If you work from home, do you have an office space?

[sanahoo]

I know it’s a luxury to have one but I do wish I had an office space of sort.

Bother is that we live in a 2 bed house with two rooms upstairs and two rooms down, and are reluctant now to upsize given interest rates and how expensive life is getting. We don’t have kids yet but hoping to try soon and so I don’t want to get too used to having the spare bedroom as my office if I will then have to uproot everything from there very soon

Currently I work from the kitchen table (for meetings) and the sofa the rest of the time, sometimes even outside if its sunny enough as we have lovely garden furniture. I feel unusual in this. I only work from home two days a week maximum and I’m in the office the rest of the time so don’t know if it’s a huge deal. What’s everyone elses set ups?

I don’t understand why desks are better to work from than tables, aren’t they roughly the same height?

Husband uses home office as he's wfh for years.

I use the dining room. It's now an office 95% of time.

Used to have a job where I travelled a lot and in between mainly WFH, the smallest room was my office with a day bed, with the second largest spare room as a guest room.
Now have DS and I WFH 2-3 days a month. He had the smallest room and the spare room also has a desk setup , my grandpa died and my gran stays with us regularly , the smaller room couldn't comfortably accommodate workspace and decent guest space.
Having said that I often sit on my bed, on the sofa, at the dining table for meetings, or in the garden when it's nice, frequently all of the above over the course of a day. DH very rarely WFH but when he does he always uses the office space.

I turned my spare room into an office, occasionally I think I should have a spare bed in there so if anyone comes to stay they have somewhere to sleep but I rather like having it as an office. I'm at home 4 days a week (sometimes 5) so that trumps my non-existent house guests.

Yes, I am fortunate to have turned the separate dining room of our house into an office space which I share with DH. I wfh a couple of days a week; he works out of the home but regularly needs to work evenings and weekends. The room is lined with bookshelves and we have a good desk set-up. I like being able to shut the door on work.

You are mad not to use the spare room that is just sitting there. Working at a kitchen table is an ergonomic disaster, for one thing. It could take you a year or more to conceive, then you will need a proper ergonomic working space while you are pregnant, and then the baby will be in with you for the first six months. You are potentially looking at over two years before you need the room for the baby.

I do have my own office, and it has also been used as the guest bedroom with a sofa bed but now my son has moved out his old box to is getting a Murphy bed with a built in desk allowing daughter a work space that isn't her bedroom and becomes the spare room.
My office is finally all mine!

I agree with others re VDU and DSE, if full time WFH it's so important to have a safe and comfortable work environment BUT the reality is, most people can't afford an extra room just as an office. There's already a divide between those who can and can't work from home I don't agree with making it even harder.

Many ergonomic chairs also look nice, so if it needs to go in a living space invest a little in a nice one that works in your space.
If you use a laptop, make sure you have a separate keyboard and mouse and raise your laptop up on a stand for the correct height £20 on Amazon)
Look at multi functional furniture, folding beds with desks.
Desks which fold out
Cabinets that open up to reveal a workspace

I don’t understand you not wanting to use the spare room whilst it is spare.

“I don’t want to get too used to having the spare bedroom as my office if I will then have to uproot everything from there very soon”

but you are “uprooting” yourself every day! Make it a comfortable space to work in. If you do get pregnant then you may find you need to consider a comfortable space to work even more. A baby doesn’t need its own room straight away anyway

No. I have my workshop that I sleep in.

Seriously just my bed in a room full of supplies, files and stock.

We came into a bit of money during covid and having a small house and big garden really went for it with a nearly 20 sq m garden room. We would never do it now, seems mad to think of it when the money could go on the mortgage but actually it's been great.

We've been able to think in terms of working for ourselves outside of our day jobs because we have the space and separation, and have what is basically an annexe that the kids will be able to pile into as smelly teens. No regrets - except at re-mortgaging time.

We are in the process of buying a house, neither of us likes wfh and luckily don't have to at the moment. The cost of buying somewhere with enough space for a dedicated office, a big enough garden or a box room would add 50k at least to the price!
I don't see it as a sustainable way of working it seems so inefficient. It saves businesses money though.

I work from our bedroom. Luckily it's big enough that I can get quite a big desk in there without it feeling over crowded or having it next to the bed etc.
DH works from the spare room, but he wfh full time (no option to go into the office) whereas I only wfh 2-3 days a week and could go in full time if I wanted.

DH share our office aka spare room. We each have our own desk, desk chair and monitor setup. Its worked for the past few years much to our mutual surprise!

The only problem is that the room has always been a bit cluttered as it's also used as a dumping ground 😖

We have corner desks for space.

We share the 3rd bedroom as an office. If we both have calls at the same time one of us will go downstairs so it’s not an issue. Do you have space in the garden for a garden office? It’s something we’ve considered for the future, but I don’t work full time presently so not desperately needed at the moment.

You're at least a year and a bit from any unborn child sleeping in its own room. Maybe 18 months.

Could you fit a cabinet and folding desk in your spare room and/or living room? So not a permanent workstation but something you can pack away at the end of the day?

We have a large office room, with various different spaces to break the room up.

No DC at home so we have two spare rooms which were used before we retired

DD and I live in a 2 bed flat, all the rooms are the same just different sizes - rectangles with radiators.

During lockdown I turned what should be the living room into my bedroom / office to leave the living space free for DD to use.

What was my bedroom makes for a cosy TV room which is all DD and I really need we are long passed the stage of having toys everywhere. I WFH full time now and dont love spending most of my time in my bedroom - I feel a bit like a teenager, but it works for us.

We don’t work from home but both work at home a lot in the evenings / weekends etc so for us an office was a must. In our last house it was combined with the spare bedroom, in our current house we have an extra room so it is just a study.

I would use your spare room at the moment as it seems a waste not to

The small garage in our house is converted and has a large corner desk with monitors along with the tumble dryer, chest freezer, ironing board, storage and clothes airers.

Before this we squeezed a small desk into the bedroom, didnt look great but I always do practical over asthetics.

Yes and it's wonderful but I was combining WFH and going into an office long before Covid.

Use the spare room. You will have at least 9 months notice and probably more of a need to move out.

I'm currently in a hybrid setup, but will be starting a fully remote role soon. As wfh is integral to my career, an office space is a must. I have an attic room that works fine, but the dream is a big enough garden for an office pod/shed

I worked at thd kitchen table for years.
Moved house last year and now have an office. Its been great foar my mental health and is easier to switch off in the evening.

I WFH all the time so I have a proper ergonomic desk chair and a desk / PC set up in the corner of our spare room. However I like the look of those built in desks people are doing in wardrobe spaces so have considered doing this in future as it would take up less space. I definitely need a separate space but there are also times when I sit at kitchen table with laptop for "a change of scene"!