Aibu to ask - if you permanent work from home - where is your office

[Officewhere]

So- I have my own business and work from home. I currently work from my (admittedly very large) lounge. Have a desk which overlooks the garden etc.

Am about to move to a new home, and chances are I’ll end up using a bedroom as an office which I’ve never fancied. I’d previously worked at the kitchen table but not fancying going back to that,

Aibu to ask - if you have a home office - where is it and how do you find it?

In the dining room. Our house is an older cottage and it's a small space. The kitchen however is large, so we decided that we'd eat in the kitchen at a big table and I'd have the dining room.

Trouble is I do get interrupted by the kids. I can hear too much of what's going on in the house too.

My idea would be a caravan at the bottom of the garden.

I had a garden room built. Insulated, with power, and 10 ft from the back door.

I find it every morning after a strong coffee. It also stores all my books, seeds, a treadmill and my bike.

Small front bedroom. It is set up as an office with Studybed so we can still use it as a bedroom when required. We have a monitor, separate keyboard, office chair, footstool: just like you would have in a real office.

A so tempted to post the Rightmove listing and ask where you’d put it

A caravan is a bloody lovely idea

Small back bedroom. I used to be in there years ago, then when I had DC2 I had to move my desk into the dining room as the bedroom became her bedroom. I worked in the dining room for about 2.5 years but found it quite distracting (and cold). Was difficult in school hols if dh was off with the kids as he felt they had to be out of the house all day otherwise kids would be running into me etc. Eventually I decided to move DC2 into a larger spare bedroom and claim back my office and I am so glad I did as I work so much better up here. I can shit myself and don’t get distracted by house stuff

Obviously I meant shut myself off and not shit myself!! 🙄 predictive fail...

I think it’s definitely beneficial to have a separate working room if you can. A lot of people who work from home can find it tricky to separate home and work when they’re both in the same location, but with an office the boundaries of home/work are clearly separate. When you’re in the office you’re working, but then when you’re in other parts of the house you haven’t got that work ‘mode’ on.

I used a bedroom for a while, but it was too close to the normal noises of the house and gave me no division between work and home.
Then I had a garden office but the noise from the neighbours (mostly building noise and barking dogs) was constant. I used to work in it in the evenings and feel frightened coming up the garden (big, lots of trees) in the black. It was a horrible time.
So I had an extension built on the front of my house and now have a quiet and lovely office away from all the bother of the main house.

Ok so quite a few from a bedroom! Because I’ve never worked out of one I’ve been a bit cautious. Have been worried I’d feel a bit “locked in” but sounds like it works.

I can’t build anything as we rent now

I love my office. We converted the integral garage so it's big (although pitifully small as a garage) and it's used by the whole family. And we have less clutter as a result of having no garage to store it in. Win win

My house has a purpose-built study, because it’s designed for someone who works from home. It’s on the ground floor next to the front door, so I can see people coming up the drive.

I have an office in the main, old part of the house. My husband has a shepherds hut for when he works from home.

@joyfullittlehippo that’s a bit like my current set up bit with my living room. I think I’m a bit apprehensive as moving from a huge flat to a smallish house

Dedicated office - it used to be the box bedroom but we had to use part of it to extend the landing to get to the new bedrooms when we built an extension on the side.

What was left wasn't big enough for a bedroom so it now houses desk, printer, 2 book cases, shredder and pet tortoise

Smallest bedroom. It's too small for much else really (surprised previous people got planning for it to be honest) but I love it. Perfect little room with all my files, stationery, etc. Our previous house had fewer rooms (and was smaller overall) so we always had to juggle and repurpose space as they day or week required. This room is great. And DC are at nursery while I work so don't get interrupted.

@CherryPavlova what on earth is shepherds hut?

I have a desk in my living room. My living room is large and I can’t see my desk when sitting on my sofa in the evening so it feels separate.

Although it is a pain in the school holidays when the kids are in the house. If I have calls or meetings I tend to take myself off to another room, but during term time there’s no issues.

I move around a lot, I find I'm not very productive if I'm tied to a desk. It reminds me too much of an office. I sit on the lounge floor and work at the coffee table or stand at the kitchen bar. Keeps me warm too.

@Glitteryone that’s basically my current set up.., am worried I’ll feel cooped up in a bedroom. But am starting to think it may be good for me. At the moment I get up, make coffee and literally switch on my computer

Both DP and I do one or two days a week from home and we usually just work at the kitchen table. It’s the nicest room in our house which is only half done-up.

We do intend to get a proper desk with a monitor etc when we do up our third bedroom though and have a little office area. Although I suspect DP will still just use the kitchen.

I have the smallest bedroom set up as my office. Though I’ve also been known to work from bed

My house has a purpose-built study, because it’s designed for someone who works from home. It’s on the ground floor next to the front door, so I can see people coming up the drive.

I also have this set-up, but I had allowed work to spill over into kitchen and living room, which wasn’t good as it made it so much harder to separate work life and home life.