Condo home offices have become an essential part of your home structure as the world transitions into digital operations in light of the pandemic. But a functional space shouldn’t have to look plain and square.
Working from home has its own cons that come with the perks, especially if you’re living in a condo. Work-from-home burnout is real – even rising in incidence as the virus continues to spread in the country. Managing however you can is the key to promoting and maintaining productivity and well-being.
One way of managing it, as suggested by experts, is optimizing and beautifying your condo home office. Apart from the basic functional tools, you’ll also want to add a few stylish and trendy pieces to make it as conducive for work.
Here are a few ideas to spruce up your office and make it conducive for establishing your career in the comfort of your own home.
1. Trusty and robust desktop or laptop
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This is a no-brainer. A desktop or a laptop should be the first thing present in your condo office as it allows you to utilize software for office tasks and for communicating with your officemates and clients via Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet.
2. An elevated laptop or monitor stand
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One work-from-home accessory you need to consider buying is a laptop stand. After long hours of working and facing the laptop, your neck might hurt which is not good for your health and posture.
Take office ergonomics principles at home so that your work posture is optimal to avoid developing chronic neck or back pain. Laptop stands are a good way to help fix your office ergonomics as it lifts your screen so your neck is neither craned too low nor high. Use it to lift your screen at eye level and position it at least 2 feet away from your eyes.
If you have the extra cash, you can invest in stands that are adjustable so that it adjusts to the perfect height for a standing desk. On that note: Remember to take quick breaks to stand and pace at least every hour to promote blood flow throughout your body.
3. Good desk lamp lighting
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Good lighting is very important when you have a work-from-home setup. It will also give you an instant filter on your camera while having a video conference, and it is also good for your eyesight.
Find a sturdy desk lamp that works well even after being used for a few hours every day. It’s also good to find a desk lamp that matches the motif of your home office. Be it clean white, rustic, all-black, or Hawaiian-inspired, you can always match your office accessories for aesthetic purposes.
4. Noise-canceling headphones with a good mic
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If you’re living with your family or friends, perhaps some of them are also working from home. This means that they also need their own working space for their own call meetings or video conferences.
Invest in good headphones with excellent sound quality and superior comfort that are perfect for your everyday needs. There are stylish headphones in the market that will fit your style. A quality pair of headphones is also beneficial when attending or hosting virtual meetings. You can hear the participants better and communicate better.
5. Top-quality printer and scanner
Setting up your own condo home office means that you need to print a lot of documents. After all, despite a digital transition, many processes and formal agreements still need to have hard copies.
As such, you will need a reliable and quality printer to fulfill all your printing needs and while you’re at it, maybe have a scanner in as well.
A good and quality printer can cut your expenses on printing needs like calling cards, brochures, and informative leaflets. While a scanner can clearly scan files or documents you need to send or attach via email. This efficiency is essential to your self-sustaining condo office.
6. A handy telephone or mobile phone
These days, with mobile phones and internet calls, a landline can be a redundancy you can consider taking out of your condo home office.
However, if you have your own business, you’ll need a landline to make and take calls from various stakeholders like suppliers, customers, and others. The added option of the landline helps them reach you better, on top of being able to call you on mobile.
The telephone is still your most important and reliable connection to whatever or whoever is beyond your condo home office. Set up an exclusive number through which you and your office can be reached by anyone.
7. Strong and reliable internet connection
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Since a huge deal of freelancing relies on online communication, it is definitely essential for your condo office to have a stable and quality internet connection. You don’t want the erratic and unstable kind which limits your connectivity or drops it completely in sporadic instances. Since your office will greatly rely on an internet connection, better ensure that it is top class.
But if you’re still having connection problems, here are a few easy tips to boost your internet connection at home.
8. An ergonomic chair to comfortably in
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You need the most comfortable and ergonomic chair for your condo home office. Working involves a huge deal of typing jobs and tasks. As such, a lot of these tasks are done while sitting down.
Although sitting down may be viewed as an easy and comfortable situation to be in the whole day, experts actually say that it is bad for your health (and your spine, particularly). Get an ergonomically designed chair that supports you and provides ease, comfort, and stability at the same time.
9. Big and sturdy corkboards for reminders
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What you need in your condo office is a place where you can pin all reminders of impending tasks. It needs to be big so it is visible and can accommodate a lot of reminders.
A large hanging cork board will certainly do the job as it will serve as a glaring reminder of all the things you need to do. With this kind of reminder, you can never miss out on a deadline.
10. A strong and secure safe for important files
You need a place for your valuables in your condo office. A safe can store important and confidential documents that are necessary for your work or office.
You can also store valuables like money, jewelry, and other sensitive or confidential files or information you don’t want to lose or just have it hanging around your condo home.
11. A sleek yet functional file cabinet for organization
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Setting up your home office may mean a collection of paperwork flooding the spaces of your condo.
For organization and systematic arrangement of these papers, your condo office will require a file cabinet. In this file cabinet, you can organize everything and arrange them in a specific way that is most conducive to you and your office.
12. A trusty trash can to keep everything clean
A trash can’s worth to your condo home office is sometimes underrated. Actually, if you consider the kind of trash you will be producing daily in your condo office, you will see that a trash can is definitely a key home office essential. Buy something solely for your home office so it’s easier to segregate the trash.
With the work-from-home set up looking like a permanent situation for you and other employees, optimizing your condo home office is a must. In designing and styling it, make sure that you choose pieces that not only help you perform your tasks properly but also provide comfort so you can be efficient.
For more tips on how to dress up your condo for the work-from-home setup, visit the DMCI Communities blog!
