So, you’ve taken the plunge and you are about to begin working from home. The spare room is about to become your office. Will you stick a small desk in the corner and work around the other items in the room? Or will you empty out the room and deck out your office like the Starship Enterprise?

Creating a comfortable and practical work space should be a priority. There are several reasons for this:

• Your work space will influence how you feel while working, and the amount of time you can comfortably spend working;
• If avoidable, you don’t want interruptions as people enter your workspace to do other things or retrieve unrelated items kept in the room;
• If your work space looks tidy and organized and you “feel” efficient in it, it’s easier to maintain organization. You don’t want to be searching high and low for items.

Before you begin, decide what furniture and equipment you will need and think about where it can best be positioned. Perhaps you’d like to paint the room a different colour? Remember, you may be spending quite some time in there, so you may as well make it as pleasant as you can.

What you do may be partially dependent on your budget – but even on a small budget you can make quite a difference. If you cannot afford to purchase new furniture, search the classifieds and even eBay for second hand items that might be suitable. Ask friends and family members – someone may have a desk or office chair they no longer want. If you’re even a little handy, you can paint the room yourself. Again, if you’re on a budget, ask around. You may find someone has some left over paint in a colour that will suit. Stores that mix paint colors sometimes get things wrong – and sell their color mixing mistakes for just a few dollars for the tin.

If you have little to spend, one of the best investments for you is likely to be a good comfortable office chair. Using a spare kitchen chair will only result in you becoming stiff and uncomfortable, and not being able to sit at your desk for very long.

As your work space takes shape, make it your own! Add a touch of something that is purely you. It might be a painting you love or a photo gallery of work you’ve done, or even your framed course graduation certificates.

Defend your territory! If the room is to be yours for work and your family members have other spaces they can use, make it clear to them that you’d prefer them not to leave or store items in your office. The presence of unrelated items in your space can be distracting. It can also lead to family members coming in and out of your space to retrieve items whilst you are working. Of course, if you don’t like being interrupted there are more creative ways of solving that – try asking the perpetrator to do a household chore for you each time they interrupt you as you work. The chances are you’ll only have to do this twice before they learn it’s better for them not to interrupt while you’re working at home.