At home, at work

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Linu Thankachan

Linu Thanachan is a regular Article Contributor to Many Article Directory.

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It's imperative in one's home today to carve out some office space for some paperwork, besides the occasional email and surfing activity. Clutter is the first and most annoying culprit when it comes to creating and handling a home-office. For starters, before creating a home-office, it makes best sense to chalk out what's most essential to your space rather than simply indulging in purchases. Besides the desk or work-surface, you'll need a comfortable chair.

That apart, you need to create the most appropriate shelving processes to suit your individual purpose. For instance, you may need to have open shelves for books and reference material; telephones and fax machines; paper trays and filing cabinets for paperwork. "The best shelves are the ones that are made of wood," says interior decorator Kunal Joshi. That apart, good wood outlives generations together.

A partition that can earmark your home-office space from the rest of the apartment is also a must. "The choice of a partition, its make and design depends entirely on the utility and fancy of the home-owner," feels Joshi. "For those looking to buffer the noise of guest and playing children, it works best to create a double-barrel partition, with two surfaces that will successfully cushion the noise," he says. Here you could use aluminium, wood, or glass depending on usage.

Glass partitions, besides enhancing the very look of your workspace, helps you prevent compromising on the appeal of the space. "Glass is known to effectively mask space crunches and provide illusions of long stretches and areas," says Prashant Gaekwad, a civil engineer. He has three halfpartitions (about 4.5 feet in height) to cordon of a space of about 250 sqft in his 650 sqft living room for his own home-office. "The tinted, designed glass partitions transport me into a different zone and lifts my mood too," says Gaekwad.

It's best to build work-organisers - wooden shelves or closed metal cabinets - in accordance with plans in order to prevent snags later. It works best to figure out your workspace limits before embarking on huge purchases or repairs. "It's important to match the style of your home office to the decor of the rest of the room in order to ensure that it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb," says furniture specialist Johar Khan. "Most home owners tend to disregard the importance of natural light when it comes to working at home," says ophthalmologist Dr Sunil Moreker. "It helps keep you awake; reduce the strain on your body clock as well as slash down on your eyes' wear and tear," he says. Hence, positioning your home office near a window makes better sense than moving it into the deepest, inaccessible corner of your home to prevent it from coming in the way.