The Absolute Essentials for the Perfect Home Office, According To Experts

Welcome to the wonderful world of home offices! If you’re reading this, chances are you’re either in the process of setting up a home office or looking to revamp your current one. Good times!

Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business owner, or simply someone who prefers the comfort and convenience of working from home, having a well-organized and functional home office is essential.

So, what exactly makes the perfect home office?

Well, there are a few absolute essentials that you’ll need in order to create a space that is conducive to productivity and creativity.

Standing Desk

That’s because you spend all day at your desk without any commuting or moving around the office.

That’s why standing desks can help out when setting up a home office, they keep your body moving around and while it’s not as good for you as going for a jog on your lunch break – being able to stand at your desk and work will definitely help you stay healthier.

We’ve got a great list of standing desks for the home office. But if you’re short on cash, you might also look out for a standing desk converter that can help transform a standard desk into a standing model.

A Sustainable Home Office Chair

One thing that anyone who works from home can tell you is that when you work from home, you tend to get less exercise than when you work in an office.

We confess, that we think every item in your home office should be environmentally sustainable, if possible.

But when you go shopping for your first ergonomic chair this is absolutely essential. You’re looking for a chair that is kind to you and kind to the planet.

That means you get the lumbar support that you need, a chair you can adjust to be comfortable in any situation and which can easily be moved to anywhere in your home office, and which keeps your conscience clean about your impact on the environment.

We’ve got a great list of work-from-home sustainable office chairs and we’d urge you to check it out.

A Solid Laptop

You do not need to spend a fortune on a good laptop for your work from home office but you definitely want something that’s easy to work on throughout the day.

That means a laptop that sits flat on the desk, which is portable enough to be easy to move if you need to work outside of the home and which is very comfortable to work on.

Your laptop is the major tool of your trade when you work from home, it’s worth investing in a good one so check out our round-up of affordable laptops before you drop your hard-earned cash.

An External Monitor

You won’t believe how much better your office setup will feel until you have an external monitor for your laptop. It’s so much better than a laptop computer screen.

Some people may also have a desktop PC but there’s no need – you can plug a monitor directly into most laptops or buy a cheap “docking station” which you can plug it into (along with a mouse and keyboard).

There are plenty of choices of great monitors for working from home and you ought to try a few different ones out to find the one that makes your workload easier and more enjoyable to carry out.

External Wireless Keyboard and Wireless Mouse (And Wrist Rests)

If you work on a laptop all the time when you work from home, you really don’t want to rely on the laptop’s keyboard and trackpad.

They are an ergonomic disaster that can lead to repetitive strain injuries and you’ll find that with heavy use – the keyboard on a laptop will often quickly disintegrate.

It’s better to buy a wireless external mouse and keyboard for use in the office and then when you’re not working from home, you can rely on the built-in keyboard and mouse.

We’d also stress the value of using wrist rests for these items. Repetitive strain injury (RSI) is a very real problem for home workers and it’s better to prevent it than to treat it after it happens.

A Mobile Lap Desk

This isn’t completely essential for working from home if you only ever work at a desk.

But if you want to be able to work anywhere in your home, then a lap desk is going to make life so much easier.

It’s more comfortable than resting a laptop on your knees and, better still, using these lap desks means that you reduce the risk of burns on your legs when the laptop overheats.

A Great Desk Lamp

Light matters. Natural light is the best kind of light for working on a computer but sometimes, there isn’t any natural light to be had.

At that point, you want office space with a nice desk lamp that allows you to comfortably read your screen, make video calls, etc. without moving from your desk chair.

We’d go for a lamp that emulates the wavelengths in natural light, there’s too much blue light and white light in most offices already and that can hurt your eyes and cause stress and who wants more stress in their life?

Noise Canceling Headset Or Pair Of Headphones

The domestic work environment is never complete until you’ve sorted out headphones or a headset for your computer.

You don’t have to opt for wireless (we use a USB budget-friendly set at home) but you do want them to be noise cancelling.

This helps to cut out unwanted distractions while you work and help to ensure the sound quality of your calls.

We recently tested a bunch of headsets for remote work and these were our favorites.

A Decent Filing Cabinet

We’re still waiting for the “paperless” office, it’s been touted for decades but never arrived in reality.

A filing cabinet remains one of the essentials for a modern office because it helps keep your work organized and stops you from wasting time every day looking for things.

Choose something suitably ergonomic and tailored to the space that you have.

A Top Notch Coffee Maker

There are two drinks that we can’t live without during the course of the working day. We have a nice water bottle ready to deliver rehydration as needed but far more important is the ability to have a great cup of coffee on demand.

There are loads of different coffee makers out there and you should choose something to suit your budget and taste in coffee.

We’d urge you not to opt for something with disposable plastic capsules though as they’re terrible for the environment.

Our office has an Oscar II Nuevo Simonelli espresso machine which might be overkill for you, but we couldn’t live without it.

Check it out here.

Surge Protected Power Strip

You will also want to protect your investment in a computer and your other electrical items and one way to do this is to buy a surge-protected power strip.

This is like having an extra set of fuses for your devices, it’s a bit more sensitive than the fuses in the devices and if there’s any kind of dangerous power surge, it simply breaks the circuit between your electrical equipment and the wall.

These are cheap and easy to find on Amazon or in any hardware store. So, don’t skimp on them.

A Wireless Phone Charger

When you work in a space at home, you will often find you use your smartphone way more than you did in the office.

Wireless phone charging can really help ensure that your phone always has power without having to scramble around looking for a place to plug the phone in.

Just make sure that your phone supports wireless charging before buying a wireless charger for it.

High-Speed Internet

If you’re thinking, “well, doh!” we understand but there’s an important element to this item.

And that’s the words “high-speed”.

If you want to work from home, don’t stint on your net connection. Make sure that you can easily and quickly send large files to the office and receive them too.

Talk to your current internet provider for advice on fast internet packages.

A Combined Printer And Scanner

You’re probably not going to end up printing or scanning that often in a modern office, so the best thing to do is buy a combined device that takes up less space in your home and which does both things reasonably well.

We have a Pantum Laser Printer with a built-in scanner in our home office.

Check it out here.

It’s easy enough to set up an office in your home, you just need to make sure that you have all of the essentials and that the overall ergonomic design suits your body so that you can work safely and comfortably all day long.

The list of tools above will help you take advantage of the opportunity for home working and get the job done effectively. Enjoy!