Hang Home Office on Wall

Sometimes it's fun to see how little money you can spend in a day or how small a suitcase you can get away with on a trip. Nowadays the suitcase trick is not so much of a lark: You almost have to squeeze everything into a small bag if you want to avoid long lines at the baggage carousel and the prospect of lost luggage. Whether or not minimizing your home office is possible, it sure is appealing to imagine that you could function with this little office!

This particular product - made by a company called Anthro - is called the E-nook Standard. It offers a place to charge your phone too and a small spot for stamps, pencils,or a little calendar. The entire storage assembly closes up like an old-fashioned drop-leaf desk. But this is not your grandmother's desk.

Stand-up computer use likely appeals to a young audience, but older users can charge the laptop before plopping down on the sofa to work it. The idea of hanging your computer station on the wall just like a small piece of art is rather cool. Sadly with the amount of business shrinkage we've all suffered in the past two years the size of this specific home office might be absolutely adequate for far too many people. Entire positions, industries and functions are simply crumbling up and blowing away in a dramatic way. It makes you think of the plaintive images taken by Dorothea Lang during the last Great Depression and Dust Bowl in the middle of America. Our dust is made of the crushed hopes and dreams of millions. We may not be breathing in the grit, but it is affecting our mental and physical health in very serious ways.

We have morphed into a position where many finally have achieved the "paper-less" office that was so talked about in the early 1960s by Herman Miller iconic designers. Offices without walls were the cat's meow and open office planning broke down old stereotypes of how people work together. These days all some high power executives need is a remarkably thin laptop and connection to the Internet. Truly amazing progress unless your office is paper less because your job doesn't exist anymore. Sigh and keep moving ahead.