The concentrated and, above all, relaxed work in one’s own home home office often fails due to a lack of space in the apartment. There are many ways you can still set up a small office or optimize an existing workplace. With our eleven creative tips and ideas, we show you how to set up a functional workplace in a small space and what else you should pay attention to.1. Setting up the office Use storage space up to the ceiling
Especially in smaller apartments, there is often no space for a large office. If you have high ceilings, we advise you to use the space up to the ceiling. With shelves and consoles or a shelving system, storage space is created vertically.
There you can store folders, documents and books. Make sure that you place documents that you need to pick up more frequently on the lower shelves. Things that you use less often in everyday office life can be stowed away further up.
The Rima shelving system from Raumplus creates storage space up to the ceiling.2. Furnishing a small study: ideas for filing
Meter-high stacks of paper on the desk: In small offices, this can be fatal. Because if there is too much paperwork on your work surface, it quickly hinders the workflow. In the small study, a good filing system is important to avoid chaos.
Therefore, we advise you to use folders or magazine holders. So you keep your small desk largely free of documents. You can label the folders or magazine holders alphabetically or thematically and immediately sort everything there. Magazine holder DIY perforated plates on the wall are the ideal solution to save a lot of space and to get an optimal overview.
Even for unopened letters that you still have to process, you should set up a place in your small office. After opening, sort them directly into your filing system. This will keep your small workplace tidy in the long term.
With a document tray you can stack all paperwork neatly vertically without losing track.3. Office ideas: mini office in unused wall niche
Unused wall niches are great if you want to set up a small office. Desk and closets disappear into the niche and thus take up little space in the room. So that you do not feel cramped, hang the wall cabinets as high as possible or directly under the ceiling.
Fronts on the wall cabinets cover unsightly folders. As a result, your small office always looks tidy. So that you don’t have to get on the chair every time to get your work materials out of the closet, you should keep the most important things in your mini-office in drawers under the desk.
So that it is bright enough for working in the wall niche, you should provide sufficient light with a desk lamp for the home office.4. Cleaning out desk drawers in the mini office
When setting up your small office, you should only keep necessary utensils at your workplace. Pens and countless promotional gifts such as pens often fly around in the drawer.
This is how you can bring order to your drawers and your home office: Empty the entire contents of the drawers, take each object in your hand and think about which pen you really use often or with which you particularly like to write. All others you can sort out.
With small compartments or a cutlery tray in the drawer, you can neatly sort your most important writing and craft utensils. So it always remains clear in the drawers of your small office.
Clean out your drawers and sort pens, staplers and rulers into compartments, for example into a cutlery tray.5. Setting up a small office: ergonomics in the workplace
Even if you have to make some compromises when setting up a small office due to lack of space, you should still try to make the workplace as ergonomic as possible:Provides sufficient light at the workplace, especially if the desk has to be placed in a darker corner of the room for reasons of space. For small desks, desk lamps with adjustable arm are suitable, which you can mount on the wall or clamp to the table top or shelf.Try aligning the PC screen at a 90-degree angle to the window to avoid reflections and protect your eyes.Plan the work surface as large as possible so that you can work relaxed.Get an ergonomic office chair to avoid back pain.
How high your desk should ideally be and at what distance you have to sit from the screen, you can read in our guide “Setting up a workplace: 11 tips & ideas you should consider”.6. Colour concept for the small office
Choose a uniform color concept for your mini-home office. Too many colors seem restless, especially in small workplaces. Subtle colors give you peace and quiet in your small office. In addition, it looks optically larger.
The wall color and desk accessories such as pen holders, boxes or picture frames, you should therefore coordinate color. Read here which colors go together and which don’t at all.
Simple colours automatically ensure peace and order, even at the workplace in a small office.7. Rely on multifunctional devices when setting up the office
Printer, copier and scanner in one: Multifunctional devices are particularly suitable for small offices. By using a single device, you save space that you can use elsewhere.
Since very few printers are beautiful to look at, it hides either in a drawer or in a nice box. So your multifunction device becomes an eye-catcher at your small work area and it looks tidier right away.8. Hiding cables in a small office
No matter whether it’s a small office or a large study, the cable clutter under your desk is never nice to look at. In a small workplace, the cable chaos under the table top can also limit legroom. With a cable duct that you screw under the desk top, you can hide hanging cables and keep things organized on the lower floor.
You can get such cable management systems or cable baskets relatively cheaply, for example at Pollin Electronic or at Amazon (advertisement*).
With the help of a cable duct, which is mounted under the table top, you can store cables neatly and thus ensure order.9. Furnish small offices with multifunctional office furniture
Furniture to unfold, pull out, push or with built-in additional functions are ideal for your small work area:Hinged desk: Especially in small rooms, which you use not only as an office, but also as a living room, a hinged wall desk or a wall secretary are ideal. The folding function saves you space. You can make your small office disappear at any time.Extendable desk: With an extendable desk, you can either increase your work surface or reveal work materials that you store underneath.Built-in functions in the desk: With integrated elements, such as a charging station for the mobile phone or laptop, you can keep your small workplace tidy. With an integrated light bar you save yourself an additional table lamp on the small work surface. This not only gives you more space on your desk, but also reduces cable clutter (see point 8).Roller container: Especially handy if your desk has no drawers. The reels allow you to place the container anywhere. If it stands in the way, you simply push it aside or use it as an extended desk shelf, for example for coffee cup, mobile phone or water bottle.10. Is it worth renting furniture for the small home office?
In open-plan offices, office furniture is often rented or leased because it can be 100 percent tax deductible as operating expenses. You can also rent office furniture as a private individual, for example at Lyght Living furniture leasing.
However, this only makes sense if you already know that you only need the furniture for a very short period of time. Because renting or leasing is relatively expensive in the long run, as ongoing costs are incurred.