Your home office guide

The workplace at home is not only interesting for the self-employed and freelancers or managers for the weekend; increasingly, companies are also moving their employees' workplaces to their homes. This saves costs, creates motivation and often good, new work results. For mothers, it is a better way to reconcile children and work.

But beware of quick furniture purchases! Especially when it comes to the office, you should draw up regular checklists for yourself on how you want to furnish the office - or you can go through the following considerations one by one:

What to look for before buying your home office:

  • Consider whether you want your workplace to blend in with the furnishings you already have so that you continue to feel at home. Or would you prefer to create a particularly businesslike office atmosphere because you often have to receive clients?
  • How much storage space and floor space do you need? Do you work with folders? Then shelves are recommended! However, if you mainly work with hanging files, you should get containers or cabinet drawers!
  • Think about the storage of your PC (server) or laptop!
  • Where should storage media and PC accessories be stored?
  • Will you only work with DIN A-4 formats or also with larger papers?

What you should look for in a desk:

  • Make sure your desk is stable. It must not vibrate when you write! Tables with the GS mark have already been tested for vibration!
  • To be able to work well, the desk needs to be 80 cm deep and at least 120 cm wide (160 cm is optimal). Make sure that the desk has a working height of 72 cm - of course, it is better to have an adjustable desk where you can set the height individually!
  • Do you have at least 58 cm width for legroom? Also test whether your legs can bump against table legs, edges or a container. To avoid the risk of injury, there should be no sharp-edged rails under the tabletop, no keys protruding and all edges should be rounded.
  • Do not choose white or black table tops. When you look at white paper on a dark tabletop (and vice versa), the contrast is very tiring for the eyes. You should also avoid very shiny surfaces.
  • Make sure that cables are concealed to avoid annoying cable tangle.
  • Easy-care surfaces make cleaning easier.

What you should look for in a PC workstation:

  • The height of your PC desk should be between 62 and 79 cm.
  • Ideally, the screen should be slightly higher than the keyboard. This way you can avoid wrist pain (if the keyboard is too high) and neck or shoulder pain (because the screen is too low). Of course, you can also place your PC on a pedestal on a normal desk.
  • The support surface for the keyboard is extendable on most PC desks. The advantage of this is that you almost automatically maintain the necessary distance from the screen and can conveniently let the keyboard disappear under the tabletop again after work. However, you should make sure that the shelf is at least 30 cm deep so that you can support your wrists. Also think of enough space for a mouse.
  • The screen shelf must be stable and securely fastened.
  • The minimum distance between face and screen should be 45 cm.
Walter Knoll
Walter Knoll

What you should look for when buying an office swivel chair:

  • To sit as comfortably as possible, the height of the seat and backrest should be adjustable. A good seat is anatomically designed according to the contours of the body, an optimal backrest should support the lumbar region with a height-adjustable lumbar support. With a seat tilt adjustment, you can set the most comfortable seat tilt for you.
  • Be sure to try it out before you buy!
  • Also make sure that the chair is equipped with load-dependent castors. You can choose the type of castors individually depending on the floor covering. For carpeted floors you need hard castors, for smooth floors you need soft castors.
  • To avoid accidents, you should always look for the GS mark (tested safety) when buying!
  • Is the chair equipped with a safety gas pressure spring?
  • Does it have five foot struts, each no longer than 36.5 cm?

Why you should definitely try out an office chair:

  • Plastic furniture is often not as stable as it looks. Make sure that the backrest does not bend backwards, that the armrests cannot be easily pushed to the side or that the table and chair legs give way or even bend under load!
  • Also remember that the chairs may have to withstand a heavy visitor! They should also be able to sit comfortably and safely.
  • The table must not wobble or even tip over when you lean on it for a moment.

This is how you create storage space and order in your office:

  • Shelving systems are versatile office furniture. To be able to store your files here, the shelves should have a shelf height of at least 33 cm and a depth of 30 cm. Of course, they have to be stable.
  • In order to be able to store numerous small parts, it is helpful to have furniture that already has integrated organisational systems, such as various storage compartments.
  • Quick access to a lot of storage space is particularly convenient in a mobile container. Here you should pay particular attention to stability. It must not tip over when fully loaded drawers are pulled out. Also test how far the drawers can be pulled out and whether they are secured. All edges of the container must be rounded to minimise the risk of injury.

Advantages of an office multifunctional centre:

The advantage of this system is that you can make your entire office disappear into the cupboard. Nevertheless, the cabinet office is only a compromise because the desk top quickly becomes too small and the storage space is often insufficient in the long run.

  • Does the centre offer enough space for PC, screen, keyboard, speakers, printer and other peripherals? Consider where else a telephone, fax and photocopier could be placed.
  • Are there filing systems for folders, CDs, etc.?
  • Is the support surface for the monitor height-adjustable?
  • Is the available legroom and desk space sufficient?
  • Is there integrated lighting that is bright enough?
  • Are power sockets and supply lines installed?
  • Is the storage space sufficient?

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