The Essential Home Office

Working from home, getting the time that you need to yourself or to spend time with your family, is something that many people strive for. Whether you freelance, telecommute, or have your own business, you can have a lot of fun in setting up your home office.

No longer do you get the worst pick of location, take that corner office with the great lighting! Put your knick knacks, snacks, and coffee machine within arms reach. If you are meeting clients within this space, some restraint will need to be shown, but you still have a remarkable amount of freedom in customizing your work space. But after you get done adjusting your kid's crayon portrait for the 100th time, what do you do about the stuff you need in your office?

The Staples

The equipment that you need in your home office varies from job to job. What a writer needs can be drastically different from what a game developer needs. However, there are certain items that you would be hard pressed not to find in a home office.

A computer: Well this is a no brainer, and with moderately high end computers available at lower costs every day, there's no reason to not get a good computer now, instead of being forced to upgrade every few months.

Printer/scanner/fax: It's much more professional to have your own equipment to handle printing materials, sending out faxes, and making handy copies of everything. This also eliminates extra costs such as gas and paying high fees for using a Kinko's for these services.

Cordless phone: You may or may not have your own phone line, but one of the greatest advantages to working at home is that you can easily multitask. You can talk to your clients while tackling some of those annoyingly frequent household tasks like cleaning out the junk drawers.

Lighting: Hours upon hours of political intrigue are behind the selection of just who managed to get the office that actually let you see the outside world. No more! Natural lighting is much easier on the eyes than artificial, so try and pick a spot that gets plenty of sunlight during your normal working hours.