If you don't have a home office....computer, printer, etc

[Ottakee]

We are moving next week to a house half the size.   I am loosing a large office.  I am wondering what is the best way/where to put my computer, printer/copier and fax machine.  Maybe my bedroom?  How do you handle it?   In a year when one DD gets married I will have an office again 

[Pen]

We have a small house so I tend to get things with that in mind. Laptop computer(s) generally kept in living room on a small desk when in use or on a book shelf when not in use. Small Printer copier is in another room where it managed to fit (not ideal!)  .  We don’t have a fax machine other than as part of copier which I never have successfully made work.  Paper etc supplies are also mainly in living room on bookshelves. Living room and dining room were main homeschooling areas. 

If you can turn one part of living room into “office” I think that is a healthier solution than using bedroom. 

[mumto2]

Not sure how helpful this is but our copy machine is in a closet on top of our extra(small) freezer.  We rarely use our fax machine so that lives in a box in the garage.  Our printer was in the living room but has been exiled to another closet.  We are pulling it out as needed.

[Carol in Cal.]

Spare closet?  You actually have one?  I have never experienced this, although I have heard of it.

I’d probably put an armoire into my bedroom and stash everything in there.  I tend to use my laptop curled up on the couch anyway, and the printer is wireless, so there is no need to be at the desk.

[Erica in OR]

We actually cram two home offices into our bedroom. Not ideal, but it works. We share the printer and each have a small desk. DH's has filing cabinets as the supports underneath it, so that doubles as storage. My computer is a laptop, so I sometimes take it elsewhere in the house to work.

Erica in OR

[Hoggirl]

We keep our printer in a bedroom closet and pull it out when needed. Laptop is generally on our kitchen table (we eat at our counter).  If it needs to be put away, it also goes o a shelf in the same bedroom closet.  I don’t have a fax machine.  Is that something you use often?  If not, maybe it could go?

[Ottakee]

I have a laptop but a separate split keyboard that I puffy ? love.   I do use the fax machine several times a week.  Same with printer/copier.   I really need 1-2 filing cabinet drawers for all of the paperwork as well.

Being the payee for 4 people in SSI, guardian of 3 with special needs, etc makes for a lot of paperwork.  Like way too much.  Hopefully I can tuck something into my walk in closet.   Hard to know until I get there....and fax needs phone line and printer/copier isn't wireless.  Maybe in the future when I get a new one.

 

[regentrude]

When we lived in an apartment,  computer and printer and desk were in our bedroom.

[Carrie12345]

We do have a printer in our bedroom, but that's only because we have two printers! (The other is in my make-shift office space.)

Dh runs his entire career out of his phone and laptop, and one small paper planner. He almost never uses the printers, and we've never used a fax.  Part of me wishes I could be more like him, but I love paper too much!  He tosses his laptop in a backpack to work absolutely anywhere he wants.  I have packed more bags of office supplies than clothes to go away for a couple of days.

None of that really addresses the question, lol.  I guess it's my round about way of asking what you really *need* and what you just like or are used to.

[LucyStoner]

When we needed to move my nieces into our third bedroom, the computer came to live in a corner of the dining room and the printer on a two drawer filing cabinet in the hall.  We have a home office again now that they have moved out but I have left one computer in the dining area anyways. I was very happy to move the printer and files back into the office though.  

[KathyBC]

We have a very small house with an open concept living room/dining/kitchen main room. Under the stairs is the perfect size to tuck an ikea desk and desktop computer, with bulletin board, phone/answering machine, printer on top of a small ikea chest and a file box. Only cons are it's a bit dark (a desktop lamp helps some) and it is really dusty! In an ideal world I would have a basement and this under the stairs area would be a storage closet, but then where would my office be until the kids move out? So yeah, it works.

Edited October 6, 2018 by KathyBC

[maize]

Ours are in the living room.

[Ottakee]

Those of you that don't use printers/copiers/fax how do you handle all the paperwork?   This week alone I have faxed documents to CMH, the medical insurance, the doctor, and someone else.  I have made tons of copies of legal documents to send to school, the realtor for closing, etc.

Do you take pictures of stuff and email it?

[LucyStoner]

43 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

Those of you that don't use printers/copiers/fax how do you handle all the paperwork?   This week alone I have faxed documents to CMH, the medical insurance, the doctor, and someone else.  I have made tons of copies of legal documents to send to school, the realtor for closing, etc.

Do you take pictures of stuff and email it?

 

My printer is a copier and scanner when I need that function.  

I email PDFs instead of faxing.  The last time I sent an actual fax it was because the Department of Labor required me to make a FOIA request for my brother’s divorce case that way.  I have two special needs sons so no shortage of paperwork that I need to complete and submit. 

Rather that take and send pictures, if you have a smart phone you can use a scanning app to make a passable quality PDF.  I use TurboScan but there are others.  

 

 

Edited October 6, 2018 by LucyStoner

[WendyLady]

We moved this summer into a house roughly half the size of our previous home.  I no longer have a dedicated office, and currently the printer is sitting on the ground by the dining table!  I was going to stash it in a closet or down on a storage shelf in the basement, but we just need it too much.  I'm not exactly sure what to do with it - it prints, scans, and supposedly faxes, but I have never used that function.  

My current plan is to buy a small desk for the printer to sit on and to store all of the little odds and ends that go with our laptop (adaptors, thumb drives, extra paper, etc) which are currently sitting on the cute wooden high chair that is only used when we have visitors with babies come over for dinner...  other office odds and ends like colored paper and markers and stapler are on a shelf in the linen closet.

There's a basic little desk on samsclub.com that I am considering ordering.  I really don't need more furniture, but I have to have something for the printer to sit on - it truly cannot stay on the ground!!  I think I can tuck the desk behind the couch as almost a couch table (that's a thing, right?)  

We move a lot (military).  At our previous home (x2) we didn't have an office, but had a china cabinet in the dining room that had plenty of room for the printer and paper and markers and envelopes and all of the office like junk, all hidden behind the pretty doors.  I sold that when we moved (why? it was actually awesome!)  I have an armoire I have used to house office things in the past, but my son is using it as his dresser....  That's the thing with moving, each house has its own needs!! 

 

[mom2scouts]

Ours is in the corner of the living room.

[elegantlion]

After my divorce, I downsized to a full sized bed and moved my office into the bedroom. The bedroom was about 12 x 11. I had a long IKEA desk, the printer and computer on the desk. 

I didn't have large file cabinets, though. For files, I used bankers boxes that I stashed under the bed. I have an old wrought iron bed frame, so no box springs, which allows for storage underneath. 

 

[KathyBC]

4 hours ago, Ottakee said:

Those of you that don't use printers/copiers/fax how do you handle all the paperwork?   This week alone I have faxed documents to CMH, the medical insurance, the doctor, and someone else.  I have made tons of copies of legal documents to send to school, the realtor for closing, etc.

Do you take pictures of stuff and email it?

Scan and email with printer (which is also copier and scanner). For the very, very rare fax, I run to the corner store and pay. If I had to do it more often, my scanner supposedly does that. I haven't bothered figuring it out.

[City Mouse]

Get a new combo machine- fax/print/copier that is wireless. I never pay more than about $100. Then you can locate it near the phone line and store your computer in a different location. Do you really need the fax? most documents can be scanned, create an electronic fine, and the sent electronically. 

In my last job, I noticed a huge quality difference between faxed documents and scanned.- the faxed documents often were not legible, so we would have to request they be sent another way.

Edited October 7, 2018 by City Mouse

[Ottakee]

2 hours ago, City Mouse said:

Do you really need the fax? most documents can be scanned, create an electronic fine, and the sent electronically. 

In my last job, I noticed a huge quality difference between faxed documents and scanned.- the faxed documents often were not legible, so we would have to request they be sent another way.

If I learn to do all of that I can.  I am not super tech savvy.  I think I could scan and email or get one that would fax.   I just know both machines get heavy use at my house.

[ThisIsTheDay]

We have a cheap 6' cabinet that looks like an armoire from the outside but has great computer storage inside. It holds the printer, board games, dog food, two shelves of books, and more paperwork than I can imagine--including kids' high school transcripts and diplomas, photographs, extra cards . . . you get the idea. It is in a space between our kitchen and family room, which is really one big great room kind of space.

[prairiewindmomma]

We have two filing cabinets and a printer and a copier. One sits on top of each. My computer is somewhere else.

I photograph and email most documents rather than faxing.