Three Great Money and Planet Savers During This Economy Crisis For Your Home Office
Posted by Alexandra Vrugt on July 9th, 2009
Working from home is a great money saver. You don’t have to pay to commute anywhere and work clothes can be reduced to the bare essentials. Many home office workers could not imagine working outside of their home office, especially during this economy crisis, when offices are becoming even more stressful places as people fend to try to keep their jobs.
Even with all of those great benefits, there is still even more opportunities for you to save money and, in the process, help to save our environment. Just by making your home office a little greener, you could get have more “green” in your wallet. Here’s how:
First, make every effort to make full use of that office paper. Buy for cheap all of the paper that you anticipate needing by using coupons, other office supply store discounts, or buying from a thrift store. You could even get the paper free if check companies that give away their surplus or scrap paper that can be recycled.
But, once you buy for cheap, then it’s time to use as wisely and conservatively as possible. Always use both sides of the paper, when it won’t affect your professionalism or business image. For home files, use both sides. If you make mistakes when printing, use the blank sides for scrap paper or convert a bunch of “half” printed pages into a little scratch pad or notebook.
The second way to make your office greener is to stop using paper at all for things like faxes! There are tons of great free faxing services that will allow people to fax documents directly to your computer. Do a little online search and enjoy the financial savings of having to provide less paper for faxes and also eliminating the need for so many file folders!
The other way to max out the savings and get the maximum green effect in your home office is to decorate it and furnish it with recycled furnishings. Buy for cheap good quality furniture from office surplus stores, clearance sales, thrift stores, and of course, yard sales and you will be able to have a beautifully furnished office for pennies on the dollar. In this economy crisis, finding ways to help our pockets can mean the difference between a successful business and one that struggles through this difficult financial time. In the long term, if our efforts help the environment, that’s an even better endeavor.
A great place to find free office supplies and furniture is FREECYCLE.com or Craigslist.org. On these sites, you will be able to find tons of free stuff for your office that is offered by people that want to help our planet by reducing waste. You can always rehab the furniture, cover it, paint it or whatever to give it the exact look that you want. But, with it being free, you can save a significant amount of green for your pocket and still do the “green” thing for the world!
Creativity, planning, and a little research are key to finding items that will work for your home office that can save you money and be a part of saving the environment. During this economy crisis, people are looking for ways to get more for less or get more out of what they have. Research, recycle, and reuse to get your office as green as the money that you’ll be saving with your effort!