If you had any idea how dirty your keyboard alone is, you would quickly do the keyboard shake and dance over the garbage can in your office or home to eliminate the dust and muck that collects as you work and play! The best way to clean this piece of electronic piece of equipment is to unplug it from the back of your computer (or the computer itself) and turn it upside down and tap the sides to loosen up any crumbs and dust. Follow that up with a small brush (a paint brush works great) that can get between the keys and whisk away anything left between the keys. To finish off and help eliminate germs, take a moistened cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and gently clean the tops of the keys.

Using micro-fiber clothes on the rest of your electronics including the monitors will help take the dust and lint. Use these same clothes for televisions, radios and anything else that draws dust. Don’t forget to clear off your desk and wipe away any debris and disinfect you phones and anything else you touch. Especially with the flu, you will need to make sure to keep your hands clean and your desk!

When I think about building something new I start with the materials and normally think about the raw materials such as wood, hardware, etc. I have recently learned to think a little differently in terms of recycling or reusing a material for something new. One idea that I had actually seen in an office was to use an old door for the top of a table or desk. In this case the door was smooth so it worked well.

When I went to find a door I liked, I choose and old style solid door with beautiful sculptured indentions that look great on a hung door but you can’t write on it very well. The fix was a piece of glass that fits over the door. I used galvanized pipe for the legs and braces and it works perfectly! The total cost was about $233 and it took me less than a day to put it together and paint it. I also attached a custom keyboard drawer underneath that cost me less then $25 since I picked the sliding brackets up at a garage sale.

Last year my office looked like a storage room, not an office were work could be done easily. I had a very large corner desk that was piled high with files not filed because the way my filing cabinet was sitting it took and act of God to get to it. I also had a small bookcase that was littered with books of all kinds and a few pictures of kids, etc. that I never looked at since it was behind me and was somewhere I just never saw. After one day of moving things around I thought, enough is enough, I have got to get this place organized!

I sold the large desk and made a simple one out of galvanized pipe and an old door and glass. I repositioned the filing cabinet for easy access as well as replace the old bookshelf with a fresh large utility shelf that ran the length of one wall. I also hung up a pegboard just like the one I have in my shop to hang up all the things that were lying around. Just a few of those items are rulers, t-squares, scissors, headphones and assorted wires and numerous things that are now organized and out of the way. A year later, everything is still in its place and I have a great office and place to work!

Yep, you heard me right!  For those of us who spent many hours in a treehouse as kids, we know the benefit of having a place that sooths the soul.  There is something tranquil and peaceful being suspended in the trees so it make perfect since to me to build an office or a guesthouse up in the trees and away from the hustle and bustle of your life on earth.

Of course, you will have to get permission from the kids to share their perceived territory as well as find a good floor plan and contractor.  There are certain things that have to be taken into account like a suspended toilet and other water facilities that will need to be plumbed.  This doesn’t make it any harder or easier just a different set of circumstances.  The main thing above safety is having some fun!

You may be working from home and need a private area in which to do your job. As an alternative to adding on to the house or constructing or renovating a separate building like a shed or barn, remodeling the garage into an office may be the answer.

Removing and closing up the garage door opening is probably the hardest part of this remodel.  However, once the large opening has been closed, you can begin to create a office-like atmosphere inside by adding wall studs that will be covered with dry wall.  You can also do some different things with the concrete floors like staining or stamping.

Make sure to add electrical, telephone and internet outlets and any necessary light fixtures at this point, BEFORE the drywall goes up. After the drywall is up and finished the walls can now be painted, floor coverings installed if you don’t like the concrete work and any necessary trim. Once all the remodeling work is finished, hook up your phones and computers, move in your furniture and other equipment, hang some pictures on your beautiful new walls and you’re ready for business.

One of the hardest things to do sometimes is to like, not love, where you live.  Though there are some things you can’t control, i.e. your neighbors, there are other things that can help you like and even love your space.

The first is the clutter.  If you are living in clutter, you need to break out from under those piles and free yourself from the ties that clutter brings.  You don’t realize it but that mess is a reflection of your life, your world and where you are going.  Get up and get rid of it as soon as possible.

Sort though your things.  Here is another tell tale into your soul.  If you can’t sort through your stuff you will never be able to sort through your life.  You may be laughing at these words but you know it’s true!  Until you can determine what to keep and what to throw away in your living space, you will never do it in your life.  If you can’t do it in your life, you won’t get very far.

Look at the colors around you.  They reflect your mood.  I recently went from a dark green (I hated my job when I painted it) in my home office to a bright jalapeno orange and light yellow.  It totally changes the way I feel when I walk into the room. Oh yeah, I am really liking what I do these days.

Your surroundings tell others a whole lot about you.  Look around and ask yourself if you like what others are seeing?

If you listen really closely you can hear these words being said all across North America.  Wives and girlfriends and partners, mothers and mothers-in-law and an occasional father say these words and walk away slowly shaking their collective heads.

This reaction is in response to the many ideas that are dreamed up and planned only to be shot down by those that have no vision.  Bless the guy or gal who forges on, who continues on with the quest of something bigger or better.  It is those lonely individuals that I salute.

If not for the dreamers, the lookers would have nothing to view.  The magazines would be void of anything new and would only have blank pages of the same old stuff to print.  It’s the guy who turns his garage into an Irish pub, the girl who envisions her storage shed as a first class studio and delivers or the couple who see the possibilities of 5 star entertainment out their back door and onto their patio space.

So you want to do what? Cool!

You can use pegboard to create an entire wrapping station in your home; a crafting station; a place to hang the kid’s coats; a place to hang tools indoors and a creative way to get your kids to put up their things in their rooms.

If pegboard was just used for outside purposes for storage in the garage or for lining the utility building, it would still be a wonderful storage tool.  There are now ways to hang almost everything from the normal screwdrivers and hammers; to boxes, shelves and drawers.

If you have yet to see the beauty of pegboard, take a trip to your local hardware store and walk down the pegboard isle.  Imagine everything you could do with the clips and hooks available on the shelves.  You will not only see the beauty in pegboard, but fall in love.

You’ve heard the stories about successful business owners that started their companies in their basement, extra room, garage or shed out back.  From Walt Disney to Steve Jobs of Apple and many in-between, where there was space there was a way.

I have heard of people converting half baths, laundry rooms and closets into home offices.  However, one of my favorites is the storage shed conversion.  Yes, it takes some additional planning as far as electric and insulation goes but it solves some very common problems.

• You only have the shed to keep clean when clients visit
• It’s out of the house and you know the old saying, “out of sight, out of mind”
• It’s quite when you’re on the phone (I have never figured out why my kids scream every time I’m on the phone and the dogs bark… )
• You can still go to the office when you have company (your office is not the spare guest room)
• You have a separate entrance with a door you can lock
• It’s your space to organize and do with what you please

If you have room in your house and you don’t have any of the problems above, that’s great; forge ahead and remake that spare space into an organized, home office machine.  If, on the other hand, you don’t have the needed space in your home or you need the quite and privacy to be successful in your home office, think about a shed conversion.  It just may be what the boss has in mind.