The Bear Minimum

We know there’s quite a few things, but what specifically would we need?

My wife and I are both professionals, I’m a psychologist whilst she’s in admin, so we could both use a home office. My wife especially could benefit as there is much of her job that she could do from home, given the right equipment, so we are considering what we’d need.

Obviously there’s the office equipment basics of business phone system, fax, photocopier, computer capable of handling a heavy load on a very regular basis, as well as the furniture necessary, a more ergonomic desk and chair - the ones we have at the moment are more about comfort than about working for long periods of time - and we’re both sure we’re forgetting things in that area.

There’s also the issue of motivation. Should we work from home, in the same office, will we actually get any work done, or will we chat and look at funny internet memes? We’re thinking that a lot less would get done if we were able to work in the same room, and whilst I don’t have a heck of a lot of work that can be done from home, I think the work that could be would take four times as long.

It’s a wonderful idea, though, and you can’t discount how much nicer it would be for us to not have to go into our respective offices for the little things. My wife, for instance, has had to go in on the weekend more than once because she had a specific document in a file in her briefcase instead of in a file at the office, and had she a fax machine that would never happen again. It would also be more economically sound if we were to work from home when we could as we’d be saving on fuel.

Still something to think about and not hastily decide about one way or the other.