At the beginning of the pandemic, a work from home scenario consisted of bringing your laptop home to get essential business done. As each week crept by, the dinner table was covered with schoolwork, notebooks, laptops, power cords…anything that could evoke the feeling of anxiety instead of knowing this place to be where you sat down to enjoy a family meal.
Months go by. My eyes are killing me, this dinner table sucks! Not to mention one too many embarrassing photo bombs from children during Zoom, WebEx, Teams…you name it, I think anybody working from home has experienced every form of video chat.
We have resorted to the couch for meals to get away from the place we have to sit all day. I can’t do this anymore. I finally made the decision to invest in the home office.
Not everyone has a spare room to dedicate to an office, so like most of America, the home office now resides in the corner of a bedroom. I turned to Pinterest and the creative juices started flowing, I was actually getting excited about a real office to focus. I was going to make it my own.
I’m fortunate to have a lot of natural light in the bedroom with the perfect corner for a desk. A few clicks on some of my favorite (free shipping) websites…even for furniture, and I created my personal space.
Where to start? Here are a few tips…
Get a desk that works for the space you have to work with.
There are great affordable options for desk chairs and so worth it when it comes to your back.
On the note of back health, a standing desk is a bonus.
Also really helpful, a wireless printer.
Storage is key, add a personal touch with some fun patterned bins and a pen holder.
Add a plant or succulent…these are fake, but so cute and make me happy.
Shelves always help, I have yet to figure out what to put on mine. A patterned corkboard is great for pinning up things that need to be easily accessible.
Invest in some art. I work with sweaters everyday so I went with my favorite WOMENT philosophy.
Create a barrier…I use this partition to shut it all down at the end of the day. I don’t want to see the office after I log off.
Once it was complete, I felt like a new woman! Have a WOMENT and make your home office worth every penny. Plus, we get to eat at our table again.
Christine’s office eh, not as organized shall we say.
Like Lara I first started out on my dining room table. Now, because our jobs require a lot of references, it was building up. I too, found after a while, I needed all the work to be out of the space where I chill, eat, and entertain (even though none of that was going on).
I’m fortunate to have a guest bedroom. I also had an old desk from my grandmother’s house. I was using it just as a storage/furniture piece but suddenly, genius, I decided to use it for the purpose which it was built. EXCEPT…..this was probably built in I would say 1950? 40? I have no idea. What I can tell you is, it wasn’t meant for an 8-hour workday on a laptop. It was built to pen your friend or loved one a nice note which took about 15 minutes, even if you had to dip the pen in the well (anyone younger than me Google this).
My chair was not much better, wooden HA. My back started to hurt, my eyes could only handle the laptop for so long. I put a photo on social media of my set up and people said “that looks awful and not comfortable”. It really wasn’t.
After June, and it was determined this was going to be a semi-permanent if not permanent situation. It was time to move seven decades forward from 1950 into 2020. I’ve seen HGTV, it was time for a makeover.
I searched for a desk, found a minimalist styled one on Wayfair (yes I built that sucker), got some baskets to “organize” myself, I was able to bring my computer monitors and desk chair home, a few decorations, and bam, LIFE CHANGING. I felt like my old self. I could “ZOOM for days” now.
My productivity skyrocketed compared to when the old hard wood desk and small lap top were my companions and so did my clutter. Stacks of papers on the bed and floor. I created an “out box” on a stool at the top of my stairs, things I needed to bring to the office, just to keep myself organized. But you know what Einstein said, “If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” or “Out of Clutter, find simplicity!” Thank you Einstein.
Set yourself up for success. It doesn’t take a lot in resources and will make a world of difference.
