Rethinking Office Space
One of the best parts of moving is the fact that I get to reinvent my office space. For the last several years, I’ve lived in a one-bedroom apartment where my “office” is about a third of the bedroom. That has its benefits (like rolling out of bed and right into work) and its drawbacks (like struggling to separate a place for downtime from my work mentality). In my new place I’ll have a separate office, and that means I have greater flexibility.
I’m excited as I plan my new office space. I’ll have a simple standing work space when I need to get away from my regular desk. And I’ll have a big comfortable chair in there for when I want to curl up with my laptop for long writing stretches or my printed manuscripts for editing. In the past I had to go to another room for that — something I rarely do because then I can’t work without my cats crawling all over me looking for attention (sweet, but not conducive to work).
As much as I’m happy to change things in my work setup, much of it will stay the same for now, including my primary desk. My hope is that I’ll have just enough change to shake things up and just enough the same to keep me comfortable during the transition.
Have you recently overhauled your office space? What kinds of changes did you make? Did it rejuvenate you or did it take a while to adapt? Share your stories or suggestions on making the transition easier in the comments below.
My biggest change was my office space when I moved from San Diego into my Mom’s home in Boise. In San Diego, I had a separate room devoted to my office. It was on the bottom level of a tri-level townhome. Here in Boise, we converted the living room into an office. It was never used. We have a larger “family room” so the living room became my office.
The thing I love the best-my desk has a large window that looks out the front of the house. We live on a cul de sac so it is very private and has beautiful trees. We have rabbits in the area, all kinds of birds and I just love my view of the world.
The downside? There is no office door and Mom struggles with remembering I’m working.
I slap on earphones with music, which helps, but I do miss my door from my office in San Diego. But, then I try to remind myself that the reason I moved was to support Mom and she does plenty to support me. Life is good. 
Congrats on your new home, Jenn! How exciting!
This place is also on a cul de sac w/ lots of trees (mostly wooded). I do have to say the window is smaller in that office than here. But w/ the planned setup, I’ll still sit next to it — something I’d really miss if I had to go windowless for some reason.
It sucks that you don’t have a door. That was a big requirement for me because I’m allergic to my cats, so I can’t have them in my office much of the time. Plus I want a door to close when there are eventually kids in the picture. We were hoping for a place where both the office and library would have doors, but this one only does for the office unfortunately (the library was the big must-have room for my guy).
No congrats until closing. Don’t want to jinx it.