Spruce Up Your Cubicle to Make it Feel More Like Home

Most of us decorate our homes to make it feel more personable and inviting by adding things that fit our personalities. At work though, we tend to leave our office cubicles bland and boring. I guess there is the attitude that the cubicle isn't owned by us so who cares? This bland environment of technology equipment, paper, office supplies, and unornamented cubicle walls can make the work day even longer. How about sprucing up your cubicle to make it feel more like home?

Thing to consider when deciding on décor for your cubicle:
What hobbies do you have that you can incorporate into your cubicle?
What safety issues do you need to be concerned with in your cubicle?
How much maintenance will whatever item you add to your cubicle require?
Will your decorations offend your co-workers and possibly get you in trouble or fired?
How much space do you have to decorate and what size items will you need to fill it?
How expensive are the items you are adding to your cubicle and will you miss them if someone steals them?

Good décor choices to add to your cubicle:
A stylish desk lamp with a secured wire.
Personal photographs of family, friends, travel, and hobbies.
Decorative calendars.
Decorative baskets or organizational boxes with designs on it to hold professional magazines and books.
Framed pictures of your awards.

Poor décor choices to add to your cubicle:
Items with electrical wires are probably a bad choice since they can cause fires or trip those (including yourself!) in your cubicle.
Fish in a decorative bowl are cute, but they require cleaning on a regular basis? Who will care for your fish when you are on vacation or when you decide to call out sick?
Wall hangings with obscene words or pictures.
An object so big you have to climb over it to get out of your cubical.
Expensive artwork.

Themed ideas for your cubicle:

Your Home Office
Since the work cubicle is the most like your home office as far as contents go, consider make your cubicle more like your home office. You already have a desk, computer, chair, trash cans, and a filing cabinet. Now add the homey stuff. Buy a small throw rug to throw on the floor, but make sure you secure it someone so no one will get hurt. Add a hearty fake plant, perhaps like a big fern to put on a filing cabinet or bookcase if you have one and get a fake floor plant to match. Buy nice frames according to taste (I like wood) and frame pictures of choice to hang on your cubical walls. Get a classy looking lamp and put it in the corner of your desk with the wire secured in place, again, so no one trips.

The Traveler
Whether you like to travel abroad, around the United States or even not far from your home, the travel theme works nicely and reminds you of being somewhere other than work. Pin up a map of a tourist destination that you've been to, the United States or Europe if you prefer. Hang up large photographs or attractions or natural settings that you've taken or purchase them from the store. Many craft stores have loads of photographs and pictures frames that you can get on sale or with a coupon. Add an inexpensive world globe to your desk and miniature items to go with the destination you choose. For example, if you are highlighting New York, get a small Statue of Liberty to put on your desk or bookshelf, a long with the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Florist
This is easy for the ladies and low maintenance. Simply by vases in variety of colors, styles and shapes and make up fake floral bouquets. Place them all around your cubicle, on your desk, on your bookcase, and if you can get one large enough, sit it on the floor. Buy border paper with flowers on it and pin it around the top of the cubicle they way you would on your walls at home. Finish it off with a flat floral rug in the middle of your cubicle floor.

Nautical
Anything water related can remind you of sunny days at the seashore rather than being in a dreary old cubicle. Place sail boat models that you can make yourself or purchase at the shore around the cubicle. Add starfish and seashells in a small glass vases and put them on your desk or bookcase. Hang an anchor picture and a ship's steering wheel, along with photographs of sailboats, the beach or just the ocean, along the cubicle walls. If you are feeling daring, set up a sand display on your desk with sea shells in it, but be careful not to make a mess!