This woman has perfected the sustainable work-at-home, home office experience.

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Read on for clever tricks and ideas you can incorporate to add more organization and style to your home office. 

Whether you have a dedicated home office you use for work, or a space for taking care bills and other household business, it’s probably a given that your office is the one area in your home you aren’t so proud to show off. If you are like most folks, your office is filled with rejected furniture items, stacks in need of filing and an overflowing paper recycling bin. It’s not pretty, but you view it as a utilitarian space, so you don’t sweat it.

But it doesn’t need to be that way. With a little inspiration, planning and effort it is possible to transform your home office into a space that you actually enjoy. You might even keep the door open when guests come over.

These home office hacks will help you get more organized and do so in a way that adds a bit of style as well.

7 Clever Home Office Hacks to Transform Your Space

1. Art Deco Desk – Add style to a boring old desk with this hack that turns an Ikea desk into a chic art deco workstation.
2. Clip-on Desk Organizers – In need of more storage space on your desk to keep everything at hand? Make your own clip-on organizers from grip clips and old coffee or soup cans.
3. Color-Blocked Bulletin Board – Add some style to your display/reminder board by adding some color. We all need a space to keep reminder notes, but it doesn’t have to be a drab bulletin board.
4. Bookshelf Work Station – Don’t have the luxury of a room for your office, consider converting a bookshelf into a home office work station.
5. Chalkboard Wall – Forget post-it notes! Instead paint a wall with chalkboard paint to keep track of when bills or due or when that project is due.
6. Hanging Storage – Create more organizational space with this project that uses magazine files and a wall shelf to create additional space to organize your paper.
7. Fabric Corkboard – Add fabric covered cork board squares above your desk to add functionality and color and pattern.

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Top Image: iamronna

The post 7 Home Office Hacks To Add Order and Style to Your Workplace appeared first on EcoSalon.

Should more of us be working from home? Probably.

For those of us who don’t work at home, the chance to email in your pajamas may seem tempting, but as anyone working from home will tell you, that’s not what it’s all about. In fact, many people, whether in their pajamas or not, find that working at home makes them more productive. There are of course obstacles – like that pile of dishes you feel like you should get to – but ultimately, there are many benefits to working from home, and not just for personal reasons.

From environmental to economic, there is a long list of benefits to working from home, and in a day and age where more companies and jobs aren’t restricted by having to have a physical presence, a lot of us are in positions where working remotely could be an option. So why don’t more companies get behind having their employees work at home? Because there is an idea that to gauge productivity you have to see it taking place – an idea that if we are going to transform how we work, may need to change. “If managers would just establish goals, rhythms of communication and metrics, than they would actually know whether someone was being productive or not, regardless of where the person was physically sitting,” Kevin Kruse wrote in Forbes.

That policy goes for the self-employed worker as well; if you don’t set up goals, metrics and methods for being productive, then an entire day can easily go to waste. But the reason people are committed to setting up processes that keep them productive is that the benefits to working from home are many. That doesn’t mean that you should drop everything and telecommute all the time – working from home comes with the good and the bad  – but if we think about the environment, economics and time management, there is certainly an argument to be made for allowing people to work from home, at least part of the time.

1. It’s good for the environment

That hour and a half traffic jam that you sat in this morning? Imagine if 10 percent of the commuters on a daily basis started telecommuting instead. What if it was 20 percent? What if it was 50 percent? There are certain jobs that require a physical presence, but there are many jobs that can easily be done remotely. Some argue that the environmental benefits aren’t always clean cut – there are a lot of factors like how energy efficient your home is compared to your office – but one thing is for sure: less time spent in a car commuting is a good thing, both for you and the environment.

2. There are no geographic boundaries for talent

Fostering a culture that allows people to be working from home allows employers to not be limited by geography. If top talent is on the other side of the country, if the employer is able to set up an efficient and productive way for employees to work remotely, there’s nothing stopping them from hiring someone who is based elsewhere.

3. The office is not always a space of productivity

As author, speaker and digital guru Paul Boag says, “phone calls, meetings, colleagues, noise and other distractions make the office a far worse place to focus than home.” Just because you’re in the same space as your colleagues doesn’t mean that you’re getting things done. Many people need a quite space to be productive, and working at home allows you to get rid of the normal distractions linked to a traditional office environment.

4. You can get the benefits of co-working

The beauty of working from home? It makes you flexible to take advantage of co-working opportunities and shared workspaces. Because let’s be honest, sometimes you want to get out of your house and be in an office environment. But a co-working space is different than being stuck to the same office day in and day out. The flexibility to take advantage of a variety of shared spaces whenever you want to allows you to meet new people and decide when and where you want your office environment.

5. A few days at home are better than none

Even just a few days a week of working at home can be a good thing, both for the employer and the employee. “More research needs to be done on creative work and teamwork, but the evidence still suggests that with most jobs, a good rule of thumb is to let employees have one to two days a week at home. It’s hugely beneficial to their well-being, helps you attract talent, and lowers attrition,” says Stanford Professor of Economics Nicholas Bloom.

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The post 5 Good Reasons More of Us Probably Should Be Working from Home appeared first on EcoSalon.

The home office is too often an afterthought and those working from home find themselves working on the kitchen table, the coffee table or wherever there’s space to put a laptop. Obviously, this is less than ideal. Not having a dedicated space keeps you from being as productive as possible and you need some home office ideas.

In this new economy, many of us have us found ourselves working from home. The reasons vary, but whether your company allows you to telecommute or you are freelancing, the need for a dedicated home office is there. But what if you don’t have a spare room that can be turned into an office? Even if you live in a small apartment, it is possible to carve out some space for your home office, just follow these home office ideas.

1. Get in the Closet –  Convert a closet into a built in office. Leave the doors on to hide it away when not in use or take them off to create even more space.
2. Go High –  Using vertical space will allow you to have a smaller footprint. Tuck a desk into the corner and add shelves all the way to the ceiling for the printer, filing, office supply storage and more. (Just make sure to adequately secure your shelves to studs to make them sturdy.)
3. Divide and Conquer – Add a room divider to cordon off a space for yourself in the dining room, den, kitchen or whichever room is large enough. The divider will allow you to have a messy desk without anyone seeing!
4. Coming in for a Landing – Sometimes, the only usable space left in a home is the stair landing. If you have an underutilized landing that only seems to be a junk collection spot, consider turning it into a space for your desk.
5. Under the Stairs –  Landing might not work, but what about the space under the stairway? It is often under-utilized. Add a desk and shelves to make it yours.
6. Corner It – Creating a home office in a corner can maximize your usable space. Keep things simple, as to not jumble the room up too much though.
7.  Old-Fashioned Secretary – No, we are suggesting your  hire a secretary, but utilize a secretary desk.  They are a practical way to have a desk without adding the clutter of the desk to your main living space.
8.  Double Duty – DIY yourself a double desk and get more bang for your buck. Two office spaces for the price of one!
9. New Meaning to Mobile – Add wheels to desk and you can roll it around the house to move it out of the way when the need arises.

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 Image: Kelly Sue

The post 9 Functional Home Office Ideas for Small Spaces appeared first on EcoSalon.

The soup got torched, again. Zesty flavored whence removed from the can, the now smoky-flavored Trader Joe O’s went to school, anyway, in a pink thermos in the tin Blow Pop novelty lunch box. This, after a cursory taste test confirmed the impossible: She wouldn’t know the difference. Never mind that the cauldron it bubbled fiendishly in was tortured beyond repair. Never mind that she dissects her green beans to remove the bad parts before eating. I was reasoning with the clarity of Lenny from Mice and Men? Show me the rabbits, George. Nah, better not. I’ll probably burn them critters, too.

“Did you burn it while you were working on the computer in the basement?” she inquired, in that accusatory, sassy tween tone reminiscent of the damaged young stars of twit-coms. “Yes, I did it while working in the basement,” I confessed. “I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Appallingly, I also was exposed at school upon pick up time. The school secretary reported there was something wrong with the way the kid’s soup smelled. “It smelled off,” shared Juanita, scrunching her nose like my Pug dog, Mr. Jones, when ordering him to stop licking the Bounce sheets. Yeah, lady, what smelled off was my motherhood. Time to set some boundaries, right? Or at least install a kitchen timer in the basement.

Truth is, working from home via the computer is certainly a good way to go, but understand the perks and pitfalls. You save huge amounts of money and fuel by going about your business online. Commuting to work by car and writing it off is still commuting. No, telecommute if you can, even if the mouse in your house is a huge distraction – keeping you from becoming the Alice Waters you aspire to be.

Clearly, more of us are clicking with that mouse to earn a livelihood. The U.S. Census Bureau reports sizable increases in the number of Americans working out of their homes. It shot up from 9.5 million in 1999 to 11.3 million of us in 2005.  Half of all home workers have college degrees and earn at least $75,000 a year, and also work longer hours than the average worker to make that dough, about 11 hours per day.

Studies also show growth in the number of employees telecommuting on multiple days of the week, from 2.3 million in 2005 to 2006 up to 2.8 million workers from 2007 to 2008. Chances are it will keep rising, and want-ads will reflect that rise rather than the sprinkling of telemarketing options available now.

In the year 2010, telecommuting is hugely viable and still not always acceptable to backwards employers, who argue nothing replaces relationships formed at the cooler. Not even forgoing costly commercial rental space.

But those who understand the benefits admit technology has outmoded the need to traverse the country in jet planes and rack up business class frequent flier miles to do business. It has outmoded the need to show up to a cubicle every day with your tail wagging to get a bone. That way of doing biz is up in the air and destined to being grounded for good if we keep it up. I know you know what I mean by keeping it up.

Meanwhile, back to the soup. There are unavoidable pitfalls and some avoidable ones to multitasking in too comfortable of an environment, namely, one that you control 100 percent.

Unavoidable

You will find the cut-off time to be elusive when your office is where you also shower, cook, social network, pay bills, wash clothes and generally manage your own life and or the lives of children and other living things. Yes, plants count.

You often cough up your own medical insurance unless the employer has it covered, struggle to squeeze in exercise which actually is easier to do once you are already out and about, and may decide to screw the housework which you would ordinarily fit in before work in the morning or when you get home. Ah ha. See, you don’t leave and you don’t come home. Hello piles of dirty clothes and towels, sink of dishes, unmade beds. Wouldn’t you rather work than tackle those unpleasant chores? Isn’t it because you hate housework that you dive into work in the first place?

Avoidable

Over-scheduling. Don’t do it. It will lead to overwhelm which will lead to wine with lunch on the couch. You can still stick to a schedule like any office rat, just give yourself a window of completing must-do tasks and prioritize as you go. Then visualize the stop button on the treadmill and push it when the time comes to clock out. Warning. If you devote time to social networking during much of your down time, there will be no down time. Limit that as well.

And do place that timer in the home office. My sister gave me one years ago and when I reorganize the kitchen drawers I bet I’ll find it. No school secretary deserves to smell rotten soup. Sorry Juanita. If I can hyperlink, download images, Facebook and Twitter, I should be able to time a pot of pasta soup on the stove. I won’t give up, won’t  resort to peanut butter and jelly and return to the cold and rigid environs of a corporate work setting.

Keep telling yourself that. Better yet, send a Gmail reminder to your Yahoo account, print it and tack it on the bulletin board in front of your computer. Add the affirmation, Telecommuters rule. Then get out of your pajamas, have some lunch, do a load of laundry, say hello to the mailman, and get back to work.

Images: Fabio Bruna; SuperFantastic; Shari Thompson

The post Perks and Pitfalls of Telecommuting appeared first on EcoSalon.

Greening your life doesn’t end at the door to your home office. If you poke around enough, you’ll find there are lots of environmentally friendly desks on the market that can add beauty to your workspace without stealing resources from the planet.

Sustainable Corner Desk with Peninsula

This big, bold desk needs a nice corner to nestle into. We love its curvy lines and raised shelf to accommodate a computer monitor, PDA, or books. It’s made from sustainably, organically-grown Chinese bamboo and, amazingly, fits together in three minutes with no tools required. The desk’s gorgeous form factor, adjustable shelving, and hidden cable management comes together to make a beautiful focal point for any home office.

The Cubby Desk

If you work on just a laptop, you may not need a huge, sprawling space to spread out. This compact desk is large enough to hold a laptop and office supplies on the top, while still leaving room to park a printer and phone on the top shelf. Stash envelopes and files in one of the cubbies, and corral all your pens in the slide out drawer. The desk is made from FCF-certified birch and coated in your choice of six eco-friendly veneers. The steel legs are finished in tough aluminum powder and lend a certain androgyny to the piece, making it practical for a two people sharing a single workspace.

QDesk Combo

Why should adults get to have all the fun? Stash this fun kids’ desk in a corner for your lads and lassies to finish their homework in style. Made entirely of 100 percent recyclable polyethylene, it’s available in a batch of different colors and in both right and left-handed versions. A handy opening at the base is perfect for stashing papers, books, and the gum you aren’t allowed to chew in school.

Personal Air Fresh Desk

Breathe easy while you sit at this unique desk to get your stuff done. Its deep recess run the length of three sides to hold plants, and provide a little privacy. A desk with a built-in personal air cleaner? Pretty sweet.

Uzura Reception Desk

This honey of a desk was built to reside in a reception area, but could absolutely work as a way to carve a home-office space out of a large room in your house. It’s made of liana and plywood, and somewhat resembles a giant sisal tumbleweed. Angled backward into a corner, the desk’s high back gives the illusion of private work area without cutting you off from the rest of the room.

The post 5 Desks to Feel Good About Using appeared first on EcoSalon.

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Sustainable Corner Desk with Peninsula

This big, bold desk needs a nice corner to nestle into. We love its curvy lines and raised shelf to accommodate a computer monitor, PDA, or books. It’s made from sustainably, organically-grown Chinese bamboo and, amazingly, fits together in three minutes with no tools required. The desk’s gorgeous form factor, adjustable shelving, and hidden cable management comes together to make a beautiful focal point for any home office.

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The Cubby Desk

If you work on just a laptop, you may not need a huge, sprawling space to spread out. This compact desk is large enough to hold a laptop and office supplies on the top, while still leaving room to park a printer and phone on the top shelf. Stash envelopes and files in one of the cubbies, and corral all your pens in the slide out drawer. The desk is made from FCF-certified birch and coated in your choice of six eco-friendly veneers. The steel legs are finished in tough aluminum powder and lend a certain androgyny to the piece, making it practical for a two people sharing a single workspace.

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• 1
• 2
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• 4
• 5
• »

QDesk Combo

Why should adults get to have all the fun? Stash this fun kids’ desk in a corner for your lads and lassies to finish their homework in style. Made entirely of 100 percent recyclable polyethylene, it’s available in a batch of different colors and in both right and left-handed versions. A handy opening at the base is perfect for stashing papers, books, and the gum you aren’t allowed to chew in school.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

Personal Air Fresh Desk

Breathe easy while you sit at this unique desk to get your stuff done. Its deep recess run the length of three sides to hold plants, and provide a little privacy. A desk with a built-in personal air cleaner? Pretty sweet.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

Uzura Reception Desk

This honey of a desk was built to reside in a reception area, but could absolutely work as a way to carve a home-office space out of a large room in your house. It’s made of liana and plywood, and somewhat resembles a giant sisal tumbleweed. Angled backward into a corner, the desk’s high back gives the illusion of private work area without cutting you off from the rest of the room.

The post 5 Desks to Feel Good About Using appeared first on EcoSalon.

You’ve dug a compost pit, replaced all your light bulbs with the energy-efficient kind, and given up bottled water for good. What about your home office? These five cool office supplies are guaranteed to help keep you productive and planet-friendly all at once.

Sticky Notes – Good things come in small packages, like this pack of 100 percent recycled sticky-notepads. If you use notes all over the place like I do (which is to say, every exposed surface in my home office), then it’s great to be able to feed your craving for stickies without wandering far afield of your desire to be good to the planet.

Handmade Journals – Lots of us use journals to track ideas, plan projects, and collect notes throughout the work day. These beautiful handmade journals are made from 100 percent recycled paper and feature plantable paper covers pre-seeded with poppies, snap dragons, bird’s eye, etc. So when you’ve filled the notebook, just rip the cover off and drop it in your garden or a pot of soil. The annuals and perennials will give you something to look at when you’re on your next boring conference call.

Biodegradable Ballpoint Pens – I’m crazy about these! I have a metric ton of plastic-barreled pens all over my office that seem to materialize from nowhere and never write well. I need to have pens around but I’m not crazy about bringing yet more plastic junk into my house. Paper Mate comes to the rescue with a biodegradable pen that will disintegrate in your backyard compost bin when it outlives its usefulness. Brilliant!

Looseleaf Binders – Whether you use them for work, school, home, or office organization, looseleaf three-ring binders are super handy to have around. The downside is all the cardboard and vinyl components used to assemble them. Earth Binder makes standard and custom looseleaf binders made almost completely from post-consumer material. You can buy ready-made binders direct from the company, or ask them to help you design a custom project at no charge.

Colored Folders – You can’t manage an effective workspace without an efficient filing system. These colored hanging folders from Earthwise are made from 50 percent post-consumer materials and are perfect for getting a mountain of paperwork under control quickly.

Image: Risager

The post 5 Green Home Office Supplies We Love appeared first on EcoSalon.

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Sticky Notes – Good things come in small packages, like this pack of 100 percent recycled sticky-notepads. If you use notes all over the place like I do (which is to say, every exposed surface in my home office), then it’s great to be able to feed your craving for stickies without wandering far afield of your desire to be good to the planet.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

Handmade Journals – Lots of us use journals to track ideas, plan projects, and collect notes throughout the work day. These beautiful handmade journals are made from 100 percent recycled paper and feature plantable paper covers pre-seeded with poppies, snap dragons, bird’s eye, etc. So when you’ve filled the notebook, just rip the cover off and drop it in your garden or a pot of soil. The annuals and perennials will give you something to look at when you’re on your next boring conference call.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

Biodegradable Ballpoint Pens – I’m crazy about these! I have a metric ton of plastic-barreled pens all over my office that seem to materialize from nowhere and never write well. I need to have pens around but I’m not crazy about bringing yet more plastic junk into my house. Paper Mate comes to the rescue with a biodegradable pen that will disintegrate in your backyard compost bin when it outlives its usefulness. Brilliant!

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

Looseleaf Binders – Whether you use them for work, school, home, or office organization, looseleaf three-ring binders are super handy to have around. The downside is all the cardboard and vinyl components used to assemble them. Earth Binder makes standard and custom looseleaf binders made almost completely from post-consumer material. You can buy ready-made binders direct from the company, or ask them to help you design a custom project at no charge.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

Colored Folders – You can’t manage an effective workspace without an efficient filing system. These colored hanging folders from Earthwise are made from 50 percent post-consumer materials and are perfect for getting a mountain of paperwork under control quickly.

Image: Risager

The post 5 Green Home Office Supplies We Love appeared first on EcoSalon.

When it comes to green living, even the tiniest steps can make a difference. In your home office, reducing paper waste by printing less is a no-brainier – but when you gotta print, you gotta print. Set to be released this summer, a new font package may save you up to 25 percent of printer ink, so if you can’t eliminate your paper usage, at least you can cut back on toner.

Ecofont is a downloadable font package that saves ink by printing each character with minuscule holes that have no effect on legibility. It’s extremely easy to use, too. When creating a document in Microsoft, simply choose Ecofont as you would Arial, Times New Roman, or any other font you typically use. It’s easily readable on your computer monitor, and automatically prints out on your printer up to an 11-point font.

The font package will run around $20 for home users for a three-year license. Business owners pay a sliding fee, depending on number of users. Admittedly, saving tiny bits of ink here and there won’t save the planet by itself. Every little bit helps, though, especially when you have no other choice but to print a hard copy of something from your computer.

The post Effortlessly Save Printer Ink with Ecofont appeared first on EcoSalon.