home work spaces — How To — Made Just For U

This was my first home office set up in a vintage desk in a guest bedroom. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

How to Set Up Home Office

As many people scramble to set up home offices, here are some tips from my experience setting up, and having, a home office for some time now.

When you first set up, you are going to make do. Do not, I repeat, do not place your coffee, tea and water next to your temporary computer space.

As you find what doesn’t work, you will adjust so don’t expect to get it right the first time, keep adjusting.

If you don’t have a computer and are buying one, get a laptop, it’s more portable and easier to place. You can always add a larger monitor or two if you need them.

Set up your work space separate from other home activities. Good places for home offices are guest bedrooms and a corner of your unused living room.
Wherever you set up, make sure you have electrical outlets close by. If not, thread the extension cord under rugs to make sure the work area is safe.
If possible, set up close to a window. Having a connection to the outdoors is spirit-lifting, even if you spend all day on a computer.
Move dictionaries and other reference material to your work space. Be creative about how you make them easily accessible. Boxes make excellent temporary files assuming the cat doesn’t find it first!
You will need a printer so plan space for one, and a good lamp to minimize eye strain.
Include a safe area for your cup of coffee, tea and water. Keep as many of your office routines as you can and bringing a cup of coffee back to your work space is a common one.

My writing work space in a living room corner. Took me a couple of weeks to find a way to fit my reference materials in the small wire book case underneath. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Quick and Dirty Home Offices

Those home offices are well worn and established but what if you don’t have a desk, or space.

It took me awhile to settle into those home work spaces so here are some of the other ones I have successfully used in the interim:

Sofa tables make handy temporary work spaces if you don’t immediately need a printer. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

With portable laptops, a sofa table will work quite nicely as a temporary office to hold your laptop, phone and glasses. The sofa table makes it easier to establish a working spot in the middle of the usual family chaos. Make sure kids know not to touch what is on the table.

Sofa tables do not have enough room for everything listed plus a printer so this is a working space only. Helps to have a coffee table nearby for your other necessities including pens and a cup of tea.

I sometimes use this sofa table for online conference sessions. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you don’t have a sofa table, try a bed tray with legs. You can set these up at a chair or sofa corner to give yourself an even platform.

These are only good options if you are not setting up monitors and printers, these work well for portable laptops.

This bed tray has been an excellent portable home office. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

While you are shopping for a sofa table and bed tray, your dining room table will work quite well especially if you have a larger monitor.

Just make sure you have your basic office necessities close by. I use an old tray and ceramic vases to hold pens, pencils, paper clips and a small stapler.

Dining room tables can easily be set up for temporary work spaces. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Other Home Office Considerations

Some other things to consider as you set up your home office.

Get up and dressed for work; then go to your work area and appreciate that you don’t have a commute.
Discuss with family that when you are in your work area, you are only to be disturbed in an emergency. A friend has set up a little office area for her daughter so that both of them can “go to work” together.
If you are set up in an area with a door, walk out when you are done for the day and close the door or you may be tempted to go back in and work more.*
*This is an advantage, and the challenge, of working at home. It took me several weeks working at home to identify stopping points on projects so that I could in good conscience put off the project work until the next day. In other words, having the work at home can make it easier to just keep going but try for balance.
Set up your work hours and stick to them with colleagues. Realize you have some flexibility with your individual work hours but start first with the hours you are accustomed keeping. Then move to a flexible schedule as needed and appropriate.
Who Are You Going to Call

Discuss with co-workers how you will communicate:

Agree on how you will keep up to date on projects; end of day email summaries work well.

2. Collaborative platforms like Slack, Zoom, Free Conference Call and Google will work only as well as how comfortable the people are using them. Agree to try them out and then decide what works best for the whole group.

3. Keep your weekly meetings as much as possible; it will make the changes seem more normal.

Impact You Will Have on Pets

You know this will impact your family but it will also have an impact on your pets.

My two cats had an established routine when I worked away from home. Once I started working all day at home, it took them awhile to settle into a revised schedule, most of it of their own making.

One cat files herself away in a desk drawer whenever she gets the chance. The other cat periodically cruises by for some attention and lap time before heading for a nap in a chair. Frankly having pets close by is one of the biggest perks of working at home!

Charlotte