Not everyone is lucky enough to have an extra room in their home to convert into a home office! However, if you work from home or if you regularly bring work home with you, you definitely need a special space at home for yourself. Your home office should, ideally, be someplace no one is going to bother you, where you can spend a few hours in solitude. If you can’t manage a separate room for yourself, you’ll just have to find some space in the other rooms around the house.
You don’t really need a large space to set up a home office, especially not if you work with a laptop. You want more than a corner of your home for a small desk that can hold your computer, a printer, a few drawers for your files, and a Wi-Fi router. If that’s not even possible, there are other ways for you to find some space for yourself and your work.
This article is about finding the right space for yourself to set up a miniature office in your home where you can have some privacy for your work.
- Assess what you need
The size and location of your home office will, of course, depend on what you need. Do you need a simple desk and chair for your computer, or a large desk for your blueprints and maps? Can you work on a countertop or a table, or would you need access to a lot of locked drawers? How many hours would you spend in the home office? Can you be comfortably perched on a stool, or would you prefer a large, comfortable chair? Do you have a lot of paperwork, or do you mainly work on your laptop?
These preferences are what’s going to determine whether you can be comfortable working anywhere in the house, or if you need a separate room for yourself.
- Find Extra Space in your Home
If you look closely, you can find a lot of excess space, if not a separate room, in your home. Modern work desks don’t take up a lot of space these days; if you work on your laptop, you won’t even need a lot of desk space, either. If you need access to printers and scanners for your work, they too can be stacked smartly, so that you won’t actually need a lot of space.
Every single unused corners and nook in your home can be perfect for a workstation or a desk if you don’t have a separate room to use. Any furniture that you don’t actually use but have kept for decoration can be turned into a desk or can be removed to another part of the house to make some space for a desk.
When you know what you want and where you want it, there are a few ways to build your home office without taking up too much space.
- Use the Extra Bedroom
If you live in a house instead of an apartment, you might have an extra bedroom that is simply too small for anything other than a bed. You can’t really use this bedroom as it is just too small, but you can certainly turn it into a home office.
If you live in a two-storied home in the suburb, the smallest bedroom of the house is also usually the one farthest from where the hustle and bustle of the home, i.e. the kitchen, the family room or the dining room. You can have total privacy and serenity in your home office when you need it, away from where the rest of your family is. Even if the bedroom is very small, it will be large enough for a desk and a chair, a few gadgets, a cabinet, and even a recliner or a futon.
- Convert the Garage
Most garages are built for two or more cars, as well as storing all your old furniture and Christmas decorations. If you clean up all the dirt and debris and move your storage units to another part of the house, you’ll probably end up with enough space for a small home office.
The most successful businesses in the world have started from the garages of the co-founders, because garages – if not the most comfortable room in your room, but it will be private and secluded. You may feel suffocated in your garage, but you’ll also have plenty of space for everything you’ll need for work.
- Put your Basement or Attic to Use
Our basements or attics are also two places we ignore or fill up with unnecessary junk in our homes. Both the attic and the basement are actually pretty large rooms that will not just give you the home office you need, but a place for your employees or your group – if you have any.
The basement and the attic – both places are large, offer a lot of storage space, but might not have a lot of natural light coming in. You can choose to install bigger windows for sunlight during the day or rely on multiple light sources around the room. LED lights are so bright these days you might not even miss the sunlight, and with a strong Wi-Fi connection, you will be able to do any kind of work in your basement/attic home office.
- Choose a Corner
Look around your living room, family room or bedroom; there might be some space around a corner that you can use. If you don’t need much except a desk for your laptop and a few drawers for your files, you can use any of the corners to create a miniature home office for yourself. It is also the least expensive way, which helps if you are a part-time worker, a start-up or just starting your own business.
Yes, you will not have a lot of privacy or solitude in a corner of your living room or family room, but you will have your own desk. You can simply use an unused wall to install a floating desk for your work and buy a modern, lightweight working chair. You won’t even need to buy one of those rather large, traditional work tables for your corner; as the laptops, printers, and scanners are getting smaller day by day, and businesses are opting for a paperless trail, you won’t need more than a small desk.
- Use your Dining Table
If you don’t even have an unused corner for your home office, there’s no reason to despair. Plenty of startups have used their dining table for work in their early days. You have a perfectly good table and a set of chairs in the middle of the house that doesn’t get used for more than 2 hours every day. Kids can use the dining table for their homework, so why can’t you use it for your work?
However, this is only possible if you work on a laptop instead of a personal computer and don’t need a lot of files with you at all times. If you do need a storage unit for your paperwork, you can get the ones that come with wheels at the bottom. With these storage units, you can take your files and other paperwork with you wherever you are working. In the bedroom, in the living room, or in the dining room.
- Double-use your Kitchen
If you have a rather large kitchen island in the middle of your open kitchen, you can use it for work when you are not cooking or preparing your meals. Kitchen islands come complete with bar stools, a counter for your laptop and even space for storing your files underneath.
The advantage of working at your kitchen counter is that you can work while you are cooking. A lot of stay-at-home parents prefer to use the kitchen counters, the kitchen island or the breakfast table for their part-time work because they can work while waiting for the cakes to rise and the soup to simmer.
- Make Use of your Balcony
If you only need a notebook or a laptop to work, the balcony can be quite a romantic place to do so. You can soak up some of your much-needed Vitamin D while working, or enjoy the wonderful view if you have one. Some experts say your brain works better when you are working outdoors in the fresh air, especially if you are the creative type. It might be hard to actually set up a home office in your balcony or terrace, but you could definitely use the space to work.
- Construct an Outside Structure
If you have a backyard or a front garden, you can invest a little to construct an outside structure, i.e. a tool shed, a workshop or an enclosed cabana in it. They don’t require a lot of hard work, money or space to be constructed, and you can even buy fully constructed ones to set up in your outdoor space. These sheds and workshops are often the perfect sizes to set up a very cozy home office; you can use the electricity connection from your home in your office or set up a different connection. With the right gadgets and internet connection, even your basic tool shed can become extremely modern.
It’s not easy to work from home, especially when you are a stay-at-home parent or if you have young children in the house. Having a home office that is private and secluded can help, but not everyone is lucky enough to have enough space for one in their home. What’s the most important in working from home is that you learn how to concentrate even when there’s havoc all around you, but it is also important that you know how you can find some space for a home office in your home without having to go to a lot of trouble.
