Winters were brutal when I first started working from home. My office was located in the mud room of our rental townhouse, since the basement was unfinished and it was the only space where I could set up a desk. For those of you not familiar with a mud-room, it’s small room you access from the outside of your home (kinda like a front door), but it leads to a room where one can remove shoes etc. Basically to keep all the muddy stuff there, so it doesn’t get into the house. So there’s no heat vents, plugs etc. I had to rewire for electricity and phone and the space was VERY cramped. Canadian winters can get very cold from Jan through Feb so I had to relocate very vast.

I then set up a desk in our living room, but that soon became a problem - how can you work while the girls were watching Barney and friends? I then moved the desk up into one of the girl’s room, but this meant I could only work when they were in school or outside playing. Nap time, meant no-work time for me.

Things were looking up and affiliate cheques were coming in, so we spent the money to create an office in the basement for me. Finally, I would have my own space, even though we were spending the money to build a room in a house that was not ours. At least I could shut noise out, I wasn’t in anyone’s way or space and everyone knew when I was down there, I was working - BE QUIET! Tell that to a new born, a toddler and one in preschool.

Today not only do I have an amazing office that Caron finished for me last year (yea, she did a great job) but being able to look out a window and see the garden is so much joy. Ever-so-often, in the warm months I see hummingbirds, butterflies and all the amazing flowers.

Deciding where to put your home office? One suggestion - choose a room with a nice bright window. I worked a couple years in that basement office and it became depressing with the lack of natural light.

Here’s a neat little video about setting up your home office.