I am determined to not have a home office. About a year ago, as I was approaching the end of my graduate school program, I threw out my crappy old Walmart desk, even against my wife's wishes (she insisted that I have a dedicated place for my business and school work) and got rid of most of its contents. I reclaimed about a great amount of space, decluttered, and learned to be more intentional with my office and business related belongings.
Eliminating a home office space will keep you intentional, mobile, and will free up the space that would otherwise be consumed by a desk stuffed with boring paperwork.
I challenge you to do the same: what’s in your home office? Is the area really necessary? What could you go without? What else could you do with that space? I am writing this to share but also as a guide for my future self.
1. Make proper use of your filing cabinet. It is important to keep paper copies or various files such as tax returns; contracts; health, vehicle, and school records; and maybe some appliance manuals and warranties. It is easy to collect these types of things but they really don’t need to be hoarded: you can easily get rid of most of these and never be concerned with them again! You can always scan documents if you want to be sure not to lose them (but don’t go overboard with that either). I recommend that this occupies no more than a two shelf filing cabinet; there is really no need to keep anything more than what two shelves can contain.
2. Reclaim your bookshelf. For books, all you really need is a Kindle (and a laptop to read books in PDF format). Books are awesome, but they can definitely be cumbersome, especially when you have to move them around. Remember, the library is an awesome place too! My small bookshelf will only contain books that I will frequently refer back to, such as:
- A Bible and a set of commentaries if you’re in to that kind of thing. I recommend the New American commentaries, which are also available digitally.
- A minimal quantity of guide books such as cookbooks, travel guides, phrasebooks, and other visual books of that nature. I don’t actually have anything like this currently but I’m not opposed to them (I am in the market for a good feng shui and/or bonsai tree guide).
- There are certain books that may have some sentimental value to you, especially those that might have been signed by the author or presented to you by a love one... by all means, keep those (this won’t be the majority of your book collection anyway).
- And then, a book or two that is on loan from the library (which is the first place to seek out any book).
Some say that they need to feel the physical paper of a book in their hand in order to read it. I won’t judge, but just simply I don’t agree with this.
3. Free yourself from the miscellaneous. With a laptop, not much else is particularly necessary. You may, perhaps, carry a notepad, pen, and highlighter around with you. You would need a proper satchel to keep these few items in, and this certainly beats the great bulk of a desk!
I know this plan doesn’t work for everyone, but I truly believe that most of us can eliminate the home office, reclaim the space, and, if you really need a place to do some work, do it outside of the home (we all need to get out more, anyway).
Take care of your business but don’t waste any space that really you don’t have to.