Working From Home

While a lot of people are beginning to go back to the office post-COVID, a lot of workplaces have decided to continue to embrace the work from home (WFH) option for their employees.

If you’re one of those people, here are some handy ways to reduce the cost associated with WFH, as well as some helpful tips on what to include in your new home if you’re looking to build.

A Designated Working Space

Setting up your home office is easy if you have an unused room you can use, or have built with Mr. Enthusiast and designed a dedicated work space in your now home.

But if not, don’t stress. Think creatively about where you could set up your new office. While setting up at the kitchen table is an option, having to pack down for dinner can be a bit of a hassle if you’re doing it every day.

So why not look at those forgotten corners of the room? You know the ones — those lonely unused spaces where there’s plenty of space if you get innovative and think outside of the box.

Separate Work and Life

Once you’ve found your perfect space, what’s next? Here are two ideas to make the space separate from your home/living space, depending on your situation:

If you have a room to use for your office, keep your work there. Don’t bring it out to the rest of the home. Remember, home is home and work is work.
But if you do have to use a corner somewhere to set up, try putting up a privacy screen or divider. Something as simple as a rod curtain can create the illusion of ‘shutting the door’ and heading to work.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

If you’re home alone and working in the one room, before you start working have a quick look around the house to make sure you haven’t left any lights or aircons on in the rooms you’re not using.

Leaving lights on when you’re not in the room can really start to add up cost wise if you do that regularly. Check out Energy Saver for examples of different lights and the running costs associated with them to see how much you could save.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to build your new home with an office in mind, here are some things to think about incorporating in the space.

Lighting

It’s easy to underestimate the impact your environment has on your work — and lighting is something that can easy be forgotten about. Illuminating your workspace so you can see things properly on your desk without straining can be achieved by installing additional ceiling lights (like downlights) over your desk.

Make sure that wherever you plan to have your desk you look out for indirect lighting such as windows reflecting off your monitor. You can diffuse this light with see through curtains so you still get that natural light in, but don’t get the glare.

Wi-Fi/Internet

If your computer has an option to use a cable for internet rather than Wi-Fi, think about adding a second network point to your plans in the office. This will help limit internet drop outs that can happen if you’re only using Wi-Fi.

On this point too, make sure you have plenty of power points on the plan for the office too. These can all be added at pre-start and usually only have a small cost associated with them. However, it’s much cheaper to add them when you’re building rather than adding them later on.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to the fit out and interior design of your new office space, Business Australia had a great article you can read here about how to set up your home office like a pro. For tips and tricks for decorating, Krista Collard, the Founder and Principal Designer of Krista Collard Interiors, has some amazing ideas and examples that can be found over on her website.

We hope this has given you some ideas on how to approach the setup or design of your new home office and like with every Mr. Enthusiast plan, we can adapt and modify the design of your new home to incorporate your needs.

Get in touch with the team today.