Why I Love Home Offices - By Our Co Founder
Swapoffi
13 Jun
By Denise Doran
For a couple of years before Covid, I commuted weekly between Ireland and England, where my now husband lived at the time. Thanks to Ryanair, this was very affordable. I was not a car owner, so my annual travel / commuting budget was cheaper than that of my car-owning pals. (I will spend the rest of my life planting seeds and trees to make up for this environmental no-no.)
Travel for work to see customers – remember those days? – On top of my weekly commute, working from a laptop was the norm for me.
Home Offices Are Best For Productivity
When I look back at how I used to work during these pre-remote working days, here are some of my worst memories:
- I bought an annual pass for my airports’ lounges, mainly so I could find an available and comfortable seat from which to work. Charge points were handy. The food was dreadful. On first name terms with the lounge staff, my entertainment came from watching them reprimand executives pilfering apples and bottles of water into their carry-on luggage. It was a battle to focus with some people speaking very loudly on calls, amidst a constant coming and going of people.
- One time, we rented a holiday cottage by the sea in Cornwall for three months out of season. The cottage was so small, there was little chance of hogging a space for working alone. I improvised by sitting in an armchair, with a bodyboard across my lap, as my mobile desk. At least it didn’t wobble.
- Video calls force remote workers to brush our hair, put on some make-up, and perhaps jewellery for a first encounter too. Positioning the aforementioned in a corner of a room, we put pictures on the wall behind, thus creating a home office nook, a perfect foil for video calls. (Well, I thought so until some-one asked me if I work in an art gallery.) Trouble was, there was no room for a desk as well. Four coffee table books balanced on my lap, became my desk. Whilst not as stable as a body board, I could add more books, for adjustable height and less of a double chin depending on my audience.
- House sitting in a friend’s house, with no central heating, in a national park in France, we worked around the kitchen table, wearing hoodies to keep warm. Luckily the kitchen table was so long, we could work at one end, and move to the other for dining, creating an illusion (delusion?) of a dedicated workspace.
- My lovely parents-in-law kindly granted me the use of their piano room as my home office, kitted out with a reclining leather chair and footstool. The piano stool was carefully stowed away, so I used a sturdy cardboard box as my coffee table. I did manage to work from there, although perhaps not sitting as upright as I might in a real office.
- Needless to say, working from a kitchen table, this time in my parent’s house, was another regular work spot. Unfamiliar with the concept of remote working or online working, my parents thought nothing of chatting away, which didn’t work so well for video calls. Decamping to my childhood bedroom in a bid for privacy, I stuck a yellow post-it on my bedroom door whenever I was on a video call, to stop interruptions. This was an utter failure.
So, when my co-founder Sandra came up with the idea for Swapoffi, stemming from her own need to work as she travelled, I immediately got it! As a remote worker, Sandra’s travel plans were limited due to the cost of accommodation. Swapoffi removes that pain.
I have been a long-term remote worker and have readily adjusted to wherever I am to whip out my laptop. Whilst others might aspire to a new car or trip of a lifetime or a wardrobe of new clothes, I drool at the idea of a fit for purpose workspace. Swapoffi gives me that as members’ homes all have workspaces or even home offices.
So, if you want to save money when travelling like Sandra, or value working from a fit for purpose work environment like me, join Swapoffi to help us build our home exchange community for digital nomads where every home has a workspace.
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