How to Create More Work Space in a Home Office

It's a huge and wonderful thing when you start your own business and work from home. If you are like many independent business owners, you started small and grew. In parallel with the business, your need for space also started small. What started as a perfect little office or shop is now filled to overflowing with files, equipment and business. You have a couple of options: knock a wall out of your house; move to new quarters; or create more space in your existing home office.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pencil and paper

1. Do a needs assessment. What equipment do you need to add to your current set-up to grow your business successfully?

2. Pull everything out of your current work space and take some measurements. Measure the floor, measure the walls, measure the closet.

3. Build a paper office: make scale models of the office and all the furnishings, including the items you plan to add. Move things around until you come up with an arrangement you really like. Don't worry if some things don't fit at this point.

4. Discover ways to double up your use of space. Store seldom-used supplies in the space back under your desk; remove the closet doors, if necessary, and put furnishings in the closet; purchase or build shelves and racks to create multiple layers of desk space.

5. Keep those things you use often close at hand; stash everything else in out-of-the-way corners and cubbies.

6. Create electronic files instead of paper ones, if possible, to eliminate some of your need for physical storage space. Be certain to back up all your files so you can still access them if your computer crashes.

[vikki9]

on 7/27/2008 Great ideas for an expanding business. Thank you.