Like many, since March 2020 I’ve been working from home. I started off in the kitchen for a few days, then once my other half was sent home, she worked from downstairs and I worked from the spare room upstairs.

I made do with what we had, at the start, abs but by bit I got extra bits and pieces to make it work better over the months.

I ended up using our rather wide ironing board and a gym ball for a desk and chair, and with the type of work I did, taking calls and the odd zoom, I was able to use the space well, and do my work fine. I switched from a stool to a gym ball for a bit of movement.

Sometimes I’d move onto the poang chair we have and I got a tray for my laptop so it and my mouse and phone (and I) could sit comfortably… but as the months went on it started to be less comfortable. I hadn’t taken a monitor home with me, and the laptop screen worked for the type of work I did.

I ended up getting a foldaway table from Amazon which worked to a degree, and used a stool we had. But I tended to find that I wasn’t quite comfortable anywhere.

Then I got my new job and I was furnished with a lovely 24 inch monitor, laptop and I had my wireless mouse and keyboard from before. I set it all up, but the monitor was probably too big to be sitting at the foldaway desk.

So I brought the ironing board out again, which gave some distance, and the set up seemed to work again. Then I got a bit of pain in my wrist, and got myself an upright ergonomic mouse which helped a lot.

It all seemed to be working ok… but it wasn’t quite right.

I was lucky enough in Sumner to be able to be working from the garden, with electricity and wifi and a good set up.

And then towards the end of the year I was back in the spare room, making the most of the temporary foldaway set up….

We had a day bed in the room… and whilst it was good to store my exercise clothes… it wasn’t ever really used as a bed… so eventually, after 20 months of making do (and putting the foldaway office away at weekends) … I was persuaded by Fit Girl that it would be a good idea to make the office a permanent set up. (Here’s the day before ready to sell).

My role means I’ll likely be working from home for the future, if a mix of being in the office a bit in the way off future… but now seemed like a good time to do it.

I spent some time researching height adjustable tables.,. Because if we were doing it, we might as well do it right and name it magic… and we also looked at storage for my clothes that had been stored in the day bed.

Then we put the day bed on Facebook marketplace and not long after we had a buyer at a good price and before we knew it (within a day or so) the bed was gone, and we’d ordered a couple of small chest of drawers from Wayfair.

Perhaps due to it being close to Christmas, they arrived really quickly, we ordered them on the Sunday and they came on the Monday… then they wee built by the Tuesday.

And we’d ordered this Flexispot electric height adjustable desk from Amazon, and within a few days it was with us too. The desk was 120cm x 80cm and had really good reviews (and also had £45 off at the time).

I’m the meantime, for a couple of days I had a bit of a temporary set up in the last week if work before Christmas, a taste of what it would be like to not be facing the window anymore, and be facing the other wall in the room.

Here’s one of the chest of drawers built. Nice and neat and cute I think. (My clothes were briefly in a case (or two!) before everything was set up).

I’d measured the space and it was 268cm (minus a cm or two for skirting boards)… and we’d checked all the measurements. But when we built the desk and moved it into place I nearly collapsed… it fitted into the space, but the tops of the chest of drawers were 70cm, the width of the actual drawers were 60cm!!

So when the desk was in place, the top of the drawers prevented it from going up! With a bit of repositioning it all, we managed to squeeze it all in… as theoretically… 70 + 120 + 70cm = 260cm and the space is 268cm… so there are now mms to spare at the side of the desk. But it works! Phew!

I put all my clothes nice and today in the drawer, and got some more storage for a cupboard where I can put my work stuff away if I want to (laptop and books etc)… and then over the holidays I got it all set up with everything I need in the ‘working from home office’.

Then in the holidays I carried the organisation and tidiness through my closet and other clothes drawers and made it all tidied (and a bit cleared out) for 2022.

We already have a sonos/ Alexa speaker, but I got cable tidies for under the desk, so it’s all tidy, a monitor stand with usb slots, a charger for my phone… and a few extension cables to make it all work well.

I got a little table and plant for the office, …

… and ended up even getting little usb lights for the back and side edges of the table (deep down / quietly I think it’s like a space ship lol). All the wires are hidden and there are some extra power and usb slots.

And I even got an under desk drawer to store and charge my Garmin swim and run watches, my running headphones and camera… and some coasters for my coffee cup / water bottle.

One of the last things I did, once it was all set up was well the foldaway table and standing setup thing I had, and I ended up getting the same amount back for the foldaway table that I’d bought it for. So that was good.

I have managed to somehow lose count of everything I’ve spent to get it all set up (shhhhhh), but it’s been well worth it and it’s ready to go for being back to work on Monday.

(After I posted this I went back and added it all up, less the sales we made and it wasn’t all that bad / it was indeed worth it). 😂

The table is great, I got to use it for the last week of the year before my holidays. There are four settings on it which are easy to preset for you and others. It’s very quick and easy to move up and down and it all works really well.

Here’s a video of it in action. I’d really recommend it as a great desk, quiet, sturdy, available in different sizes and colours, it came quickly (in two separate deliveries) and it just works (maybe look on the Flexispot website direct for any offers).

I’m well pleased with the new set up, and probably should have done it a lot sooner. I’m even really looking forward to getting back to work on Monday because of it (shhh about that too!). 😂

(This is it tidied away, but I’ll take out my laptop and iPad and other bits and pieces when I work).