Sharing a Home Office Space

Getting Organized Column
BackStage, April 2006
topic: sharing a home office space

Sharing Spaces
By Kristine Oller

It’s Saturday morning, and you are up extra early to grab a few hours in the home office. Your mind is buzzing with great ideas for your screenplay, and you are ready to get right to work—only you can’t. The notes you left carefully arranged on the desk have been shoved aside, displaced by paperwork and binders related to a project your spouse was apparently working on late last night. You have to spend part of your creative time rearranging the desk before you can start using it.

Actors often live in situations in which they must share a desk with one or more people: roommates, a significant other, kids, family members. When a home office—large or small—serves as the hub of business and household activity for multiple users, disorganization in this area can breed tension and spark accusations of papers lost, items mishandled, space hogged, and privacy invaded. Over time, this tug-of-war for space can chip away at your creative spirit.

Whether your home office fills an entire spare room or consists of a desk in the corner of the living room, the principles of organizing it as a shared space remain the same. Technically, every desk is a shared space. Even if you live alone, you are probably using this area for multiple projects that can end up “living” on your desktop, layered upon one another. If your office space is shared by people or projects—or both—here are some guidelines to help restore order and peace.

The Method

Declare the desktop neutral territory. An uncluttered desktop, empty but for a few select office supplies and/or pieces of computer equipment, invites you to come on over, sit down, and get some work done. The object is to make it easy for each user to return the desktop to a neutral state once he or she is finished working. Paperwork and project materials should be brought to the desk, worked on, and then taken from the desk.

Papers and materials related to ongoing projects need to live in a specific area. This project area could be as simple as several clear bins stacked next to the desk, each bin assigned to a person or project. So when your roommate wants to finish his agent target list, he moves his project bin from the project area to the desk. While working, he can spread his stuff all over the desktop; when he is ready to stop, all his materials go back in his bin.

If you have a spacious office with plenty of shelves or closets, feel free to have separate bins—or baskets, or boxes—for each project you are working on. If space is tight, single bins can be divided to hold multiple projects. Alternatively, a plastic cart with several large drawers can be used to store and separate projects. It can be rolled over to the desk, or its individual drawers can be removed and taken to the desk.

In addition to the project bins, each person who uses the office area must have a shelf, bin, or cubby reserved and labeled exclusively for him or her. This organizational element is key to reducing episodes of bickering about who moved whose stuff where. If someone leaves something on the desktop and you have to move it, you can move it to that person’s space. Likewise, if an interruption forces you to leave the office without tidying up and you return to find that your stuff is no longer on the desktop, there is no need for concern; your materials will be waiting for you in your space.

The Must-Haves

There are four items every actor should have in his or her home office; each plays an important part in keeping a shared space operating smoothly.

A shredder will help you maintain your privacy and serve as the first line of defense against the ever-increasing threat of identity theft.

A small “money” bulletin board can keep track of gift certificates, event tickets, and valuable coupons. It should be used solely for this purpose. Put the board in a place where you will see it regularly so you will be reminded of what you have. (Attaching a small binder clip or jumbo paper clip to a plastic gift card allows you to hang it from a pushpin.)

A container exclusively for holding unpaid bills should be placed where it cannot be overlooked.

A bin, file folder, or drawer in which to “dump” your daily receipts can get those bits of paper out of your pockets and prevent them from drifting all over the house—whether you enter receipts regularly into a computer program or just hold on to them until tax time.

Even the tiniest of home offices can serve several users when these simple organizational systems are diplomatically put in place and embraced by everyone sharing the space.

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