All Dressed Up: Reservations Required

What do you do when you don’t cook or eat at home, but you need to set up a home office? You may do exactly what entrepreneur and author Mandy Williams (aka Black of Red & Black) did, and convert your dining room into a home office.

Mandy isn’t your traditional author or business owner and doesn’t take a conventional approach in her personal and business life. Her approximately 15.8′ x 15.7′ home office is the perfect example. She could have converted a spare bedroom, corner of a family room, or a formal living room into her workspace, but how conventional would that be?

Mandy’s well-hidden home office is still disguised as a dining room, thanks to the wall of wood. Unless you opened the cabinets, you’d never know that behind the Wenge wood doors are several file drawers along the bottom, a slide-out printer stand, and open shelving for storing loose-leaf binders and  various office organizing boxes/sorters. She also has cubbyholes for paper, notepads and envelopes.

Her gorgeous custom-designed, glass-top table with a leather base looks like a dining table but can be used as a conference table or desk.  Not unlike many dining rooms, Mandy’s office is filled with natural light (often the best in the home).

Not eating or cooking at home seems to be a good trade-off for a stunning home office.

Working Naked Home Office Gift Guide

The holidays are only a few days away and you still don’t know what to buy your favorite home office professional or your own holiday list is still blank?

Whether you’re looking for the perfect gift for a friend, spouse or business associate who’s just started working from home or has worked from home for years, look no further. As a self-proclaimed home office product junkie, I’ve scoured stores — both in person and online — to find the 8 home office must-haves this holiday season.

Click here to see all 8 gift ideas in my guest post for genConnect.

 

 

Think Before You Buy More Office Supplies

I’m the first to admit that I’m an office supply addict. If I like a product’s design, color, and even material, it’s hard to resist buying it for my home office. But after donating more supplies than I care to admit, I don’t buy anything unless I know it will serve a specific purpose.

Consider a few things before you shop for more office supplies.

  • Fight the urge to buy one more product. Even if that product is guaranteed to help you get organized, think twice before you buy it and bring it home. Consider whether you already own something similar that you tucked away in a closet years ago. If you don’t look for supplies you thought you bought, but aren’t sure, you’ll find those supplies when you move or decide to overhaul your home office. That’s when you’ll say, “I was looking for that!” and either use it or donate it to a charity that can use it. [Read more...]

How to Create More Storage Space in Your Home Office

Have you ever heard anyone complain about having too much room to store everything they need to have in their home office? It’s about as likely as someone saying they have too much money, they need to gain weight, or they have plenty of free time. (I wouldn’t mind having more of the first one, less of the second, and plenty of the third!)

Finding extra storage space in your home office can be frustrating and challenging. Before you start stashing extra supplies, products and equipment in other parts of your home (where you’re likely to forget you own them), be creative. Either make use of what you already own or invest in a few storage pieces. [Read more...]

Bare Essentials: Sights and Sounds

Get a grip

My exterminator would cringe if he knew I was promoting spiders, but he’ll have to get a grip…actually a grip similar to the one the SpiderpodiumTablet® has on iPads and other Tablet PC’s. Sure, it’s creepy with its 8 legs that bend at all angles, but I always say that function (it can hold your tablet in place or let you view it at any angle) trumps beauty. The Spiderpodium Tablet, made from Advanced Tech “SoftTouch Rubber,” is available in black and graphite.

 


Put on the hog

Working from home can be lonely. Take a break from the silence with the iHog. This hog-shaped iPod/iPhone docking station has 4 speakers that deliver 360 degrees of sound…they’re loud!

Whether you choose the iHog in pink, white or black, consider sharing the iHog with your family. You don’t want them to think you’re a pig.

 

 

 


A functional skyline

Your home office may not overlook a city skyline, but you can get the next best thing with the Skyline Desk Organizer. This laser-cut wood holder has two spaces for mail or letters, and a space for pens and pencils.

This is one of the more interesting and creative supply organizers I’ve ever seen. Its neutral color will match any home office and its narrow design will leave you with plenty of desktop space to work.

 

Home Office Furniture Doesn’t Have to be Expensive

Photo courtesy of Sligh

When I bought my first home office desk several years ago, it fell apart after I moved it three times. I definitely got what I paid for…almost nothing. I replaced it with a desk that cost a bit more, but it was reliable and functional.

As the number of home offices has continued to grow, so has the quality of home office furniture. Finally, there are plenty of home office furniture options available and the days of dealing with cheap, flimsy home office furniture are over.

Whether you’re setting up a home office for the first time, or you’ve decided it’s time to replace your existing furniture, you don’t have to spend a fortune. In fact, you may not have to spend any money at all. [Read more...]

Bare Essentials: Add a Touch of Color

File and fold

You may work in your home office day after day, but some days it’s better to mix it up and work somewhere else. When you need to take files with you, the Bungalow file tote can handle the job. It’s sturdy enough to hold plenty of letter-size hanging folders, yet folds up for easy storage. It also works well for storing files in your home office, but something this stylish deserves to be taken out once in a while.


Stick with it

One of the (many) things I don’t miss about my corporate days in a stuffy office is my old, grey desk accessories. I’ve done my best to make sure that my home office doesn’t resemble anything close to my old corporate office. Instead of bland accessories, I have colorful and functional ones. The Poppin tape dispenser definitely fits into that category with its selection of eight colors.


Stick ‘em up

There’s no doubt that a valuable photo or piece of art is worth framing. But when you have inexpensive art that you may change out soon anyway, why bother with frames? The Re-stickable Decal Photo Frame makes framing simple, and hanging even easier. The best part is that you can move the frames from room to room without putting any holes in your walls. Each pack comes with eight frames that stick to your walls or windows and won’t damage walls or paint.

 

Bare Essentials: File These Under Accessories

A whale of a holder

When you think of cute animals, you may not think of a whale, but when it’s the size of a pencil holder and is a pencil holder, it’s hard not to say, “ahhhh.” This handcrafted holder, made from white pine, beech or redwood, holds pencils and paper in the top and back and can grip something in its mouth, too.

Each Wood Whale is signed, numbered and “packed for migration.”


Fixing the filing blues


There’s nothing exciting about filing, but that doesn’t mean that your file cabinet has to be blah. This powder coated cabinet in a beautiful blue and cool green can brighten any home office. It has one letter-legal file drawer and two storage drawers (dog not included).

Virtual Backups…Another Way to Protect Your Info

SugarSync is one way to store you data virtually

You’d think that after I drowned my computer a few weeks ago, I would have moved on. For the most part, I have, but I still can’t help reminding everyone I know about how important it is to backup information often. In another guest blog post, Chelanie Israel shared tips for backing up data. Another way to back up data is through virtual drives. [Read more...]

Bare Essentials: Three Hot Holders

It’s in the bag

Finding a bag that can double as a home office isn’t easy. Believe me, I’ve been looking for that type of bag for over a year. The allrounder does the job perfectly. It’s large enough to hold a desktop file holder inside, along with supplies and a laptop. It will even fit under the seat in front of you when you fly. The best part is that this bag comes in different, stylish designs that have anything but a stuffy, corporate look.


A case for opening a cold one

Your cell phone case may protect your phone but can it open a bottle or can? The “Be A HeadCase™ case has a built-in, stainless steel bottle/can-tab opener on the back of a hard-shell plastic case. This “why didn’t I think of that” case for your iPhone 4/Verizon iPhone 4 or iPhone 3G/3Gs includes a bottom cover slot that makes it easy to charge your phone without taking it out of the case. It also comes with a free app that plays your favorite song or sound and displays a photo when you open a bottle or can.


Spink before you drink

Maybe I still have my dead computer on my mind, but this cup holder, named the Spink, could have kept my glass right next to my computer instead of letting it go bottoms up on my keyboard. The lever-powered suction cup on the bottom of the Spink will keep your mug, water bottle or glass in one place and more importantly, your computer safe.

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