When I started my current job, it was the very beginning of the pandemic. I had the equipment (external monitor specifically) to make working from home not entirely terrible but I didn't have a great workspace. My apartment is small and railroad style. My workspace is between the living areas and the kitchen and bathroom so Duck (my husband) would be walking through my space constantly. I had a long table set up facing one wall but every time he would walk through I would get distracted. Or, worse, my back was to the kitchen so I was constantly looking over my shoulder when he was in there making himself lunch. At the end of 2020, there was a moment of sheer panic when I was on a late client call and he walked through the space wearing nothing but a towel after a shower. Thank goodness I hadn't been on video at the time!!
That was the moment I decided to spend my holiday break rearranging my office. I purchased a collapsible table and a bookcase from Ikea in the hopes of allowing myself a combination of office space and an open room when I was not working. It totally changed the room and allowed me to put my back to the wall while working. No more nearly naked husband moments to make my anxiety fly through the roof!
I've been living with the current set up for a year and I am feeling so boxed in. I need a longer but narrower desk. The bookcase next to me a constant source of frustration as I bang my elbow into it. Overall, it's just a mess! While it solved a huge problem of my distractibility and other work-from-home disaster potential, I am not as functional as I could be and I really miss being able to sprawl out my work. So now it's time to do it all again. I had hoped the return to the office and cubicle redesign would alleviate my frustration as I would be using a muck larger workspace most of the time. Now that the return is delayed, however, I think it's time to start improving the home office again. So - stay tuned! Time to make the home office as awesome as the cubicle is shaping up to be!