Basic Furniture. Choose your desk and chair carefully. You want ample space to spread out papers on your desk. Don’t crowd a computer, monitor, keyboard, and printer onto a too small surface that leaves no room for papers. Make sure your chair is adjustable to the height that’s right for you, and make sure you can snug-up to your desk. My desktop is just 26 inches high; it’s a computer trolly table, specially designed lower than the average 29-30 inch desk height. Why? Because it allows me to type comfortably for hours without straining my wrists. If you’re reaching up to type, you’ll have sore wrists. My chair is an upholstered, armless secretary chair. That lets me pull-up close to the desk, so I don’t need to reach to type. I also have a traditional 30 inch tall keyhole style desk that I use when I need to hand write notes.

Storage Furniture. You’ll probably need some sort of file cabinet, unless you get a desk with a file drawer built-into it. A bookcase also comes in handy for storing reference books and software packages. Instead of a bookcase, you might consider a cabinet with doors; it’ll keep your office looking less cluttered.

Comfort Furniture. Feel free to add some creature comforts to your office if you’ve got enough space for them. It’s ok to have a comfortable armchair or couch where you can flop to take a short break, read a long document, or just think. But please, keep your bed in your bedroom. It’s important to separate work time from bedtime. If you do, you’ll work more efficiently and sleep better.

Lighting. You’ll need two types of lighting for your office: general and task. General lighting can come from windows, ceiling fixtures, or torchere style lights. Task lighting can come from table lamps, floor lamps, or wall lamps. The general lighting just gives you light to see your way around. The task lighting throws light onto the limited area where you work. Plan your lighting for day and night work. Make sure your lighting doesn’t cast glare onto your monitor. Put your task lights where they illuminate your work area without taking up valuable workspace. There’s nothing more annoying that a lovely table light that’s always in the way! I like 3-way bulbs in my task lights, because I can keep them low when I’m working at my computer; then, turn them up when I need to read a document. I also like task lights with swing-arms or goosenecks, because I can easily move them into position for whatever I’m doing; then, move them out of the way when I don’t need them.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on furniture and lighting. After starting out with a hollow door on milk crates, I splurged and bought my computer trolly desk new from a Scandanavian furniture store. My keyhole desk was my dad’s. My chairs and file cabinet came from an office surplus sale. My couch and task lights came from tag sales.