“I’m not a fan of inboxes and outboxes for the office at home, because pieces of paper tend to get lost in the pile,” says Juris, who, a decade ago was able to charge Manhattan corporations up to $1500 a day to streamline flows of documents and human traffic. Those jobs are gone, says Juris, now a full-time Bearsville resident.
“About 35% of my work these days is advising on home offices; I charge $35 an hour for ongoing jobs, or $150 a day,” says Juris, who has 31 years experience. When she’s not helping people figure out how to set up residential work spaces, Juris stages homes for sale or rent. For information, email Juris at [email protected].
“Your desk is not a storage space,” says Juris. “I have a love affair with lateral files and bulletin boards. My advice to everyone is don’t procrastinate, tend to your mail everyday, color-code everything, and keep a calendar for yourself.” Juris doesn’t believe in keeping hard copies of anything that can be retrieved on a computer. “I’m a fanatic about that,” she says.
Rosendale resident Tamme Stitt, a portrait photographer and former police officer who chases down repossessed cars on weekdays, lives and works out of a 3500 square foot farmhouse. A married mother, Stitt admits that she spends almost all of her time in her 600-square-foot home office locating assets for judgment collection and servicing wedding-photo clients. “My family will tell you I’m in here 24 hours a day, but that’s not quite true,” says Stitt. “But I am here lots, because I work a lot.”
Two years ago, when Stitt opened her second home-based business, www.tammestittphotography.com — it grew out of a hobby — she decided she needed a bigger desk. Stitt looked at conventional options available for sale. “There was just no way I was going to spend $1100,” says Stitt. “Then I thought of using a prefab kitchen countertop from some place like Home Depot, but they were kind of ugly.”
In the end, Stitt made a 13-foot-long desk out of vintage doors from a commercial building in Kingston. It’s supported by two oak cabinets from Sam’s Club, now painted black. She bought a large piece of tabletop glass which cost $250; under the glass sits an array of family photographs and sentimental trinkets.
Stitt’s friend, Erin Duquette, made the art on the walls. “She’s starving right now, but I’m positive one day she’ll be famous,” says Stitt, who enjoys being surrounded by the bright lights and colorful decor of her spacious office.
Highland resident Elisa Pritzker, an American artist born in Argentina, devotes almost half the first floor of her 4000-square-foot contemporary home to her home office, which also has a two-room art gallery.
“It’s easier to be an artist when you have the right space,” says Pritzker, who’s currently in the process of renovating her home office. The mixed-media and installation artist, an empty-nester married to an economics professor who runs a development agency, needs to keep extensive records of her works. Tight organization is key. In addition to constantly participating in gallery shows and fairs, Pritzker also sells limited-edition prints through her website, www.elisapritzker.com.
“I’m going through everything in here right now, because that’s just what you have to do periodically with a home office,” explains Pritzker. “But it’s such a luxury to have this much space. It’s why we bought this house in 1999.”
Pritzker says her secret for staying on top of everything and not wasting time is that she “never allows the mail to pile up.” Says she, “You really need to devote 15 to 20 minutes a day to keeping your office organized. In the end, that saves so much time.”
A typical week for Pritzker will include picture framing and sculpture moving in addition to creative studio work. People who mostly talk on the telephone and type at a keyboard should take regular stretching breaks.
This writer, who works both standing and seated on side-by-side computer monitors at an antique architect’s drafting table, keeps a pair of ten-pound free weights and a yoga mat at the ready, weaving a few fitness breaks into the course of producing a feature story.
