The rise in the cost of many things experienced today around the world has made many people learn how to calculate expenses to avoid unnecessary expenditure. Many have come up with the idea of relocating their offices in their homes.
Having everything available at home like the internet, electricity and other things needed to run an office has made working from home more exciting and less expensive to run. For many people, it is the best place to have your office located because you will not be stressing yourself on double rent payment, transportation, double electricity bill, double interested purchase, etc.
In that case, should home office be upstairs or downstairs?
Having your home office located upstairs or downstairs depends on many factors like:
- The type of building you stay in.
- The type of person you are.
- The type of people in your house.
- The environment where your house is located.
It will be so unwise to have your home office located upstairs if the children room is at the same place, in the same way having it located downstairs if your house is always busy and having visitors would pose a huge challenge to you and may defeat the purpose why you decided to have a home office. However, many things must be considered before deciding to have your home office either upstairs or downstairs.
Table of Contents
Home Office
Home office helps get you to be more productive and professional, and it will also help you in regulating between home life and office life. Working from home requires an office that is fully functional for official purposes. Work must be done, and you will need a space that would assist you to do that as soon as you can without much interference from outside and inside influence.
Importance of Home Office
The following are some importance of Home office:
It is Cost-effective
Having a home office saves you the stress of paying rent for both your residential and office needs. This helps you save costs. For house owners, it helps them keep the cost of office rent only. Not only will you save rent, but you will also save transportation fares and always be able to get to work on time without meeting traffic and other road hazards.
Privacy
Every type of work requires privacy. This is to enable you to do something that you will not want people to know or see you doing or avoid distractions. You must attend to clients, teleconferencing, and other things required to get the job done. Bear in mind that none of this can be successfully implemented if you don’t have your privacy and avoid distractions and noise from family members. This would also increase your productivity level and get you more coordinated.
Storage Place
Some sensitive things require being kept away from people; having a home office would help you keep such things out without having anyone enter the office in your absence. Here you will be the only one locking up and opening the office when you want to.
Lightning
You would be able to decide on the type of light you want in your office. You can get all the serenity required by getting the light to your best choice. It will be at your will and mercy to add extra lights apart from the one in the other rooms, which would help your productivity level and keep you awake at any point in time.
Phone Lines
Having a home office helps you have separate phone lines for home and office use.
Time with Family
Having a good time with family is so important to everyone. A home office would help you close from work and get home on time. Since the office is home, you will head straight to meet your family and spend more reasonable time with them once you close from work.
Should I Have my Home Office Upstairs or Downstairs
As earlier discussed, having your home office upstairs or downstairs depends on some factors that must be critically looked into. You must be able to consider some things before setting up your home office reasonably.
Home Office Downstairs
If the office is the type you would grant access to all family members, it would be better to have it downstairs and closer to the living room. This would also help monitor the work done in the office. If it is the type of office where you will not be spending much time and require a small space to carry out such functions having it located downstairs would also be the best option.
Other types of work that would require you to fix your home office downstairs include internet browsing, school work, household work, bill payments, etc. This would give you easy access to meet with your clients anytime they come in.
Home Office Upstairs
If you are the type that has a tasking job, full-time job, regular office work, then setting up your home office upstairs is expedient. This is because you are doing the normal professional work done in every regular office located outside the house. You will need privacy and serene environments to enable you to concentrate without any form of disturbance.
Suppose for any reason you are the carefree person that doesn’t take good care of your environment and so lazy to tidy up your space. In that case, it will be useful to get your office upstairs; this would keep you away from guests coming into the house for other things seeing you and your untidy office.
If you are the type that closes the office without cleaning up and would like to walk into the office and start from where you stopped, considering setting up the office space upstairs is the best option.
Pros of Home Office Being Upstairs
Easy Lookouts
An upstairs home office would enable you to look outside properly without much stress. You will easily see what is happening outside. Looking out during work hours boosts productivity and helps ease the stress that has been accumulated already.
Decide on Whom to See or Whom Not to See
This would help you decide who to see and who not to see because not everyone is granted access upstairs when they come into the house. Some people would have to stop downstairs and ask if you are around or not, and with the office located upstairs, you can easily tell the people at home who you want to see and who you don’t want to see.
More Work Time
This helps keep you out of distractions from everyone at home. You have your space without interference from people walking in, and there would be less time for you to see or know what is going on downstairs.
Cons of Home Office Being Upstairs
The Stress of Walking Downstairs
One of the major disadvantages of having your home office upstairs would be the stress of walking downstairs in case you went to get something and forgot, you would have to go back and get it. If you are the forgetful type, then this would be more stressful for you.
Disturbance From Your Household
If the children’s room is located upstairs, you will have them regularly coming, knocking at the door to ask for one thing or the other. This would cause you a lot of distractions and a lack of concentration at work.
House Roof Noise
Not having a noise-proof roof can cause some severe impediments in so many ways. Since your home office is upstairs, you can experience regular and unwanted interference from the roof, which would also cause lots of distractions for you.
Pros of Home Office Being Downstairs
Easy Access to go Outside
You can easily walk outside to get anything and come back easily without stress, unlike when your home office is located upstairs. Peradventure you forget anything, you can still go back and pick it without stressing yourself from climbing the staircase.
No Much Distraction
If the children’s room and parlor are located upstairs, you can be free from regularly intruding to distract you with their numerous requests. Once they are back home, they would head straight to their room and would only have access to you when they choose.
Easily Accessible by Clients and Visitors
Visitors and clients are essential for any office person. With the office downstairs, they will have easy access to see you anytime they come in and be attended to.
Cons of Home Office Being Downstairs
Disturbance From Visitors
Suppose your house is the type that has visitors regularly having your home office downstairs will be a bad idea. You will always know when anyone comes in, and you will end up getting to meet everyone. This would be a form of distraction and disturbance to you and the work you are doing.
No Much Privacy
There would be little or no privacy between your home life and office life. You can be tempted at any time to go into the kitchen and get something to eat or drink, and your family members would always come around to see you depending on the type of house you live in.
Things to Consider when Deciding where your Home Office Should Be
The following must be put into consideration before deciding where your home office should be:
- Would there be regular meetings in the office?
- Do you require much practical at work?
- Is the work full-time and requires much of your time and attention
- Can you be able to close the door always during work hours and close the door when you are done to give
- yourself time to rest?
- Is the place free from noise, distractions, and unnecessary interference from people
- Is it at the window view, this can both inspire and distract you at work, depending on your type of person?
- Would there be enough natural lightning apart from electricity?
- Is there adequate space for a desk and other office furniture
Conclusion
Having your home office either upstairs or downstairs is ok, but you have to consider many things before setting up that office space at home. All the factors listed would motivate you, distract you, be a blessing or make you regret setting up the home office at either of the places. Get to know your environment well and have your household well organized before setting up the office space.
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