building a home office

[Ciqala]

i am fortunate to be in the position where I am able to put together an office in a spare room in my house with a view to starting a home-based business in the nearish future.

my budget is £1500 ($2400) and this is to furnish the room and equip myself with at least a decent laser printer and digital camera and of course some office type consumables (and i dont mean beer to go in my mini-fridge ).

my question is to all those who work from home presently which items do you find make your home-work easier, more pleasurable and of course more productive... it may be a phone with loudspeaker or perhaps you must have a super comfy chair or maybe a small stereo to provide some background noise. I want to hear about anything no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it may be and it doesnt matter what job you do in your home office i only want to compare your examples to my own fledgling ideas.

 

[unclewilco]

a good secure cabinet for filling papers,

co.uk certificates - hardcopys of invoices.. vat returns etc etc

paperless office my ars8

and a good lock on the door to keep the kids/dogs/wife out.


OR just get a good shed!!!

wilco

 

[Sharpy]

Absolutes:

1. Good Lighting, natural if possible, a basement or back room office can start to feel like a dungeon if it's dark.

2. Comfortable chair.

3. Lots of desk space.

4. Clock/watch with programable beep. To remind you to get up, eat/excercise/Pbreak etc. It's very easy to become a workaholic when working from home.

Wishlist:

1. Large Monitor(screen size)

2. Headset/mic for phone.

3. Soundsystem/boombox for tunes/radio etc


Some ideas anyway.

Cheers

 

[Ciqala]

thanks for the input so far guys... you pretty much said what i expected.

more input welcome

 

[Tippy]

A nice big Calendar and Time Zone Map perhaps.

Mike

 

[Jack Gordon]

I don't work from home anymore, but I did in the beginning. After 10 months I realized I needed the discipline of an office, and I was lucky enough that the business grew enough to justify it by then.

My advice... if at all possible, shower and get dressed BEFORE you sit down at the computer - otherwise it may not happen. I would literally spend sometimes 18 hours in my bathrobe, leaving the computer only for essentials. Be careful of this - it's not healthy!

On to the stuff:
∙ A phone with a headset. This is no place to be stingy - spend at least $100
∙ Not only a comfortable chair, but a GOOD one. Try getting a Herman Miller Aeron - you can find a good used one under $500
∙ An adequate supply cabinet - I am not the most organized person and it doesn't take long for me to get buried in a mountain of papers and supplies
∙ Be sure you have a good internet connection. When I started, DSL was just becoming available for home use, but it was very unreliable. For all the trouble it caused me, I would have been better off with dialup for a while until they worked out their issues.

 

[Ciqala]

great idea tippy... i never know what day/time it is... that could work very well... (although a row of clocks with the times set for each zone would look much cooler )

 

[Ciqala]

Originally posted by FrontRow
I don't work from home anymore, but I did in the beginning. After 10 months I realized I needed the discipline of an office, and I was lucky enough that the business grew enough to justify it by then.

My advice... if at all possible, shower and get dressed BEFORE you sit down at the computer - otherwise it may not happen. I would literally spend sometimes 18 hours in my bathrobe, leaving the computer only for essentials. Be careful of this - it's not healthy!

I will still be working full-time at my day job so shower/dressing is compulsory (well i havent tried other wise but i assume thats the case). so it will be used on weeknights and weekends mainly. i work much better when everything is in its place (it distracts me otherwise) so the office is to help me maintain a work ethic whilst working on personal and some paid projects. then if it takes off is when i start to consider creating a business and finding appropriate funding to do so.

On to the stuff:
∙ A phone with a headset. This is no place to be stingy - spend at least $100
∙ Not only a comfortable chair, but a GOOD one. Try getting a Herman Miller Aeron - you can find a good used one under $500
∙ An adequate supply cabinet - I am not the most organized person and it doesn't take long for me to get buried in a mountain of papers and supplies

All three sound good. I hopefully dont intend to take on too much initially to require lengthy telephone calls but as time goes on i think that is something well worth considering.

what kind of supplies would you say were essential to always have in your cupboard. do you for instance go through hundreds of manilla envelopes or perhaps you use a lot of foolscap folders (just trying to get an idea on initial amounts to try to keep stocked).

and i would love a chair like that but i think my budget is a little too tight for that just now. but i'll have to look into the herman miller aeron brand.

∙ Be sure you have a good internet connection. When I started, DSL was just becoming available for home use, but it was very unreliable. For all the trouble it caused me, I would have been better off with dialup for a while until they worked out their issues.

this was an essential already... i have 1mb cable the fastest available in the uk for residential areas. (in your face wilco ).

 

[Tippy]

LOL, I was thinking the same thing Ciqala but thought that would be a bit too much.

Mike

 

[unclewilco]

Originally posted by Ciqala

this was an essential already... i have 1mb cable the fastest available in the uk for residential areas. (in your face wilco ).

thanks... but i "may" be enabled for a max of 256 in two weeks... (and i can see the cows and the sheds.)

but 1mb is too fast anyway, you will only use the lock on the door too much, when you look at the ganster wrapping...



you also need a coffee machine, and a beaded seat cover..

 

[Tippy]

A Partner/Helper would also be an added bonus, mind you avoid Cats www.tldn.com/18.jpg as you can see they arn't very productive on the job

Mike

 

[Ciqala]

Coffee MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

best suggestion yet wilco. anyone got any good suggestions on which i should go for? nothing too pricey.

also anyone know how cheap those water cooler doohickeys are? i'm trying to move away from drinking fizzy drinks all the time and stick to water but tap water is awful here (no water pressure so its all stagnant and bleughry.) plus having to go downstairs to refill the coffee pot would piss me off after about an hour.

 

[unclewilco]

http://www.paramountzone.com/dispenser.htm

 

[Ciqala]

Serve chilled water by refrigerating or freezing the water first.

lol... thats hi-tech...mind you for 15 squid its not too bad...

but taking into account how much bottled water i could drink in a month I found a place which is £9 a month rental and £8 per 19 litre bottle. compared to the cost of drinking a 2 litre bottle of coke every 2/3 days its not that bad.

 

[NamePopper.com]

For obvious reasons - I know a little about this.

At the end of the day - what really makes the biggest difference is to be... A) comfortable... B) have other sources of entertainment. For example: I have a flat screen tv mounted over my desk (just above my main monitor) and a dvd and surround system. I work with some form of tv/video/movie going in the background the majority of time. It's natural to me. C) Plenty of snacks in the house.

A) Be Comfortable. (clothes - chair - desk arrangement - etc.)

B) Have Other Sources Of Entertainment/Information.

C) Food & Snacks.

 

[unclewilco]

what happened to D NP?

 

[Ciqala]

D.) ensure you grow masses of facial and cranial hair

 

[NamePopper.com]

LOL :laugh:

I thought 'D' was *optional: Lesbian Porn.

 

[unclewilco]

Originally posted by Ciqala
D.) ensure you grow masses of facial and cranial hair

i thought 'D' was *optional: Lesbian Porn. ]

both the same then...

wilco

 

[Ciqala]

:laugh: