{"id":12751,"date":"2020-03-27T15:16:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T19:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/?p=12751"},"modified":"2020-03-27T15:23:24","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T19:23:24","slug":"suddenly-home-three-work-with-what-youve-got","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/suddenly-home-three-work-with-what-youve-got\/","title":{"rendered":"Suddenly Home THREE: Work with what you’ve got"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suddenly Home THREE: Work with what you\u2019ve got <\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My husband and I love to reminisce about our scavenger hunts.<\/p>\n

Literally every time we move, we head to the streets in search of discarded tables or shelves to turn into makeshift office furniture.<\/p>\n

In the furnished spaces we\u2019ve rented \u2013which rarely had any kind of office \u00a0\u2013 my husband has always discovered ingenious ways to repurpose furniture without a trace. He once used scrap wood, cardboard and glue to turn the front drawer of an antique desk into a keyboard tray for me \u00a0(He restored it to its original state before we left).<\/p>\n

When you suddenly find yourself working in a new environment, you have to get a little creative. Work with what you\u2019ve got. And scavenge if you can.<\/p>\n

Workspaces don\u2019t need to be fancy to work well, but they ALL need the basics: a desk, a good chair, good lighting and some kind of shelf (though I have managed without this a couple of times).<\/p>\n

As I wrote in an earlier post, people probably think of kitchens and dining tables as natural places to work because they have tables. But the table doesn\u2019t make the office. If it\u2019s a really great table, put it somewhere else — somewhere you can concentrate.<\/p>\n

In a pinch, my husband and I have occasionally dragged good kitchen or dining tables into to other rooms to make workspaces, sometimes switching them out for smaller tables, or just eating on a kitchen island.<\/p>\n

If you think about how much more time you spend working than eating, you\u2019ll see why this makes sense.<\/p>\n

With isolation measures still in place, you\u2019ll probably have to go on scavenger hunts in your own house or apartment (or friends\u2019 or family members\u2019) to find office furniture. But you\u2019ll be amazed at the resources you will find. If I didn\u2019t have an office already set up, I would be looking at my kids\u2019 room for tables and shelves.<\/p>\n

The next fundamental is good light. It\u2019s something people often neglect. I can tell you, from having been stuck working with bad lighting, that it’s essential to good concentration (and avoiding headaches). Some natural light in an office is ideal, not least of all because it keeps spirits up. But even with \u00a0sunlight, you’ll need a good lamp. We have frequently stolen good lamps from other rooms in the house and set them up near our desk.<\/p>\n

Stop and think about how much more time you spend at your desk compared to reading in bed.<\/p>\n

The last essential element is a good chair. When I see pictures of people working at home on folding chairs, my back aches in sympathy. Bad office chairs catch up with people quickly. Even a cheap padded office chair is better than the glorified lawn chairs in some home offices.<\/p>\n

At the moment, office supplies stores still qualify as essential services here in Quebec, and that\u2019s probably true everywhere. So if you don\u2019t have a swivelling, padded chair, this might a good time to make a small investment in one. (You can get a basic one at Staples for $100.)<\/p>\n

You’ll need some kind of shelf or box system to keep things in order, and within reach. More on that in the next post\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suddenly Home THREE: Work with what you\u2019ve got \u00a0 My husband and I love to reminisce about our scavenger hunts. Literally every time we move, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12755,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12751\/revisions\/12755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}