Forgot our great deal! Got a $14 plain pine nightstand at Ikea. Put it on our desk and we use it as a printer stand. Easy access and minimal loss of workspace (plus it has a little shelf for storage). Bought ours when DH was in grad school and we still use it, 30 years later. Ikea still sells them. At some point I stained it. http://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/44361109/
The shelf is placed lower now than ours was, but it wouldn’t be hard to adjust. It’s real wood so would tolerate a drill. And it’s still $14!!
^^^ Great idea!
Agree that dual monitors are Fab! I just started using them a year or two ago and can’t believe how much easier it makes life. Our kids have had dual monitors thru college and since.
Thank you everyone for the suggestions- I’m favoriting all the links. Luckily, I live about 2 miles from Ikea so it looks like I’m making a trip there in the near future.
I agree with the comments of getting a docking station. Or just have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse that you can hook into your laptop.
My wife made a desk out of two bathroom-style cabinets with a kitchen countertop slab put over them. They drilled a hole in the countertop for us to stick the power cords through. There cabinets are two or three feet apart, so plenty of room, and the cabinets have drawers, just like a desk. The only problem with this is that the desk is really too high. She had to get a tall chair. But for someone who is tall and has trouble with the keyboard placement on a regular desk, this is just the ticket.
I’ll second the suggestion for a sit-stand desk attachment. Mine is from juststand(dot)org. It looks a little different than the ones on the website home page, but essentially it bolts (not permanently - with brackets that protect the surface) to the surface of my existing desk, then can be easily raised or lowered for use while sitting or standing. I spend about 10-11 hours per day at my desk and it has made a BIG difference in how I feel. I do have to remind myself to sit once in a while, but that is a good problem to have compared to the “hunch”.
" I have an office but tend to work in the kitchen–more like command central. "
Lol. This is my setup. Gets me closer to the coffee when I have to pull an all-nighter (have not done those in a while, but some people never learn and like to cut too close to the deadlines…) I just drag my seat cushion to the dining room, spread my papers all over the dining table, and off I go…
Mr. Barbk got a fabulously large and stable table at Ikea – but said that many of the others there were wobbly.
I did the rounds at Staples and Office Max for desk chairs and found none of them very good. Costco had a nice one and I’m happy with it. Really important to try before you buy.
I appreciate indirect lighting from multiple sources when in my home office. Eliminating glare is key to keeping my eyes happy.
For me, bigger is better - I like having a place for the computer and also stacks of books/papers, etc. My favorite desk of all time was my grad student desk - a piece of particle board set on top of two 2-drawer file cabinets… Not pretty, but I never saw the top of it anyway!
I would amend this to read, “…some CLIENTS never learn…” It’s not OUR idea of fun to procrastinate and pull all-nighters! Our clients tend to wait too long to engage our services, then still insist on keeping ridiculous commitments that they made. We could protest, but then we wouldn’t get the work.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
One more question as it’s been kind of brought up… screens, after a while, hurt my eyes. Any suggestions for anti-glare or other eye saving technology (either as a screen or as the monitor itself)?
I do a lot of reading on the computer but I’m buying myself a kindle for a graduation present so hopefully that’ll make it a bit easier.
Romani, I number of folks I know modify their eyes instead of the screen: they wear orange-tinted eyeglasses and swear by them! A good way to relieve eye fatigue is to take a 1-2 min break every 15-20 min and try to focus your eyes on objects in the distance.
Oh that’s a thought- I could try that! I have to get new glasses soon anyway.
See [url=<a href=“http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-standing-desk/%5Dthis%5B/url”>http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-standing-desk/]this[/url] about standing desks. They are much more affordable now and raise and lower quickly.