The home office setup – part I

So you’re either working from a home office or you’re thinking about it … or you’re just randomly reading this cus I tweeted it or something

I’ve now been working from a home office for a few years. Before this I tried to do part work from home / part working in the office and it worked fine. I actually ended up being a LOT more productive from home so long as you can make the distinction between home life and working life when working from home. Until now I’ve never had an actual proper home office setup there had always been something there.

I moved over with my wife to Madrid in August 2009, I had taken office space in February/March of last year when I finally decided hello I’m going mad can I have a p please bob. I found a like minded soul Jason Roe and we went looking at office spaces around the place. The time was RIPE for it. The recession was kicking in and people were thrilled to find there was some interest. (Honestly the amount of office spaces for rent I’ve seen I’m just surprised prices weren’t cheaper). In the end after having looked at various places and considered setting up our own co-working space we found a place. Nice location (very nice dead center of Dublin .. well Dublin 2 and right beside FF Headquarters). We moved into the office of Pix.ie and ended up sharing the space with them. There was another arrival Angel of Bohoe and then we were four. It seriously made such a change to my working live. Getting up / having a purpose / having a place to go / having an actual office where I could invite clients… completely AMAZING .. deciding to head for a pint or lunch the normal for most people but WOW. Then came the news in July that my wife Valérie-Anne had a new job in Madrid and we were going moving. I’d spent a long weekend there already and fell in love with the city … so my immediate response was …. O … K …. when do we move (I’ll revert to my previous time now … I’d worked from home in Galway … I worked from home in Dublin …) The common denominator in both places were … they were bedrooms. They included Beds / Wardrobes and honestly after 3 years … it really is about the feng shui of the place. I moved to Madrid and well I realised I couldn’t go on using the laptop / table tops and so on (sure the cat was happy out but I wasn’t being the most productive) Thus beings my trips to IKEA!!!

IKEA = The land of the home office. If you’re on a budget and you want something that looks the Shiny then IKEA is your stop. I ended up buying a desk. It went with the office chair in the apartment and hey presto I had a semi proper home office … but no. We’re still not there yet I had dismantled the bed and stored it away but the mattress being a thing of bulk was left there. Now this is where things boil down to the Feng Shui of the place … its just not right … its the office but its not. Fast Forward 4 months and my wife is laid off. A bit of an oh **** situation where one goes oh .. so … erm .. yeah … about that… do we move .. do we stay!

Well we’ve opted to stay she has gone into French Freelance Translation having worked 6 or 7 years now with various translation companies full time.

The last few weeks has seen us convert the spare bedroom / office into whats mostly a proper office.

1. Buy 2nd Desk – Check
2. Buy 2nd Chair – Check (and its a rather nice one pictures to follow)
3. Buy External Monitor – Check (before you use 2 or 3 monitors it seems like a nice to have once you use it … its a major time saver)
4. Buy Lamp – Check
5. Buy 3rd Chair – Well the original one I had was a hand me down left there that I never bothered to replace so now I’m setup in a rather shiny Karsten from IKEA very comfy and I’m a happy camper
6. Buy Printer / Scanner – Its annoying as I’ve multiples in Ireland but it had to be done and shipping and scanners = not good
7. Buy 3rd Counter Top for said printer / scanner

And hey presto we’ve got our office setup … two work spaces … lack of non work items …shelve units as well. Is it good for business?

The answer is incredibly … getting up now and going into the office is great its no longer getting up and going into the place I’m going to work from. It feels right. We’ve both got individual lighting. We’ve got our own chairs that we picked (probably one of the most important things) Valérie-Anne’s chair was around the 150 mark … her desk was around the 30 quid mark. I on the other hand went with the expensive desk and he cheaper chair at 70 quid.

All in all its a good feeling … having your own space / place to work from and I’d heartily recommend it if you can. Spend the day dismantling a room and putting together your office furniture. Get rid of the extra crud in your work space and enjoy your home office setup.

Get yourself something fun for the desktop a mascot a keepsake something that makes you smile. Get yourself a sound system if you want and are working alone. And if you’re in a home office get yourself a Pet (if you think you’ll be around a while) they are such a great stress relief.

So there you have it Part I of the home office setup.