be fancy, but if they are going to be visible, they should at least look similar, so the space looks more organized.
Get the best chair you can afford. "It's like your bed," Ms. Whited said. "You spend a ton of time in it.
Ever brought in an outside consultant, even if it's just a tidy friend, to fix up your home office? What problems do you still need solved in your little corner of productivity? Tell us the tales in the comments.
An Orderly Office? That's Personal [New York Times]