My Home Office

This is my home office, where I sit most of the day and write.

I greatly prefer working at home over working in an office, and have made specific decision about my life and work to be able to do this. Working a home gives me the freedom to be both a homemaker and an entrepreneur. I can put the dinner on to cook, then come back to my desk. I can work at any time of day or night as inspiration comes. I can be with my husband throughout the day--it's lovely to sit at my desk doing my work, while his is in the next room doing his work.

It does require discipline to work at home, but that is easily handled by establishing work hours, and "going" to work in a separate room that is designated especially for that purpose (the IRS also requires a separate room for the work-at-home deduction). I designate 8am-4pm Monday through Friday as my work hours, and pretty much stick to it unless I intentionally give myself a vacation.

Working at home gives me complete control over my office environment, to make it as nontoxic, natural, and earthwise as I please.

The Room

It is the room of the house called the "Florida Room" here, which is in the back of the house with lots of windows facing the garden. Our Florida Room required some work right away.

The walls were painted a bright Chinese red. After applying several coats of Sherwin-Williams Harmony low-odor primer, we painted the walls a deep purple with Sherwin-Williams Harmony low-VOC flat wall paint. It had very low odor and I was able to move in as soon as it dried. The finish on this paint is very soft and beautiful. I chose the deep purple because I love purple and also because it is so hot here most of the year, I wanted to feel like I was in the nice cool shade when I come into this room.

The floor was cement, so it needed some kind of floor covering. I considered ceramic tile, which is often used in Florida Rooms, and would be nice and cool, but because I was using it for an office, I needed something that would be a smooth surface for my rolling office chair. I decided to use Armstrong Vinyl Composition Tile, you know, the 12x12 tiles that are widely used in schools. They can be placed close together to make a seamless surface, come in a wide variety of colors, and are so hard that they are nontoxic. I applied them with water-based Tite-Bond glue and finished them with Trewax NonSlip Wax, which contains natural carnuba wax. The upside of using these tiles is that they are the most inexpensive nontoxic flooring available, the downside is that they don't wear very well unless you continuously wax them. This is fine in empty school hallways, or even in a kitchen where there is open floor space with just a breakfast table that can easily be moved, but not very practical in an office with heavy desks and bookcases. After a few years there are a lot of scratches and ground-in dirt that could have been prevented with heavy coats of wax. It's likely that I will reconsider this flooring for something easier to maintain and natural. Even though the vinyl doesn't outgas, I don't like the idea of sitting on plastic all day long. Plastic just isn't compatible with living organisms, like a human body. Though I've changed my mind, it was the best decision I could make at the time, given available materials and the budget constraints of just having moved across the country and buying a house.

We are also planning to replace the windows, which currently are aluminum. The door that leads to the garden also has to be replaced as it has too much termite damage to open and close. We plan to remove the whole wall of windows and the door and replace them with an expanse of wood windows that are consistent with other wood windows in the house. This room was probably a porch that was made into a room at a later date. It's the only room with a cement slab and aluminum windows.

Furniture

In my office I have three large desks, an office chair, and wooden bookcases, plus occasional tables and file cabinets.

Each of the desks has a story.

The first desk is made of solid mahogany. It is an old Mission-style library table with two drawers under the top. I don't like desks with drawers down the sides because I like having lots of space for my legs. I found this desk at a garage sale. It had been used in an attorney's office and had a leather top which was ripped. I think I paid $25 for it. My husband Larry removed the leather top and sanded it down, then I applied plant-based Auro clear wood finish. I have mixed feelings about the Auro finish. On the one hand, I love that it is made from plant resins, so it feels very compatible with the wood, and it has a beauty that only natural materials have. On the other hand, it was very slow to dry, had an odor, and was sticky for weeks after application. If I spilled water on it, the finish would get soft and sticky again. Fifteen years later, though, it has held up very well and shows no signs of wear. I would certainly use it again on a piece of fine furniture, if I had the lead time to let is dry for weeks before I used it.

The second desk I acquired is made from solid oak. Since I found the first library table at a garage sale, Larry and I set out with his truck one Saturday, to make the round of garage sales. We looked and looked to no avail, and finally, late in the afternoon, we went to Urban Ore, in Berkeley, California (this was when we still lived in California). In addition to salvage building materials, they also have a large warehouse of salvage furniture and other items. I walked the aisles looking for "library table" and found nothing. Then Larry walked the aisles looking for "oak" and sure enough, squeezed between two desks were all the pieces of an oak library table, disassembled. A tag inside a drawer said "Stanford University Library." I think we paid $50 for this one. The problem was that all the edges around the top were badly damaged. So my clever husband sawed all the edges off and put on a decorative border of purpleheart wood, which, yes, is purple. Then he made new handles for the drawers to match. I love this desk. It's the primary desk I use for writing. It is finished with Flecto Diamond Finish (water-based), which gives a quick-dry, hard finish, water-repellant finish.

I just got the third desk last week. We looked for another old desk, but Clearwater, Florida doesn't have the same store of Arts and Crafts treasures you can find in the San Francisco Bay Area. So I purchased a new table in the same style, without the drawers, that was being sold as a dining table. It is made from parawood [Parawood is the tree that produces latex rubber. It is often called "Malaysian Oak" because it is so hard and durable. After 25 years of latex production, the tree ceases to produce sufficient quantities of latex, so it is cut and a new tree is planted in its place. The cut tree is used in the manufacture of fine furniture. I can testify: it is heavy!]. I wanted the new desk to coordinate with the mahaghony desk, so we stained it with a water-based Minwax stain and then finished it with a water-based Minwax finish. We chose this stain and finish because I needed to use the desk in my office right away and we didn't have time to wait for mail order delivery of a less toxic finish. I looked for the Flecto Diamond Finish, but it wasn't in stock that day. What happened was, the Minwax products were far more toxic than I expected during application, but they dried within 24 hours to be completely odor-free. So they can be used, but my advice is they should be applied in a place other than a primary living area and with fans and excellent ventilation.

My office chair has been a process. I used to sit on an old oak office chair, but it was too hard, even with cushions. Currently I have a new office chair with a wood frame, but standard synthetic (olefin, I think) stuffing and cover. The plan is to have the stuffing and cover replace with natural fibers. Meanwhile I have a piece of cotton upholstery fabric draped over it and sit on a wool-filled cushion.

I have bookcases along both walls of my office and some in the living room too. The are made from pine. purchased unfinished and finished with Flecto Diamond Finish (water-based).

I also have an old antique table that I inherited from a great aunt, and a small table I had purchased unfinished and finished with the Flecto Diamond Finish.

For filing cabinets, I have two old steel cabinets, two file boxes made from basket material, and assorted magazine storage boxes that I like to use for filing. They are small, portable, and line up on bookshelves nicely. Bookcases are heavy, expensive, and difficult to place attractively in a room. Using filing boxes and magazine racks, I can have exactly the amount of filing space I need, without excess.

Office machines

Over the years I have made a point to eliminate as much plastic as possible from my home and office. With today's choice of products, it's not possible to have a plastic-free office and still have all the standard office equipment. I have a plastic telephone, plastic adding machine, plastic credit card machine, a plastic fax machine, and plastic computers, printer, and scanner.

I have two computers, which may seem excessive, but are totally necessary. One is a Mac iBook laptop, which is my everyday computer. It's small size saves resources and energy, and the LCD display panel gives off less radiation than a VDT.

The other is an off-brand PC laptop that I purchased used, for the simple reason that not everything runs on a Mac. A Mac is the preferable machine to me for my particular uses, but many on-line programs can't be used with a Mac and I needed the PC to run my Oxford English Dictionary. So...two computers.

Office Supplies

Here is a list of the supplies I use. I buy them all locally at Staples or Home Depot. I would shop at a local stationary store, but we don't have any in the entire Clearwater area.

Pencils ~ I rarely purchase pencils because--believe it or not--I inherited boxes and boxes of pencils. So I have been using those. I also use mechanical pencils so I only have to replace the lead.

Pens ~ I'm a long-time fan of Pilot Precise Rolling Ball V5 Extra Fine, which contain water-based ink. They are the only brand I use. I have them in every color. I also love fountain pens. I used fountain pens for a while, but they need to be properly cleaned and maintained, and the really good pens are expensive. My preference is to use a fountain pen with a refillable chamber, rather than use disposable ink cartridges, but before I can do that, I need to learn the procedure, so I can always have a reliable fountain pen on hand. I also have various pens that require dipping in ink, and various colored inks, but these aren't practical for everyday use. Nice for a letter or journal, though.

Markers ~ I love to make things colorful, so I have lots of colors of markers with different tip widths. All water-based inks. I use Tombo ABT pens with a brush on one end and a medium tip on the other, Pentel Color Pen Fine Point, and stubby StabiLayout markers with a broad tip. These are all sold in most art supply stores. They are not inexpensive, but I've purchased cheap collections of many colors at variety stores, and they have hardly any ink in them--a waste of that oversized plastic tube.

Tape ~ I just use the standard 3M magic tape and also their removable tape. I think their removable tape is the greatest thing since Post-It Notes (which I also use, made of recycled paper). Because the removable tape can be removed, it preserves whatever you are sticking it to, allowing it to be reused. Great for keeping gift wrapping intact for reuse. I also have two tape dispensers--one for the regular tape and one for removable; one made from metal and the other from wood that I picked up in Germany--just buying the refill eliminates the plastic and waste of the disposable dispenser.

Stapler ~ I used to have an all-metal stapler, but it had a strange design and the staples kept jamming. My stapler now is plastic, but it works.

Paper clips ~ I just use standard paper clips. Since they are made of steel and all steel has some recycled content, I expect all paper clips contain recycled content, whether so labeled or not.

Glue ~ I use Avery Glue Stick. It's nontoxic and easy to apply in just the right amount.

Correction tape ~ Even though I don't type, I still find many uses for correction tape. I use the kind that comes on a little roll. No mess, no odor.

Paper ~ I use Xerox 100% recycled office paper paper. It's 100% post-consumer and bleached almost-white with a chlorine-free process. My local Staples carries it and it's priced competitively with other office paper. This is a vast improvement over having to order 100% post-consumer paper on-line, and paying more for the paper plus shipping. Thank you, Xerox! I also save and use the backsides of printed pages for drafts, and cut up printed pages into quarters to use the back sides for phone messages and notes. And I always look for and choose the highest recycled content available for folders, index cards, notebooks, and other paper products used in the office.

Office Accessories

Continuing my quest to eliminate plastic in my office...

For waste baskets, I use real baskets, woven of wood or other basketweaving materials. My Rolodex is made from cherry wood, found in a mail order catalog many years ago. Instead of using plastic desk trays, I use wire desk trays. I even use aluminum push pins instead of plastic ones.

I'm always on the lookout for nonplastic alternatives.

Waste

Most of the waste I produce in the office is paper. I reused most of it by writing or printing on the back sides of printed pages, and when both sides are used, it gets recycled.

I also have recently been becoming more aware of all different kinds of waste, and ways to eliminate those...I'll be writing more about that later when I have more experience with it.

Energy

Though I have a lot of power equipment in my office, I have offset its usage with solar power through the purchase of green energy certificates. I also conserve energy through practices like using a small desk lamp to light my desk in the evening instead of an overhead light, and a small ceramic heater that I place under my desk to heat just the air around me instead of the whole room. I have a ceiling fan right overhead to provide cooling until it just gets so hot and humid I have to turn on the air conditioning.

My Green Business

But the best thing about my business is that it is an information business. Most of my products--with the exception of my printed book Home Safe Home--are published electronically or delivered in person. And any resources used produce health and environmental benefits far beyond their costs.