Establishing Your Home Workspace

With more people working from home than ever before, it is vital to create a workspace that helps you to be productive, comfortable, and happy while you work. What’s more, it should be free from distractions (and ideally, free from too much noise).

There are a few simple tips to help you to establish your home workspace, which can transform the way you look at your remote working, and even help you to get more done on a daily basis. Rather than perching on the kitchen table for 40 hours a week, why not establish a proper home workspace?

Hiring a Designer

If you’ve got the money and you want some professional input, hiring a designer can be a great way to make the most of your space. Designers are likely to have done this before, they’ll know the best places to put your desk, and how to build a workspace around it that creates the right sort of environment for your job.

Designers will consult with you, so you can discuss what you need and any preferences, but they will do the legwork of creating a viable design. Designers or remodeling contractors may take the stresses away from you, and build a dream home workspace to the spec you want.

Creating an Environmentally-Friendly Workspace

You should consider the environment when you are looking to build your workspace. This might not seem like an easy thing to do. Luckily, a few considerations can make your workspace kinder to the environment.

Consider upcycling or using reclaimed materials. This makes a lot of sense for many reasons. It can give an amazing look to your design, especially if you want something that is based around wood. It also means you aren’t using more wood than is necessary.

Make sure electrical items are as environmentally-friendly as possible. This may be as simple as installing eco-friendly light bulbs. More on this later.

It is also a good idea to have a sensible paper system if you find that you often have to make notes or prints. Using recycled materials where possible is a great idea, plus you can include recycling bins in convenient spots in your workspace.

Renovating Your Workspace

The actual act of renovating will vary in difficulty. If you are looking to make wholesale changes, or even structural alterations, then you might need to get builders to offer their professional help.

For many people, renovating a workspace is something that a little bit of DIY can take care of. You may just be installing a new desk and lightbulbs, or you might be getting one of your rooms totally redesigned.

If you need something like a home office where people can visit, you might need to give a lot of consideration to the space beyond just where you will be working throughout the day. Alternatively, you can contact your local real estate agents to offer you shared office space for work. 

Switch Out Your Light Bulbs

Light bulbs can seem like a pretty trivial thing when it comes to your workspace, but they are a really important consideration. If you find you are often on Zoom calls or talking via other video platforms then you might even need to think about how well lit the area is.

Switching the light bulbs to energy efficient models is vital, it’s the right thing to do for the environment but LED lights can also be a great addition to your workspace. You can even use smart technology to control the lights, and set different brightness at different parts of the day. Did you know that a whiter light is likely to make you more productive whereas more of a tungsten shade will make you feel relaxed? It’s amazing what a difference a bulb can make.

Upgrade Your Desk Chair

It is amazing how many people are still working from home sitting on a dining room chair that was really only designed for 30 minutes of use every day. How can anyone be comfortable with 40 hours a week of that?

A good quality desk chair is not just about the comfort factor, though it obviously helps to feel comfy throughout your working day. If you have a poor-quality chair and spend a long time sitting in it then you could be more prone to back problems or other health issues.

A quality desk chair can cost a little bit more money, but you shouldn’t be using a chair that is going to cause issues in the long-term. Think of your chair as a health investment.

If you want to, you can even have some fun with your chair. Some chairs include speakers so that you can listen to music while you work, and others have massaging features to help keep your blood circulating while you work.

Do It Yourself or Hire a Contractor?

A contractor can be a way to save yourself a lot of time, but it might not be necessary. Before you make this decision, you need to consider a couple of things.

1. How drastic is the work? If you need structural changes or some drastic changes including emergency plumbing, then it might be a good idea to get a contractor. This is definitely a better option than not doing the work properly.
2. How handy are you when it comes to DIY? If you are the sort of person who struggles with flat pack DIY or making small repairs around the house, the idea of making big changes to your home workspace is probably quite daunting, and best left to the pros. 

Conclusion

Your home workspace may just be the corner of a room in your apartment. Alternatively, it might be as complex as a total renovation of your basement to create a home office, or a new structure such as an outbuilding that can be used as a home office for you and even colleagues if required.

Even some simple changes like new light bulbs or a better chair can make a big change to your working environment. Alternatively, you might want to totally build your new workspace from scratch.

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