Even if you don’t have the flexibility to work a paid job from home you still need to have a home office set up for paying bills and taking care of family business. Many people don’t have the luxury of a separate room for their home office – usually it’s just a desk in the kitchen or family room. With a little creativity and the right supplies you can utilize even the smallest space and make it an efficient work area for you and your spouse.

Consider what you do in your home office space to determine what supplies are actually necessary. Of course you’re going to need the basics like pens, paper, envelopes, and Post-It notes, but do you need to have a large, clumsy filing cabinet or can you work with a small plastic container? What computer accessories do you actually need? If you share this space with your children your answer will be different than if your children have their own computer and all you do online is pay some bills, work with your personal financial software and read emails.

The biggest problem most face in their home office space is clutter . There are a few things you can do to cut down on the amount clutter in this work area:

• Get rid of junk mail right away. If you can, locate your shredder and trash can near the door to dispose of it immediately. Don’t put it in a pile to take care of later – later never comes!
• Purchase the smallest filing system that works for your needs. Most people don’t need to have a large filing cabinet, but can work with a smaller filing container. Clean out the container after you’ve completed your taxes for the previous year and put the documents you must keep in a banker’s box in your garage or attic.
• Even better, scan and save to CD older documents you need to keep. A scanned copy of an original document is usually as good as the original. CDs take up a lot less space than paper files. Store your CDs in a fireproof box or in your safe deposit box since this is your only original document.
• You can find some great storage containers for office supplies at your discount store or your local office supply store. A covered child’s art box or supply box is a great place to keep everything and can be stored under the desk when you don’t need them.
• If space is really a problem and you can afford to do so, purchase computer equipment that uses less space. Flat panel monitors are coming down in price and take up a lot less space on your desktop. If you’re technologically savvy you can get a wireless print server in your home. Your printer doesn’t need to be connected directly to your computer so you can place it on a counter nearby or even on a different floor of your home! A laptop computer is the best of all worlds if you don’t have the space for an office. You can put your filing system and office supply box in a storage closet and pull them out when it’s time to do some work.