The Book on Home Office Hacks

I’m always on the lookout for movie characters who have awesome home offices because a) I love movies and b) I love home offices.

So after having watched at least 300 films since becoming a full-time journalist, author, and corporate communications writer, I was surprised when I made my final Number One selection for the movie character who in my opinion has the most awesome home office in the history of motion pictures.

It’s the Beast.

Yes, the male lead in Disney’s animated classic, “Beauty and the Beast,” has an office called the West Wing that is filled from the floor to the ceiling with hundreds and hundreds of books. Belle, his prisoner and intended paramour, is as awestruck as I was when I saw it for the first time. Some may quibble that the West Wing in “Beauty and the Beast” is more a library than an office, but a close inspection indicates that it contains a desk and a chair (albeit both in serious disrepair) and there is a distinct impression that before the curse was imposed on the prince. his home and his staff, the room was a study. In other words, it’s a home office, castle division.

The point is that without books, an office cannot be an office. Books provide gravitas. Consequence. Value. An aura of endless learning and effortless research. What’s more, they can be of great importance: Belle, a lover of books herself, might never have fallen in love with the Beast had he not had an office wallpapered in hardcover volumes.

Well, I’m not a beast, but I am a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, and that allows me the right to assert that I may need books more than, say, a cursed prince. I require reference books, directories, history books, books about grammar and editing, biographies, autobiographies, anthologies, novels by my favorite authors and so many others. The problem is that I’m a one-person LLC who lives in a humble home with an even humbler home office, and the number of books I’ve collected over the years far exceeds the home office space available in which to display them.

But I have a few ideas that can help. I might even use some of the following tips to describe home offices in some of the fictional narratives or screenplays I write and try to have published or optioned. To be sure, I’ve been trying my hand at both for some time now, and while I have yet to publish a novel or have a movie produced, I have made my living through the use of words, so perhaps that’s good enough for you to consider the following suggestions valid.

1. Perhaps (like in my own home office) neither your desk nor computer monitor are large enough to make you feel as if you’ve arrived. There are two probable reasons for that. First, if your income is as small and your official assignments as few as mine, your home office and maybe even your desk are likely very small. Secondly, face it: you obviously have not arrived. Despite these facts, however, you must never discount the value of good lighting and comfortable computer monitor sightlines. That’s where books come in! They provide a recognizable yet distinguishing platform on which  to prop up computer screens, lamps, file holders, or anything else that will effectively help give you more space, improve accessibility, provide better lighting, and increase your comfort level.

2. Many people who work out of home offices have to print out documents and photos, and if the humidity in the office is worse than it should be (or your printer is lower-tech than it needs to be), those documents and photos will easily turn into scrolls. You can put a few books aside specifically for flattening. They’re a heck of a lot more attractive than skillets and shoes (which are unflattering flattening devices). Big dictionaries and encyclopedias are perfect, and since we’re using less of those thanks to the internet, you can dedicate a few for this purpose alone. That means you’ll never end up having to look for that important 8×10 glossy you put away somewhere to flatten. Just look for the Cambridge Encyclopedia. It’ll be easy to find.

3. Every small office proprietor worth his weight in professional memories needs a non-show-offy way to display the plaques, gizmos, gadgets, collectors’ items and curios collected over the span of a career. But dedicating an entire shelf to an item or two is narcissistic. Framing things is even worse. But bookending them with… well… books is not only humble, but quite aesthetic. (My wife has assured me of this.) I even use that method to buttress two stacks of Broadway play programs that I’ve collected over the years. (Do I fantasize that one day the top programs on those stacks will be for my own plays? You bet!)

4. Books on home office shelves serve not just intellectual curiosity, but the need to be cagey. As in: where can I hide my wife’s anniversary necklace? Provided that at least one bookshelf in your home office is wider than the books that reside upon it, the ability to effectively hide a wide range of small presents is irrefutable.

5. It’s no secret at this point that I’ve made dozens upon dozens of attempts to up my game as a professional writer. It’s only natural that the more projects and proposals I send out, the more rejections that will come back. Even though I know that’s part of the game, rejection notices can sting nonetheless. After the initial sting, it’s best for me to put them out of sight, and thus out of mind. I can easily stuff them in a file drawer. But it’s so much more distinctive and dramatic to stick them in old books. That way they will always be here for the historical record—but no one will ever know! If that makes me a beast, so be it.

The post The Book on Home Office Hacks appeared first on Home Business Magazine.