You Too Can Design the Home Office You Have Only Dreamed About

By: KC Kudra

Setting up a home office is one of the most important tasks you will face when you make the decision to work from your own home. Your home office can be a corner of your kitchen or living room or, if space permits, a former spare bedroom.

The size of your home office is less about the size and more about functionality. When you are deciding where to put your office, think about places that lend itself to being set up as the nerve center of your business. There are many factors to take into consideration when charting your home office organization.

Is There Enough Lighting Available?

Having the correct lighting is very important when setting up a home office. Eyestrain and eye problems can result if you spend long periods of time in a dimly lit room staring at papers or a computer screen. In order to avoid eventual vision problems, you will want to have a well-lit home office.

Electrical Outlets Should Be Considered

You want to take into consideration electrical outlets available for the equipment that you will be using day-to-day. At the very least, today's modern home office has a light, computer, telephone, answering machine, monitor, scanner, printer and speakers (optional but still nice to have). You may also add a radio/CD/MP3 player that will need to be powered. Make sure you have enough electrical outlets to power your home office adequately so that you do not have play plug switch on equipment.

Is There Enough Ventilation?

Computer equipment needs to be maintained at a certain temperature in order to work properly. The same can be said of human beings, so you will want to have proper ventilation that is warm, comfy in the winter months, and cool in the summer months. If you are overheated and your computer is overheated, you will pass out and the computer will crash and burn. Dust is another factor to consider. Do not place your computer in a place where the fans are sucking in exorbitant amounts of dust. It is not good for them, and it is not good for you either.

Does you home office have telephone access?

More and more people are using their cellular telephones as their main telephones, but not always. If you are not on broadband Internet, you will need to have a landline in order to dialup your Internet Company. You can also use your cell phone to do it, but you will need to make a decision about telephone access prior to starting work. If you are not going the cell phone way, you will need to have a separate line for telephone and dialup.

Having separate telephone lines in your home office is important because you don't want to be online if a client is trying to reach you. Make sure that this separate line is set up to receive phone calls while you are online. If you have broadband, one phone line will suffice. These things need to be considered prior to opening your door for business.

Do you have Internet access?

In today's modern home office organization, you should not only have a telephone but also you might consider springing for broadband or DSL. There are a number of very reasonable DSL packages available from your local telephone company that will get you online at faster speeds and keep your telephone line clear.

However, if you have a broadband connection you will also need cable access nearby where your computer workstation or desk is going to be for a convent hook up. If you do not have a cable outlet near by you will want to have one installed before you move into your new space. Most cable companies can help with this or you could use a do it yourself kit to accomplish this if you are handy around the house. You will want to make sure it is done right as a poor connection will hinder your productivity.

A third option if you are near a WiFi hotspot you could go wireless or you could also consider using a wireless card to hook into your main router and main broadband connection point. If you decide to go wireless make sure you properly secure your connection from prying eyes and encrypt it for further safety.