Setting Up a Home Office That Works

St. George has attracted a considerable number of people who work from home, and a home office set up in the first week tends to be the one you are still using two years later.

A few decisions are worth making deliberately while the house is still empty and everything is easy to place.

Just-In-Time Moving works throughout St. George and Washington County.

Choose the room for light and heat, not size

The most important local consideration and the one people get wrong.

A west-facing room with a large window is pleasant in February and unusable on a July afternoon. It will be the hottest room in the house at exactly the hours you are trying to work, it will run your cooling hard, and the sun will fade everything in it.

North-facing gives the steadiest light. East is good for a morning worker. A west or south-west room needs proper window coverings before it needs anything else.

Also consider where the sun falls on your screen. Glare is the commonest complaint and it is entirely determined by which wall the desk faces.

Check the connectivity before you commit

Not every room is equal. Test the internet in the candidate room rather than assuming, particularly in a larger single-storey house where a router at one end may not reach the other.

If the work is video-heavy, a wired connection is worth the trouble, and that decision affects which room is practical.

Order the internet as soon as you have a closing or lease date. It is the longest lead time in the whole move.

Power and placement

Look at where the outlets actually are before deciding where the desk goes, and think about lighting separately from the room's ceiling fitting.

Noise matters more than people expect: a room next to a shared wall, a laundry or a hallway is a poor choice for calls.

Set it up on day one

Ask the crew to place the desk and shelving where you want them while they are already carrying, rather than moving heavy furniture yourself later.

Photograph the back of your equipment before disconnecting it. It saves a frustrating evening.

Keep computers, monitors and anything with a battery in your own air-conditioned vehicle rather than on the truck in summer. Heat is hard on electronics and worse on batteries.

Then work in it before finishing it

Live with the room for a fortnight before buying storage and furnishings. You will know by then where the light is difficult and what you actually reach for.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.