As a work at home mom, do you find yourself managing your daily tasks from anywhere you can find a few inches of space? Being a work at home mom offers unique opportunities for work-life balance, but it can also mean logistical concerns. If you have a family you might already feel like every inch of your home is currently in use, but if you want to grow your career and be more successful in areas such as time management, it’s usually best to have a dedicated office space, even if it’s tiny.
Below are some tips that can help you find ways to creatively add an office into your home, even if you’re very limited on extra space.
Consider Your Dining Room
The dining room is often an area that goes relatively underused in many homes, particularly if you have a busy family life and don’t get a chance to have leisurely family meals every night. You may all eat your meals at a bar area or in the kitchen itself, so why not turn your dining room into an office? Even if you don’t dedicate the entire dining room into your office, you can set up a desk in the corner, or use your dining table as your office. If you want to host a dinner party, it’s easy to move your work things out of the way for the evening.
Bedroom Corner
You might not like the idea of working in your bedroom, but it can actually make a good office space. Choose a corner of your bedroom that’s away from your bed and other furnishings, and create your own little nook. The added benefit of working in your bedroom is that your kids may already see this space as somewhat off limits to them, so you won’t have to deal with them trying to make your office into their play space.
A Closet
If you don’t like the idea of your dining room or bedroom pulling double duty as an office, think about a closet that you could do without in terms of storage. If you have a hall closet that you don’t need to have for storage, you can take out the shelving and add a platform to serve as your desk and maybe some upper shelves for additional storage. You can even leave the door or add a curtain as a covering, so when you’re not working the closet will look inconspicuous.
Under the Stairs
Many of us have a space under our stairs that’s unused so why not turn that into your workspace? You can install a floating shelf to use as your desk, and you can even be creative and add corkboard or chalkboard paint to the wall behind it so you can make notes and add reminders for yourself.
When you’re a work at home mom, there’s a lot of creative thinking and juggling that goes into your life. If you’re in desperate need of a dedicated workspace but you don’t have an extra room in your home, any of the above ideas might work well for you.