Tips for Designing a Home Office

 

The most ideal situation for creating a home office would be having a separate room that can be transformed into an office (e.g. spare bedroom, mudroom), however this is not the case for everyone. It is important to have a separate space for working, especially when you are working from home. It increases productivity and helps to separate work and home life - especially when both home and work life happen in the same place. This is why carving out separate space is so important, even if that means using furniture, rugs, or paint to visually define different areas in the same room. Your work space doesn’t need to be overly big. As long as you can fit a desk, a chair and a few add-ons you will be all set.

Make sure the furniture you choose is comfortable and ergonomic. The principle of ergonomics is simple; fit the environment to the person, not the other way around! Make sure that the furniture you choose is adjustable and/or will be the right fit for you and your space.
If you’re buying new office furniture, choose tall and leggy pieces to make the space feel lighter and less cluttered.

Home office lighting is also very important for your wellbeing. Make sure that if there isn’t much natural light, you have sufficient lighting with lamps and/or overhead lighting. A bright space is much more welcoming and can even increase productivity! Having sufficient lighting is also very important for your eye health, preventing headaches and eye strain.

If you have the space for it, go for a bigger screen! At least 24 inches is recommended so that you can maximize your productivity on the computer. A bigger screen makes your work feel less overwhelming, with fewer overlapping tabs and more space to have more open at once. Even better than one screen is having two! Even if you only purchase one screen, you can still split the screens between a laptop/tablet and the desktop screen.

• Declutter. Keep only your essentials in sight. Anything else can be relocated or tossed. A less cluttered workspace will help you to be more productive and less overwhelmed by chaotic surroundings! This will also help to keep you from getting distracted by items you don’t need to get your work done. 

• Make sure you have adequate storage space. The easiest way to stay organized is to make sure everything has a place! 

• Contain your cable mess. Cables make a space look messy and cluttered. Wireless Bluetooth and battery powered devices are a simple way to get rid of part of the problem, especially for desktop items like mouse, keyboard, lamps, etc. For other cables, use zip ties to tie them up off the ground and tuck them wherever you can. For extension cords, minimalist cable boxes look much neater and can fit many cables.