Are you using your home differently under lockdown?

[DeRigueurMortis]

Has anyone else found they've been using their homes differently under lockdown?

We're only a few days in but it's very noticeable here that we all seem to have laid claim to our own "zones".

DS has claimed the study, following which DH has converted the dining room into his home office (whilst also tinkering in the garage) whilst I've been retreating to the snug.

There seems to be a general agreement that the kitchen diner and the lounge remain communal spaces, but a tacit understanding that our claimed spaces are for each of us to get away from each other!

There's no issue, as a family we get on great but I think secretly we've all acknowledged that we are going to need a bit of "own time/space" from each other in the coming weeks to ensure that continues .

Anyone else experiencing this phenomenon?

Yes , ds has set up a desk in our bedroom to wfh - his is too small .
Younger ds is doing homework at the lounge/dining room table .
It’s annoying because I’d sometimes lie and read in my bedroom but it’s not forever and we just need to do what we can .

God, here we go with the stealth boast shit.

Please remember, no one is allowed to have a nice house with nice stuff on here.

We live in a small 2 bed flat. 2 adults and a teenager. Weirdly, we are spending more time together in the lounge. No major arguments yet, but still time.

I've had to move furniture in the living room to make a corner for my 'office' which is my tiny brimnes Ikea vanity table (www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/brimnes-dressing-table-white-70290459/) with my lap top, docking station, keyboard and monitor on it.

I've took all the makeup brushes out the drawer and filled it with pens and sweets though 😂 the lift up bit where the mirror is - totally full of crap but as you can't get to it who cares.

Luckily I have a good chair, it came home from work (with 2 others) when they refurbished- they are gorgeous and retro but comfortable and immaculate and I saved them from a skip fate.

I'm using the top of a set of drawers as my vanity in the meantime.

Repurposing 😊

I’m using the kitchen table to work at. We do have a spare room, which DP uses as a bit of a “man cave”. The desk in there is probably better, plus a proper chair, but I quite like being in the kitchen with the radio on. At the end of the working day I put my laptop away to try and create a bit of space from it.

Yes repurposing and rearranging here. New desk on the landing as rooms all already used and full. Also had to get shelving for school stuff as 2 x secondary homeschooling now.

I am so, so glad we just finished splitting the kids into their own bedrooms during last half term. They are 8 and 10. We were using the third bedroom as a playroom, but it works so much better with them having their own space.

I think our garden is going to get a lot more love and attention from my husband than it does in an average year.

I think our garden is going to get a lot more love and attention from my husband than it does in an average year.

I was hoping this also but I'm not holding my breath .

Green thumbs...DH doesn't even have a green fingernail

Oh I love that dressing table craving - I could do with something like that!

We certainly are, I’m not very well so I’ve been banished in the bedroom for 3 days, DH has got a makeshift camp in the living room where he’s sleeping & Dd has turned the dining room into online school
At dinner time I sit on the stairs shouting instructions for how to cook things to DH in the kitchen.
Anyone watching would think we were a right bunch of weirdos

I am actually. I have a study where I generally work if working from home, but now I am working here all the time I have decamped to the dining table in my front room. This allows me to look out of the front of my house and see the occasional person, so I feel a bit more connected.

Not really

Dh in the conservatory as he needs a table

Dd in the playroom (dining room in a normal house)

Me in the living room

Ds2 in his bedroom

The only change is dh working from home all the time whereas he usually only does it once in a blue moon

I've repurposed the playroom as a home-school room it was an absolute shambles before, now it's all organised and tidy.

We've got a chalkboard wall and I've finally hung up the whiteboard.
I've got DDs table set up with all the stuff she needs (pencils, pens, crayons, chalk...) and we sit in there most of the time.

I sorted out the storage unit in there and the bins are all organised and labelled.

Hung up the wanky 1-100, alphabet, animal posters.

Organised folders with worksheets by subject

This is a unstealthy stealth boast - I am very proud of myself (despite the wankiness of it)
It means DD is quite happy to do her work and play in there too, instead of it just being where toys lived.

The rest of the house is the same as always though; even though the kitchen feels like a restaurant going by the amount of time I spend in there

nellodee

We dug all our grass up to returf

Obviously no turf being delivered now

It looks like a prison yard

Which feels apt

I'm all on my own (widowed) in a one bedroomed flat. I was contemplating packing an overnight bag and having a couple of nights on the sofabed in the living room as a little holiday instead of the one in Bali I should have been on!

Well the DDs have built a den under the dining table and have been sleeping in it since Saturday.

The dining table is constantly changing from craft to school work to food, while having a den underneath.

The living room is either DHs office, or being used for streaming on the TV... When DH has to move to the garden for phone conferences.

The kitchen is used for cooking.

The garden is used pretty much constantly.

Upstairs is rather neglected!

The garden has archery style targets everywhere which we use for knife throwing practice - fun and potentially helpful new skill.

I know how you feel op...dh is in the pool house, dd has claimed the cinema room, ddog has set up a swingers club in the master bedroom and I’m slumming it in the west wing living room. Utter hell!

Oh yes us too. DH in the lounge, me in the study where I normally spend no time, DS in the play room and DD in her bedroom. We just automatically each go to those spaces now. Mine has the worst WiFi but the best view.

And for lunch and dinner we all meet in the dining room to share space for a bit.

I know how you feel op...dh is in the pool house, dd has claimed the cinema room, ddog has set up a swingers club in the master bedroom and I’m slumming it in the west wing living room. Utter hell!

🤣🤣🤣🤣

@Fieldofgreycorn Oh that made me laugh.

I have one friend (my nickname for them is Hyacinth) who genuinely calls their conservatory the orangery despite there not being a citrus tree in sight. Her other half calls it the lean-to. They also have a dressing room. It makes me laugh and laugh. Other than that it's your standard 4-bed new-build box house.

We, on the other hand, are snuggled in a tiny little flat without enough room to swing either of the cats (not that we ever would, though we have had THE CONVERSATION with them about possibly having to go out and catch their own food shortly. Might have to remove that ultrasonic rodent repellent from the shed for the duration. Plus the golf course is over the road, literally, and there's LOTS of rabbits there. I don't think the police are stopping cats yet, are they?)

We do, thank God, live close to a reasonably nice part of town with okay walks and have a bit of garden. And we are both used to working from home already. Hasn't stopped us having lots of snippy conversations in the last 3 days though!!

I normally can't get the DC out of their bedrooms. Or to even speak to each other. Now they are downstairs and together all the time, working, chatting and giggling.

Whilst I am very grateful for the positive change, I had a bath at 6pm and sent them to bed at 8pm just to be alone in silence 🤣

Half the main bedroom has now been taken over by gym equipment! 😁