Full Timer's Office?

Everyone has an office. It's a desk, computer, printer, scissors, stapler, couple reams of computer paper, drawer full of pencils and pens, ec. Mine's about 10' X 14'. But, it's in my stick house. Gotta move it to the MH.  ???

Ths is not working in my mind, and I can't even begin to work it in the motorhome, with almost no ideas.  :-\

In the back I have a bedroom with slideout. Got a closet, quite a few drawers and some storage space under the bed, where the water tank is. Need half or less of the closet and drawer space for clothes. Haven't figured out what I can use the under the bed space for, yet, but the office ain't going there!  : Don't think there is enough drawer space for the office and files, etc.

In front, I have the galley, already spoken for with galley stuff. Looks like enough room with no extra. The living room space has no cabinets. There are spaces under the dinette seats, a bit inconvenient, and not large enough, anyway. Then there are small overhead cabinets all the way around. Do have some operational stuff stored in some of those. kinda small, though.

I don't think I want to go to a basement storage bay, everytime I pay bills. I do have quite a bit of basement space unused, in our "travel for fun" mode. Do have a fair amount of stuff that I think will have to go there. Could put some kind of container down there with files I don't use regularly. What kind of container?

Gotta be some novel ideas out there. I just never had the question, before. Never thought of it!  :

So, where do I put the office?  ???

Thanks

Ray D 

Ray D,

don't panic, I have seen a ton of ideas on this site but too many to be specific. I would suggest you use the search button above and try looking for desk or office to see what allot of the forum members have done. Some really neat ideas. You can also search the web looking for RV computer desk conversion or something to that effect.

Good luck and let us know what you come up with.

Dar, thank you.  ;D

Actually, up to this point, I have read a number of threads on this subject. Unfortunately, so far, all involved remodeling. I'd love to do that, but it is out of my budget range, for the time being. I am not capable of remodeling, myself.

Also, I have seen some of the things fulltimers have shown me, as they passed through Boise and visited for a bit. Nice, really nice, but fantasy for me. I have the room, and pieces of furniture I'd willingly give up for an office. Short on cash, at this time. Gonna have to start out with what I have and small purchases of whatever I need. Sad! 

Or, maybe I win the lottery and have the whole thing built right, from the beginning!  :

Ray D  ;D

There's a guy who sets up at all the rallies who sells a cool desk that replaces the dinette. It has a ton of storage, a table top and you add a chair. We've been looking at them for a couple of years. If we'd stay home long enough, Mike thinks he could make one himself.

In the meantime, we have a small printer in a box with a ream of paper also stored in the box. I have a rubbermaid box full pens, staples, paper clips, etc, in the cupboard above the dinette. And I sit at the dinette with my laptop. That's my "office."

Wendy

Wendy, you always come through!  

When Mike stays home long enough, PM me and I'll drop by. He can make two of them!  ;D

Ray D  ;D

Ha! You edited!

I wondered about Rubbermaid boxes. Just seems like the long way, around. I figure that for a while, I'll sit at the dinette with my computer. May have to get rid of my large printer and buy a small one. Pooh!

So, where do you keep documents and files - bank records - insurance papers - historic financial files etc?? Got any ideas?

I've been thinking about the same thing.  I haven't done anything yet but it kinda boils down to either the dinette or the couch... one of 'em has to go and not only that, I have to go vertical with some more shelves or something... some place for files, a scanner, a printer and other stuff like you listed.  If I get rid of the dinette and replace it with a long, shallow "side" mounted desk and two office type chairs then we could eat there, sitting side by side and still have room for the office stuff, I think.  I saw some compact office type stuff at "Office Depot" or "Staples" the other day that might do the trick.  The couch doubles as a bed so I guess we need to keep that.  I need to do some measurements and then layout the stuff that I saw at the mall.

Ray, You could park on the side street and you and Mike could build a couple of the desks. He's got all the tools, he just doesn't have he time  ;D

Wendy

Taoshum, I'm with you on the couch and dinette. Good for fun weekend camping, but I don't need either one! I eat at my desk, much of the time, anyway! 

Where do I put my shredder?  :-\

Ray D said:

Where do I put my shredder?  :-\

Click to expand...

Use a Campfire instead.

Wendy, that's not such a bad idea!  : :

I was re-reading some of this, realizing some of it could be workable for me. Then, I saw - -

Ray D replying to Dar -

I am not capable of remodeling, myself.

Click to expand...

Maybe that's my problem!!!  :

As you remember, I have a full size 74 inch desk replacing my dinette(not an option for you).

I recommend 16 quart plastic totes. I have a stack of them for documents, bills, receipts, etc in the knee hole under the desk.

If you are now solo, use the forward dinette bench to hold more bins and totes.
You can get by with a rather small box for office supplies at the "desk" and put the bulk of it in the basement.

Take your scanner. Use it to file docs in the computer-with copious keywords in the title-and reduce having to store it. No scanner? Use a digital camera.

" If I get rid of the dinette and replace it with a long, shallow "side" mounted desk and two office type chairs then we could eat there, sitting side by side and still have room for the office stuff, I think."

Oh, good, you are not doing this solo!

A simple desk of 2 half high file cabinets and a hollow core door is easy to set up. Others, with more construction talent can advise on how to screw the parts together and to the wall and floor.

We are not full timers, but pretty near.  I use a lap top and set at the guest chair where their is a small table where i can turn and put my feet under.  I carry a couple of file boxes which I purchased at Walmart. I have a small tupperware box where i keep scisors, stamps, paper clips, etc. The printer is kept above the drive in a storage bin.  Once it comes out it goes on the dashboard till we are ready to hit the road again. 

Not being full timers, I do have file cabinets at home for long term storage.  But, If we were to go full time the majority of that could be scanned and stored electronically.  What little couldn't like insurance policies, etc. would surely fit in one more file box as mentioned above.  Perhaps a safe deposit box at a bank, or a storage box at a friend or relatives could be used.

The lap top does not take a permanent foot print and eliminates the foot print of the monitor.  I print very little, so when I need to print I stretch a cord to the printer.  That could (and like soon will be) replace with a print server.   

Ray D said:

Where do I put my shredder?  :-\

Click to expand...

Take the top off and use the bottom as a wastebasket.  We keep the shredder top in a cupboard and take it out when needed.  I keep a "to be shredded" folder so I don't have to get the top out very often.

Jeannine

George has the right idea.  I have been fulltiming for two years, and paperless is the way to go.  Most of my bills are all delivered electronicly, and paid on line as well.  Paper is kept at a minimum, and things like insurance policies and such that I must keep near while on the road are kept in an accordian file by the bed. The laptop takes care of most of my business very well.

I keep a seperate backup hard drive to back everything up as well. Both are small and easy to store. 

For on the road communications I use a Verizon air card in a wireless router.  It is hooked up in the bedroom, mounted to the underside of a cabinet in the corner.  Also connected to it is a Wilson amp and a Wilson "RV shorty" exterior antenna.  The antenna is mounted on the roof ladder.  There are very few places in the country that I can't get internet signal.  Some places I can't get phone signal, but I can manage enough signal with the exterior antenna to check mail and stuff.

Inside the printing duties are handled by a HP wireless printer/scanner/copier.  It fits nicely into a cabinet over the recliners. To use it I just plug it in to the wall socket.  The paper door opens while it is in the cabinet and prints without having to move it.  It connects to the laptops using the wireless router that I use for WIFi.  BTW the wife also has her own laptop for navigation, mail, ect and is also hooked up wirelessly.  This way she has her space and I have mine.  A small plastic box holds pens, cords, and other office stuff (you really don't use a lot of that stuff day to day).

It's amazing what you can do when you don't have a lot of room ;D

Sarge

Laptop is the way to go.  Wireless printers are pretty sweet.  And expandable files are great for holding documents and they won't be any bigger than they have to be to hold whatever is in them.  Joel has a great idea by turning the passenger seat area into a mini-office.  Those larger RV's that have a recliner right behind the passenger seat could benefit from those laptop mounts you see in police cars.  Just get one tall enough to reach from the floor into your lap.  Bingo, instant desk.  Some of those laptop mounts are pretty slick, have little flip-out mousepads and USB hubs and all sorts of goodies.  And when you're not using it, fold the laptop closed, wrap a pillow around it, and snake it on behind the chair.  Sweet!  For those in travel trailers, you know those Murphy beds that small apartments used to have, they'd fold down from the wall?  Think of that but on a smaller scale.  Take a portion of wall space in the bedroom, or by the dinette, and have a fold-up "Murphy desk".  Laptop can be mounted to it and it'll be secure against the wall when not in use.

Lots of good advice there. If you plan to scan all those papers, you might want a scanner with a document feeder. All that scanning could be a chore. For desk drawer items, we use a translucent toolbox that sounds like what Wendy uses. Fits in an overhead cabinet in the living area, where we have a built-in computer desk. One computer sits there, the other on one of two folding tables about 2' x 4' that fit near our wall-mounted dining table. They fold scissor fashion like an ironing board and store in the back of the CR-V when on the road. They are a semi-permanent solution until and unless we figure out how to afford modification of the dining table into a desk-table combo.

We use iMacs (all-in-one desktop computers, 20" and 24"), which have to be put away in their boxes when we travel, but are handy at times when we aren't traveling that often. A laptop might be handier but I like the full keyboard and big screen for photo work etc. External hard drives take care of backing up. But, if I had all my records on disk, I'd want to make offsite backups either on a separate hard drive or on DVDs stored somewhere else.

We carry plastic file boxes with paper records, which aren't all that handy. So far we have room for them in the basement and offload to a storage unit every so often. Good luck and please post what you decide.

We went to an extreme. See: RV Mobile Office for Fulltiming.

Probably not the solution for everyone 

Holy Cow, Tom, that's bigger than the office in my house !

Put in a larger monitor & it would be almost up to Russ M. setup.

I don't know if the iMacs are more sensitive, but we have a 22" Acer monitor hooked up to Marlene's desktop. When we travel I just disconnect the power and video cables and lay the monitor face up on the bed. Had no issues with this in a year of traveling now. As far as I can tell, it has never moved.