Remote work, or working from home, is here to stay for many of us. That means that we all need a home office, or at least a corner where we can catch up on vital tasks. Welcome to Part 2 of our ultimate home office setup guide.
Firstly, if you haven’t read Part 1, go do that. You’re back? Great.
Let’s kick on.
Wi-Fi Router
OK, “I’ve got one,” I hear you cry. But does it reach the home office? Are you getting the best possible service? There’s nothing more soul-destroying than wasting time downloading files when you could be cracking on, so consider investing in a decent router. If the router’s OK, you might look into signal extenders or boosters to make sure you’re getting all the bars you need.
Desk Lamp
We’re not a fan of late nights while working from home, but they happen. Invest in a decent desk lamp. You can go for an “angle-poise” style piece for a little charm, one those fancy ones with a built-in phone charger or USB port, or a more modern affair that clips onto your monitor. The choice is all yours, but you’ll need one.
The Complete Home Office, Alvin Rosenbaum, 1995 pic.twitter.com/gSkKs2DkIP
— vintage.stuff (@vintagestuff4) April 18, 2024
Pretty accurate, but I'd possibly be in my PJs.
Printer
I hate printers, they never work for me. They don’t connect, they jam, they’re just a pain. Hopefully you’re almost paper-free, but we’d advise getting a simple, wired printer that can sit close enough, but out of the way, only turned on when you absolutely need it.
Headphone Stand
Absolutely optional, but a decent headphone stand will lift your headphones off the desk, allowing you to reclaim a little real estate. Many of them also come with built-in phone chargers, too. Alternatively, keep your headphones in the draw and save a little money.
Cable Organizers
Get some. Mouse cables. Phone cables. Webcam cables. Cables, cables, cables. You can get little Velcro wraps, or ones that stick on the backside of your desk, or weighted ones to make sure nothing moves, or even entire trays that stick on the underside of your desk. Visualize your desk, decide where your cables need to be and get organizing. They're also known as "cable tidies" for when you're Googling. Less visual clutter = better mental clarity.
🌸home office pic.twitter.com/IUgx8ItSi7
— Elle Lookbook (@EvaLovesDesign) April 22, 2024
She'd better have really good cable management.
Bluetooth Adapter?
If you don’t have wireless on your PC, you can easily buy a Bluetooth adapter that’ll plug into a USB port to allow you to use wireless devices like mice, headphones and keyboards. Just think, fewer cables, fewer cable organizers.
A Quality Coaster with a Lip
Get one. They’ll stop your “World’s Best Dad” mug from sliding around or your Nescafe getting spilt.
A White Board?
Consider getting a small whiteboard. Use it as a to-do list or a brainstorming aid. They’re surprisingly useful. Just make sure it has a little pen shelf or pen clips on the side. And for your sake, get the correct pens before you ruin it.
A Glass Mat
OK, this one is entirely “extra” as the cool kids say. If you’ve got a rolling chair, a glass mat will help you roll around to your heart’s content while being see-through so you can see your beautiful floor or mat underneath. But, there’s a benefit for everyone, and it’s a bit weird. Glass mats stay quite cool throughout the day, and they remain cold when cooled by, say, air conditioning. Essentially, a glass mat is your own little refrigeration device. Glass mats – Useful, if situational.
Do you have a spare room?
— Designing with Tega (@interiorwittega) April 17, 2024
Why not make it your home office? pic.twitter.com/4vbItwn1NR
Now, that space could do with a glass mat.
Desk Toys
Newton’s Cradle? Magnetic balls? You know what we’re talking about. Desk toys are a fun way of distracting yourself from what can very often be quite a lonely experience. Consider a steel tumbler or a gyroscope. Whatever it is, it’s just there to keep you entertained during your break, or while that uncompressed presentation is downloading on your super-slow Wi-Fi that’s punishing you because you haven’t sorted out your router (yet).
And there you have it. That’s our ultimate home office guide for 2024 done and dusted. We hope that it’s given you some ideas and that working from home might just be a little more enjoyable going forward.
You won’t need everything, but we’re betting that you never knew how cable organized you could be until you discovered under-desk cable management and those little sticky things that hang on the back of your desk…
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