Work from home essentials

Home office furniture can be viewed as something of a luxury when in the start up phase of a new business, and funds are limited. Alternatively, your role in the office may recently have changed, allowing more work from home for a limited period during the week. Either way, the temptation to save money through an ad hoc setup, rather than purchasing dedicated home office furniture from a supplier like Ryman can seem practical. Here we look at some of the considerations that challenge this assumption, as well as some of the oft overlooked basics about the placement of home office furniture.

A couple of decades ago, the kitchen table was the time honoured alternative to dedicated home office furniture. Since then, a computer has become essential kit for pretty much any enterprise, making the kitchen table an unsuitable ‘solution’, especially when the use of peripherals like a printer or scanner are regularly required. But how about using a laptop, and a wireless printer?

Well, laptops are of course designed to be portable, and can indeed be used in different locations around the home. Wi-Fi networks are widely available and affordable, and can allow you to keep devices like wireless printers tucked out the way in a corner while still within easy enough reach. While using a wireless printer can indeed be a good way to manage limited space when working at home, extended use of a laptop without taking proper precautions can be an easy way to develop neck and back pain.

This does not mean that you have to invest in a dedicated docking station. Simply raising the laptop by sticking a box underneath, so that the top of the screen is at eye level, and plugging in an inexpensive USB keyboard can go a long way to solving potential ergonomic problems.

For prolonged usage, a proper desk chair is other essential part of the mix. Provided that it is the right height, a normal table can fill the role of a dedicated office desk. There is plenty of freely available advice when it comes to setting up a workstation that promotes good posture and working position, and so there is no need to cover these instructions here. The bottom line is that musculoskeletal problems can take a while to surface, but are easy to develop over time, and can be very difficult to correct once established. With the investment of a few hundred pounds in home office furniture, these common but debilitating conditions can be avoided.

Beyond merely squeezing the furniture into the home, you should also consider issues like proximity to an opening window, to provide access to both natural light and fresh air. Situating your workspace near large radiators can also make things a bit uncomfortable, especially in winter. If you will be working with a lot of hard copies and other paperwork, make sure that you factor adequate storage into your home office plan. If space is limited, a simple stacked tray system can usually cope with the paperwork of the day, after which storage in a filing cabinet in another location is feasible.