I have a very small apartment. If you live in the US, it's smaller than you think. So what I'll discuss in this post is mainly about small apartments, where one room has to double as a home office and something else, like a home office/bedroom scenario. In this article, you'll find a few things to consider before you are done choosing your home office location.

I used to be the only human in my apartment, but now I have a husband. It was something new. There’s someone else in the house… while I’m working. While I love my husband so, so much, a question arose: where should I set up my home office when other family members(Mike, dog and cat) are having their own good time?

Challenges of Remote Working Once I Got a Husband

Source: Amazon

• I have to work, but my husband is watching Netflix and I am jealous.
• I have to work, but he is watching Netflix and I can’t focus because of the screams and yellings in horror movies. And I get scared…
• I am on a business phone call, and I worry the person on the phone might hear the Netflix screams(very easy to think that I am watching it. Maybe I am a little, because I can’t focus.)
• My dog and cat are so adorable. I want to keep looking at them and cuddle forever.
• My husband tries to cook for me, which is sweet, but that means I cannot occupy the kitchen island with my laptop.

Living with someone I love has been more than happy, but I had to figure out how to deal with these challenges. Apparently, my work gives me money and I need that to survive a happy life. So I set on building a home office. Somewhere in my apartment.

How To Start Building Home Office in Small Apartments (Intro)

First of all, I started listing my challenges like the list above. This step is necessary for the second step, which is to categorize your challenges by senses. As you will see later, you can’t deal with Netflix screams(auditory challenges) with some curtains(for visual challenges.)

This categorization process will help you decide which room should double as something/home office. Like I said in the very beginning of the post, we will discuss a home office that resides in ‘a part’ of some room. If you have a separate room that nobody uses, that’s perfect! That is your home office! Ah, but this city of Seoul, very expensive, rents high… no need to further explain this, I guess.

Next, I STRONGLY suggest you talk about your ideas with your family. Even though it is your home office, it is likely that you need more help from your family members than you might think. Also, I want you to consider DIY possibilities. DIY can free up an area. You’ll see what I mean as you go!

Step 1: Categorize the Challenges

I want you to think about the following five categories:

• Visual(eyes. What you see may annoy you or distract you!)
• Olfactory(smells)
• Auditory(you just can’t focus when there are distracting noises)
• Gustatory(tastes. Maybe you need sweets around you for your brain to work)
• Tactile(you tend to fall asleep when you pat your dog… Ah so sweet…)

For me, visual distractions don’t bother me that much. I could just close my eyes or look away. But the sounds–they are difficult. I could wear AirPods, but I don’t want to wear them all the time when I’m home. Uncomfortable. Phone call situations are something I have to consider as well. I could explain like “oh you may hear some movie sounds in the background but it’s not me who’s watching blah blah,” but I guess you can see the awkwardness.

See which one of your five senses–eyes(visual), nose(olfactory), ears(auditory), mouth(gustatory–taste), and hands(tactile–feeling,)–are most susceptible to distractions. For example, if you ever missed the first few seconds of your coworker calling you because you were way too focused on your monitor, your auditory system may not be so vulnerable to distractions. But if you got a malware and a spam message keeps popping up from the right corner of your screen and you can’t do anything until you get rid of it, maybe you should think about visual distractions compromising your focus.

Once you categorize what types of stimuli would bother you the most, it’s easier to find a better(I couldn’t say ‘perfect/…) location for your home office. If you find visual stimuli especially distracting, a room divider could do the job, because it will keep you away from all the interesting things on the other side of the room. If you can’t focus whenever you smell something delicious, maybe avoid the window that’s located right above the bakery on the first floor. You see where I’m going with this?

Step 2: Imagine Before Choosing a Location

For me, sounds are the most distracting. So I have to stay away from my husband’s TV. It’s in the living room, so the living room was easily ruled out and the bedroom seemed like a good option. But then, I got worried about our sleep schedules. My husband, Mike’s job is like most other people where it starts early in the morning while my working hours are rather flexible. I didn’t want to not be able to work (wow a complicated verb part) because I should keep quiet when Mike sleeps.

This realization leads me to introduce you the second step. I want you to imagine your whole day. Not just your day, but your family members’ as well. The following are some of situations you might want to consider before you get dead set on your decision.

1) Home Office / Bedroom:

Sleep patterns. For a bedroom to double as a home office, this is a very serious matter. What time do you go to bed and what time does your spouse/roommate go to bed? Do you need bright lights for your work? Do you have to type a lot? When you are trying to sleep, even small sounds could feel annoying, especially if the other person is a sensitive sleeper.

Source: Amazon

Your thresholds to ‘comfy bed’ temptations. Do you easily get tempted by the comfy look of your bed? I definitely did when I was a student. Studying was so hard… I just wanted to run away and take a nap forever in my bed. If I hated my work even a tiny bit more, I would still be so tempted every possible chance.

Zoom occasions. How comfortable are you about sharing the looks of your bedroom on Zoom? It’s both a matter of privacy and work-professionalism-stereotype-kinda thing.

Work continues forever? If you build your home office in your bedroom, it may literally be the opposite of the saying that “don’t bring your work home.” The bedroom is often a sanctuary where you unwind and let all the stress of the day go away. If you can see your home office from your bed, there is a possibility that you feel like you’re still stuck at work.

2) Home Office / Living Room

Distractions. Living rooms are literally where your family members gather and spend time together. That will involve talking, laughing, possibly running, etc..

Steps, steps and steps. Often a living room is the center of a house that connects to other rooms. It means that your family members are going to use the living room for kinda like a corridor, and you feel like you are sitting in the middle of many footsteps and door closing sounds. It can be quite distracting. Or, if you have kids, they have an easier access to you in the living room than you in the bedroom. Here’s one more important thing to think about: is it a possibility that you could get mad at your family members passing by near you all the time? If it is, it could be quite disastrous. You just wanted to work, but now your entire family has to tiptoe around you in the living room.

Work stuff all over. Another thing about living room is that it often is an open space. Sectional sofas, coffee table, maybe a console table behind, and that’s it. Imagine what’s going to happen if your home office gets set up there. Where do files and documents go? It will depend on how you design your home office, but you might have to sacrifice the simple look of your living room.

3) Home Office / Home Gym

The Smell. If you find yourself easily distracted by smells, I wouldn’t recommend your gym so much. Not only are we bound to sweat in the gym area, also some gym equipment has its own strong scent, which is not so pleasant. And when these two combine…

Another Person Working Out Next to You. To be honest, one of the reasons I began to love the idea of a home gym is because I don’t have to hear the “Uah!!!”, “Uuuuhh!!!”, “Oooh!!!” sounds of a public gym(hmh… why… I don’t know…) Imagine this happening right next to you trying to focus on your presentation due tomorrow.

Tempting Equipment. It is a possibility that those workout tools are tempting to you. You are looking at your screen with your butt stuck in the chair for hours. How good will it feel if you moved around a little? Maybe you could do a few small things while walking on treadmill? Maybe you could brainstorm while lifting a dumbbell or two?

I couldn’t include ‘home office/garage,’ because I’ve never had one. Please let me know!

Step 3: Discuss with Your Family

This step is extremely important. Now that we’ve understood every possible challenge in each scenario, we should find ways to work on it. This part needs help from your family members. Maybe your 17 year old son can walk like a cat near you working in the living room, but he shall not sacrifice his workout time in home gym.

I’d suggest you just start with what you think is your best shot. In my case, it is a bedroom. So I brought it up, and asked Mike about it. So far, we agreed to have a desk in the bedroom, though on the opposite end of the bed.

Source: Amazon

Keep an open mind, and listen to your family’s suggestions. We’re looking for their cooperation. What they think they can do could be a little bit more important than what you think they can do.

Step 4: Carpentry vs Pret-a-porter

I wanted to use some fancy word, but this part is not that long. I want you to think about how much DIY you are willing to do. I’m looking at the possible home office area right now, and I think I do NOT want so much DIY. This isn’t my permanent home. I want some cheap furniture pieces. But if you’ve found your dream home and you love woodwork, you might want to consider some measuring and chopping.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because some areas could benefit a lot from DIY. It can maximize the space you’ve got. If you are willing to do it, you might find a previously unimaginable area to be a very good home office. You might have ruled out home gym because its walls are undone, but what if you did the walls yourself? You thought your kitchen has no more room, but what if you installed the hanging cabinets?

If you want to learn more about home decor before decorating your home office, check out this article on building your taste.