We don't have a home office, although we work from home half the day. Rather than work inside a little room, we like to take our laptop where the light is best: in the kitchen, living room, back deck, or coffee shop down the street. This presents an organizing challenge, since our system is a little scattered...
Our tips for staying organized when your office moves with you:
• Go paperless. It's eco-friendly, saves space, and reduces clutter.
• Keep the papers you do need in a good-looking file system.
• Use furniture that can double as a desk or a laptop tray to write on.
• Keep cords and chargers in one space so you always know where to find them.
• Use baskets (or something similar) to collect your work-related clutter, then clean them out regularly.
These are just a few ways we've found to accommodate our own work schedule. Give us your tips and ideas in the comments below.
Photo: See Jane Work
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
You already mentioned going mostly paperless and filing the rest, but what I do is keep the few paper documents I need in large envelopes, colour-coded for each project. I also use only one notebook with index tabs for all my projects. And I keep pens in every single bag I own.
So on any given day, all I need to do is grab my laptop, my notebook, and the relevant project envelope(s) I'll need for the day, stuff them in whatever bag I want, and I'm good to go. I've been using this system since I started freelancing, and it's rarely failed me.
view Doppelganger's profile
I keep office supplies (like tape, scissors, glue, stapler, stamps, envelopes, pens, etc) in a laptop bag that has lots of inner pockets. Truly a mobile office.
view greer's profile