portable officefile tote

 

A portable office can mean different things to different people.  To some it means working out of their car, to others it can mean the ability to work in various rooms around their home, or bringing work home from the office.  Actually, anything that can be moved from one place to another makes it portable.

There can be a variety of reasons why we have a need for a portable office.  Some may have no spare room or space for a home office.  Others may not like to work in the space where they set up their home office.  Whatever the reason, this article will help you set up a portable office solution that works for you.

Determine your needs

The reason you want to set up a portable office, and your intended functionality, will help to determine your needs. Determining your needs, or requirements is key to setting up an effective solution.

Functionality – Determine the functionality of your portable office.  Will your main function be to perform household management tasks such as paying bills?  Do you have a job that lets you work from home, or do you run a business out of your house?  Functionality is an important consideration in determining your needs.

Tools – Now that you understand the functionality of your portable office, you will be able to select the tools to do the work.  Some of those tools could be a laptop, portable scanner, calculator, flash drive, etc.

Supplies – Think about the supplies you need for the type of work you will implement.  Some of those supplies could be, pens, paper, envelopes, postage stamps, paper clips, stapler, hanging files, etc.

Containment – After you determine the bullet points above, you want to consider what you will use as a container for tools and supplies. For those that need to physically carry their office from one building to another, a light weight tote may be a wise choice for a container.  For others that will be moving their portable office around the same building, like your home, a 2-drawer rolling cart may be a more effective solution.  If you need a surface on which to work, the top of a rolling cart could satisfy that need. There are also multi-tiered file carts on wheels that have a lid that may suffice for a work space.

Implement your solution

Now that you understand your requirements, it’s time to implement your solution.  My guess is that you already have most, if not all, the tools and supplies, and maybe even the container in your home.  If you already perform the tasks you determined in the functionality bullet point above, you probably have the tools and supplies required.  If you don’t have the container, look around your home to see if you can find a container that fits your needs.  Get creative, you may be able to re-purpose a container that you were using for something else.  At this point it’s just a matter of assembly.