A home office can end up being very cluttered unless you have a well-designed closet that can help you organize all the things you need to function properly in your home office. Many times a home office is a bedroom that has been converted into a home office. This usually means the closet was originally meant for clothes and not for papers. It is not that difficult to design a closet in a home office that works well and keeps you organized. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Determine Your Needs
1. You will first need to figure out what your needs are by deciding what you want to place in your closet. Divide the items into different categories such as supplies, papers, files, boxes and so on.
2. Make an inventory of everything you plan to put in the closet. Take approximate measurements so you have a rough idea of how big each category is when the items are combined together.
3. Write down all the measurements next to each category so you know how big each category is going to be when you start to design the closet.
Measure
4. Measure your existing closet with your tape measure. If you are planning on building your own closet inside your home office, you can measure the area you plan on building the closet. If you have a very tall space you should have someone help you if you need to use a ladder. Measure the height of each wall so you can use every square inch of the closet.
5. Draw a floor plan of the closet so you have an idea of how big the closet is in plan.
6. Draw an elevation of each wall with the measurements you took on paper using a ruler or the architectural scale. Each wall should be at the same scale when drawn. Make sure the elevations are drawn at the same scale as the floor plan.
Designing the Closet
7. Draw out boxes for each of the different categories you created by giving them an approximate size. Make sure you draw them to the same scale as you did your wall elevations. Label each of the boxes so you know what they are for. It is helpful to draw them a little bigger than you actually need right now so you have room to add things to each category.
8. Cut out the boxes you just drew for your different categories.
9. Lay out the different boxes on top of the wall elevations you drew of your closet walls. Organize the different categories based on how much you will need access to them. Items that are used on a daily basis should be in the middle. Items that are supplies and only used occasionally should be placed toward the top of the closet. Heavy items should be placed in the bottom area of the closet.
10. Decide which items needs shelves, drawers or locations for boxes. It is also helpful to keep an area where you can have a rolling bin or cart that can be moved in and out of the closet for items like files and everyday supplies that you may want to put away at the end of the day and keep out of sight.
11. After trying different configurations and deciding on a layout that works best for your needs, tape the boxes to your elevations. Bring the drawing to your local home improvement store to price out the different items you will need to build your closet.
Tags: home office, different categories, each category, your closet, same scale, closet have, design closet
