Want to spruce up your home office setup? Find accessories, organization ideas, office equipment, Internet services and telephones. Get information on office desks, executive chairs, business phones, multifunction printers, cable Internet, remote data back up and more.
My first home office was in an unused bedroom. I had two desks, office chairs, printer, shelves and lots of boxes. I put up with inadequate lighting, clutter and household noise. There had to be a better way. When I moved to a new home, I redesigned my home office from the ground up. I still have my old office desk and chair, but that where the similarities stop.
Office Layout and Wiring
The new home office was built out when I finished the walk-out basement. So I had the opportunity to make some structural changes. That may not be an option in your home.
For future resale purposes I wanted the office to be a legal bedroom, so I included a 6×11 foot walk-in closet. Instead of hanger rods and shoe shelves in the closet, I installed kitchen cabinets and counter tops from Home Depot, multiple AC power points and recessed can lights. The closet now provides a separate space and has ample room for our multifunction printer/copier/scanner/fax, office supplies and customer files. No more piles of paper and files all around my desk. Well, at least not today!
In the main office area, I made sure there were ample AC power points, including a four-position AC receptacle right next to my desk. Low voltage wiring consists of two-phone jacks and a cable Internet jack.
Office Lighting and Noise
Lighting was improved by expanding one of the windows from a single to a double pane. Window treatments are simple accordion blinds, again from Home Depot, which are up most every day. I work best when I have lots of ambient outside light and have something to look at besides the four walls. This one change has helped make my home office very livable. When daylight goes away, I can switch on the four recessed can lights in the ceiling and or simply reach over and turn on my good sized desk lamp. Can you tell that I am fanatical about lighting?
To reduce external noise, I insulated all interior walls and the ceiling. The walls were finished with extra thick sheet rock. Weather stripping was placed between the wall studs and the sheet rock. Most of the work day I leave my office door open. But when it gets noisy, I simply close my 36-inch solid core external door, complete with weather stripping and transom.
On the floor, I used commercial carpeting with a tight weave and low pile. The carpet allows me to easily roll around in my office chair without one of those big plastic chair mats. A carpet also absorbs sound and can add some color to your room.
Office Equipment
While you could easily spend thousands of dollars on computers, printers and telephones, I like to keep things simple and, hopefully, less costly. Here are a few of my favorite pieces of home office systems.
My computer is an HP Desktop PC. My business partner uses a laptop with docking station, external keyboard and monitor. However, I prefer the simplicity of a traditional desktop.
Business data backups are done automatically to the Western Digital My Book Essential external hard drive. The WD SmartWare software performs continuous, incremental backup of my computer files. File and folder restoration is simple and fast.
For a monitor, I use a ViewSonic 22-inch LCD. I’ve tried larger displays, but found the 22-inch minimizes eye and neck fatigue. The larger displays, especially the wide screen models, can require a deeper desk for a longer viewing distance.
On my desk is an AT&T 984 4-line phone. This is my second AT&T multi-line corded desk phone. I’ve tried other manufacturers and keep coming back to AT&T.
The last major piece of home office equipment that sees regular use is the HP Officejet Pro L7780 All-in-One Printer. I had an HP LaserJet black and white multi-function printer, but occasionally needed color printing or scanning and found the OfficeJet at a lower price.
Business Internet and Phone Services
Business class cable Internet from Comcast has worked OK for the home office. The service appears to be over subscribed, however, so the latency occasionally goes over 100 milliseconds which increases network delay and page load times.
Qwest provides local business phone lines with unlimited local and unlimited long distance usage. I have tested voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services from Vonage, Packet8, magicJack and others. While these VoIP service providers can do the job, my business is very dependent on the quality and reliability of voice communications; therefore, I like to keep telephone and Internet services on separate networks and from diverse suppliers.
The HP All-inOne printer is used regularly for printing, copying and scanning. But, I can’t remember the last time I sent a hard copy fax and have never received a fax on this device. All faxes are sent and received using the eFax service. eFax is not the lowest cost Internet fax solution, but they provide a local number in my area code and the service integrates nicely with Microsoft Office and Outlook email.
SpiderOak provides online storage and remote data backup for all of my computers. Internet or online backup helps prevent loss of critical business data in event of a fire, flood or accidental damage of equipment at your home office.
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