3 tips for working from home when you don’t have an office
Working from home is an amazing thing for me. As a Mum of three, it means that I’m at home when the children need me, it’s me who drops them off and picks them up from school, and we don’t need to fork out for childcare for all of them. Let’s face it, childcare for three children wouldn’t come cheap.
One of the main issues we have here is that I don’t have an office at home. The five of us live in a three-bedroom house with just a living room and kitchen/diner downstairs. We hope to move somewhere bigger in a couple of years, but for now we’re living and working in a confined space. Don’t get me wrong, we’re very lucky with where we live, it’s just not ideal with me working from home.
In an ideal world, all three of the children would have their own bedroom, and I would also have an office space. I would love to be able to lock myself in an office all day and then shut the door on it at night when the kids are home. That is my ideal and one of my long-term goals.
For now though, I alternate between working downstairs on the dining table and working on my desk in our bedroom upstairs. It’s not perfect, but it’s a compromise that works for us for now.
So, if you don’t have an office space but you work from home, what can you do to make things run smoothly?
3 tips for working from home when you don’t have an office
As well as running my own business and having various side hustles, I’m employed in a job that allows me to work from home too, so I’ve got to know a few things over the years that have helped me to make it work.
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1.Make sure you have a clear space to work.
Even if you don’t have room for an actual desk, make sure that you do have somewhere that’s free of clutter where you can work regularly. This might mean using your laptop on the dining table and then putting it away again at night. If that’s the only space that you have, then make sure that it works for you.
2. Make your furniture work for you.
If you do have a small space that you could use to work, then finding furniture that fits could turn that little space into your office.
If you have a corner space, for example, then you could find a small, corner desk and turn that corner into your workspace. A quick hunt online led me to some great corner desks on LionsHome at really competitive prices!
3. Make it clear that you’re working.
One of the biggest issues I had when I first started working from home is that because I was at home people thought I was free to do their chores. Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you can quickly do some housework, or nip to the supermarket. Of course, you can fit these things into your day, but you need to have clear, structured work time.
I now have set hours from Monday to Friday when I am working. I treat those hours in the same way as I would if I was working in an office and it’s made a big difference to my productivity.
All in all, working from home can be great when you’re juggling family and work life. With just a few simple things in place, it’s not difficult to make it work for you.
*This is a collaborative post.
