Making Your Dining Room the Perfect Home Office

At one point, working from home was the dream job of millions, but it’s now a regular office location. Small businesses and major corporations alike have off-site employees. 

If you’re one of them, you may have found yourself unexpectedly working from the dining room. 

Whether it’s a temporary thing or your permanent job location, it’s going to take some work to make it convenient.

You need to keep the cat from jumping on your new desk and everyone else’s junk getting in your way. 

These nine tips will help you turn this work-from-home gig into your dream job once again!

1. Find a Place to Put Your Desk

You need a surface that is your space. You can’t work from the couch regularly, and you can’t take over the dining room table.

Even if you can go out and buy the perfect desk, where will you put it? Space is probably limited, so you’re going to have to get creative with your makeshift office area.

You can always repurpose an unused dresser or table to be your desk if it’s the right height. In the meantime, watch the local classified ad listings for a better, more ergonomically friendly desk. 

Student desks are usually inexpensive and will serve your purpose, at least temporarily. Just remember: whatever you choose to use, it needs to be out of the way. 

Here are a few possible places:

• Move your couch to the middle of the room and set up the desk tucked behind it. 
• Push everything out of the corner and use the space as your office nook.
• Slide the desk flush with the couch.
• Set your desk up in front of bookshelves that are already there. Swap out the stuff on the shelves and use them for your office supplies.

Whichever layout you prefer, make sure it’s free from most distractions and not in the way of heavy foot traffic.

2. Set Up Your Equipment

You know you’re going to need office accessories to get organized. 

Until you set your equipment up, though, you don’t know how much space you have and where it’ll be.

The wireless router should be nearby, so you have the fastest WiFi. It doesn’t have to be right at your desk, but it should be close.

Your computer, printer, and other equipment take the main places. You can set up everything else around those items.

3. Nab Your Office Supplies

Before you go out and buy any office supplies, ask your company’s office manager first. They may load you up on the essentials, including organizers.

As you work, you’ll learn the things you could use but don’t have. Make a list of those and email a request. Even if they don’t supply them for you, they might give you a budget to get them yourself.

Necessary supplies, depending on the job, may include things like:

• Writing utensils
• Copy paper
• Post-it notes
• Paper clips
• Stapler/staples

You shouldn’t have to pay for things that your office would typically provide. 

Once you have your supplies, organize them, so they are accessible but not too visible. The least amount of clutter on your desk, the better!

4. Fix the Lighting

If you enjoy working in the dark, it’s tempting to dim the lights and do your thing. But, as with working from your couch or bed, you should avoid this behavior for your health.

Working on the computer in the dark strains your eyes unnecessarily. And over time, it can cause real damage. 

Eye strain is a condition that happens when the muscles in your eyes get fatigued. Overusing the muscles results in headaches, pressure behind the eye area, and dry, scratchy eyes.

When the lighting in the room is dark, it contrasts with the brightness of the computer screen. This forces your eye muscles to work harder to focus. Using a well-lit room evens out the contrast and reduces the strain.

Try to keep your lighting sources even. Reduce your computer screen’s brightness and work in a well-lit room that’s not glaring.

5. Add Unused Furniture for More Space

If the desk isn’t big enough to hold your stuff and let you work comfortably, repurpose some side pieces.

Printers and organizers are usually the main things that get in the way of a clean workspace. These don’t have to be on your desk. 

Find a small nightstand, a file cabinet, or even a coffee table. Bookshelves are perfect because they automatically have extra storage space. 

Dig out a surge protector and stretch the cords until everything fits right where you need it to be.

6. Use Hidden Storage

If you’re used to working in a decent-sized office, one of the biggest challenges you’ll have is finding storage.

Drawers with organizers are going to be your best friend. There are ways you can add some hidden storage and maximize the small space you have.

You can grab plastic rolling organizers quickly and then slide them out of the way when you don’t need them. Stable desktop organizers handily stay out of sight underneath a printer. These are wide enough to hold copy paper and any of your stationery.

Try to avoid starting a ‘junk drawer.’ Although your storage is out of sight, it should still be tidy, so everything is at your fingertips.

7. Keep Everything Neat

One of the main rules of working from home is that you can’t mix personal and business. If you live with others, though, this is a hard line to draw in the sand.

Set up boundaries, even if it means creating a faux wall.  

A room divider can be the signal that you’re working and are not to be disturbed. However, you’ll have to be the one to enforce this if you have little ones (or adults) who ignore the signs.

Avoid bringing your personal life into your workspace. Don’t pay your bills during work time. 

If you eat lunch at your desk, clean it up right away. Treat the area as though it is in an actual office at a business, and teach your family to do the same thing.

8. Stay Neutral With Your Decor

It’s your personal space. You might want to load up on your knickknacks and photos, but too much clutter is distracting. 

It’s also not always professional if you have a video conference and your personal life is clearly displayed.

It is possible to decorate the area so it’s pleasing to your senses. Try to use neutral colors and limit your personal touches. 

Buy fragrance wall plug-ins or melts to give the space an enjoyable scent. 

Instead of loading up on pictures, invest in a digital photo frame. You’ll enjoy hundreds of memories as they float by on the screen, and it’s easy to tuck the frame out of sight if you have a video call.

9. Maximize the Wall Space

Are there empty walls in front or behind your work area? 

If so, that’s a waste of perfectly valuable workspace. How can you use them to their optimal effect? 

Extra shelves come in handy, but rental homes don’t always allow tenants to hang heavy items on the wall. 

If you need more surface area to work and organize, a corkboard or dry-erase board is lightweight enough to use non-damaging adhesives. 

Magnets and tacks hold all the papers you want to put on display, memos, and your to-do tasks.

As a last resort for walls that don’t hold a lightweight board, use a self-adhesive dry-erase sheet. These pull off the backing and adhere straight to the wall surface. 

You can’t tack or magnet things to them, but you can write memos on there.

Conclusion

You’re living the dream, working from home! But with an office in your dining room, you might not be feeling excited about your new workspace. 

These tips will turn your disorganized chaos into a makeshift and productive office area.

Author bio:

Caitlin Sinclair is the Business Manager at Riata Apartments. With over 5 years of property management experience, she begins and ends each day loving what she does. She finds joy in helping current and future residents and makes Riata a place everyone loves to call home.