When most people think of going green at the office, they usually think of recycling paper and using organic cleaners for disinfecting surface areas and cleaning windows. But, the office furniture you use, including the chair you sit in each day, may contain carcinogenic chemicals which can pollute our soil when the furniture is discarded.

Recycling Old Office Furniture

If you’re in the market for some new, sustainable office furniture, but your old furniture still has some use left in it, you should recycle the old furniture rather than taking it to a land fill. How do you recycle your old furniture? By allowing someone else to have it, either by selling it to them or giving it away. This empties your office of old furniture, keeps it out of the land fill, and allows someone else to get a deal on the office furniture they need.

What To Look For In Sustainable Office Furniture

When you begin shopping for your new furniture, you may feel that the price is your first concern. While you must consider your budget, it should not be your only determining factor and in fact, it should be low on your list of priorities.

The first thing you should look for in sustainable office furniture is functionality. You want furniture that will serve you well for many years. If yours is a small operation, consider that your business will grow. You need furniture that will grow with you. This may mean purchasing a desk or file cabinet with some extra drawers to allow for expansion.

You should also look at the features of the furniture which allow it to be functional or non-functional for your particular purpose. Is there a place on the desk for a computer keyboard? Are there shelves for books and other materials?

After functionality and features, your next consideration should be comfort. This especially applies to your chair. You will spend many hours in that chair at that desk, so you want to be sure that you will have ample back support. Also, your desk should not be too low. You should be able to fit your legs under it comfortably and stretch them out.

Finally, you will want to check the certification of the furniture and the materials used in the manufacturing process. Make sure the manufacturer stands behind their products and offers a guarantee on quality and materials used.

Whether you’re moving into a new office space or trying to re-organize the space you’re in, optimising your office space is important to your productivity as well as that of your employees. It isn’t how much or how little space you’ve got, it is how you use it that counts.

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Here are some steps you can take to optimise your office space and get the most from your work day.

1- Replace The Bulky Furniture From Decades Past With The Sleek Designs Of Today

If the words “office furniture” make you think of large, bulky desks and big, gray metal filing cabinets, think again. Today’s designs offer functionality while using a minimum of space. Desks are smaller and more compact, while offering ample storage and work space. Chairs are sleek and comfortable. And filing cabinets come in a variety of sizes to fit your work and space needs. Replacing your old office furniture with the modern designs available today will make even the smallest office more spacious.

2- If You Don’t Absolutely Need It Get Rid Of It

Does your office really need that sofa or that over-stuffed chair? How about that extra filing cabinet? If you have extra pieces of furniture or other things, such as an aquarium, in your office that are not being used, removing them will add space you can use for more important things – including breathing room!

3- Use An Open Floor Plan Instead Of Partitions

Partitions and cubicles tend to minimize space by breaking it up. Instead, use an open floor plan. This not only adds space, but will allow employees to share some furniture or accessories such as computers and file cabinets when appropriate.

4- Re-arrange Your Office Furniture

Try arranging your office furniture differently. Instead of having your desk at an angle or in the middle of your office, move it into a corner against one wall with just enough room for your chair. Move your file cabinet to the other corner, or if possible, out of your office altogether.

5- Make Use Of Your Wall Space

Wall space can be used for storage by adding cabinets and shelves. These should not be to clustered together so as to make it pleasing to the eye. Also, when the cabinets and shelves are spaced properly, artwork can be hung on the wall to complete the look and give ambiance to the space.

Office furniture can be composed out of many materials, but hardwoods make the best desks because of their durability and range of colors and textures. These five hardwoods are often used in desk construction and are the perfect complement to any home office or commercial space.

1- Cherry

Cherry furniture has a very distinctive look and is often found in the offices of executives and high-level managers. The color of cherry wood can range from light brown to a dark brown with a reddish tint. Some of the advantages of cherry are that is very durable and offers a very polished look for any office. One disadvantage of working with cherry wood for desk construction is that it can be difficult to work with, making furniture construction difficult.

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2- Oak

Oak is one of the most popular hardwoods for office furniture such as desks. Oak is known for being sturdy and it also has a very attractive and distinctive grain. Both white oak and red oak have prominent streaks in the wood grain. The biggest advantage of using oak for desks and office furniture is that it is very durable and will last for many years with proper care. One disadvantage of oak is that it can be expensive.

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3- Walnut

Walnut is another durable hardwood that is used for desk and other office furniture pieces. Walnut is chocolate brown in color and can sometimes have purple or brown streaks in the grain. This hardwood is used to craft fine, durable furniture and is very valued. One advantage of using walnut for desks is that it is durable and will last for a long time. The major disadvantage to using oak is that it is very expensive and may not fit your budget.

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4- Ash

Office desks made from ash can range in color from white to gray and often have light brown or reddish brown tints. One advantage to using ash for office furniture is that it is very bendable and easier to work with when using hand tools. One disadvantage is the price of ash; it is moderately expensive and may increase the cost of your office project.

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5- Elm

Elm is a hardwood that ranges in color from light brown to dark brown and can contain streaks of red. It is very durable, but also bendable, so it is easier to work with than other hardwoods. The disadvantages of elm are the price and the difficulty in finding this type of wood.

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In this day and age, when computers are more advanced than ever before, and wireless technology is starting to become the norm, we are not yet at the point where it is possible to have a wireless office. In order to alleviate problems such as snags and tangles, cable management is the only solution to this problem, and should be implemented whenever installing a new desk, or moving existing desks around.

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Although some desks are manufactured with some form of cable management system, there are some minor alterations you may need do, in order to make a cable management system on a new desk more efficient. Depending on your budget and the distance your wires need to travel, this can be done successfully in a relatively short period of time.

Cable ports are the best solution to this problem are inexpensive. It may be necessary to drill a hole in the desktop to push the cables through and feed them through the cable port. You’ll only need to do this step if the desk that you purchased does not have a pre-drilled, cable management hole.

Next, feed the cables through the hole in the desktop, so that they follow, parallel to the floor, to an electrical socket or alternative power source. To enhance feeding the wires, cable baskets can be installed under the desktop, acting like a gutter, to conduct them properly.

If you use a laptop and are constantly disconnecting it, it is wise to have a power source installed on the desktop. As these power modules are located on the desktop, it would eliminate any tangling, as direct access is supplied. These desktop power modules also come with sockets for modems; so, everything can be in one place, reducing tangling and other headaches.

The real trick is keeping the cables organized as they meet perpendicular to the floor. A helpful device to purchase to aid in this is a goose-necked cable spine, which can be adjusted to manage the direction your wires need to go.

With just a few minor adjustments and equipment, your computer cables can be organized with little effort and time on your part – saving you the headaches of dealing with electrical shorts, accidentally pulled wires, and unnecessary, untangling of cable wires.