Working from home? Use these tips to make your home office more functional

For many people with office jobs, the permission to work from home has transformed their ability to balance work and family life. This solution can save people a commute, and help working parents take care of their kids while still being able to earn an income, greatly improving the lifestyles of many people. 

Previously, you would only find offices in the homes of very wealthy business people who could afford to allocate resources to their residence as well as corporate workplace. These days, however, you'll find that most home offices don't need very much equipment to work, since just about anything can be done with an internet connection alone, meaning that more people can carve out a workspace for themselves in their own house. 

However, the main problem with working from home is the number of distractions that this can expose you to. While it's possible to control conditions within your house to a certain extent, noise from around the neighborhood can be hard to curb. Therefore, making sure that you're able to focus while on the job mostly has to do with making your office area optimized for work-from-home conditions. 

Since you'll be dealing with different noise from the outside world, it may make sense to invest in soundproofing solutions such as flooring, window sealants or acoustic tiles for the walls can help to make sure that you maintain a quiet environment for doing your work. You would be surprised by just how much noise a simple window treatment can help to block out. Custom Roman shades or window blinds don't just help to block out natural light. If there is noise from a lawn mower or leaf blower outside that's causing you to become distracted, close your drapes or put down the shades, as these will help to deaden the sound. 

You also may want to invest in a sound system, or if you prefer, noise canceling headphones. These can help you to listen to music while you're working, allowing you to set the tone in terms of what you hear while you're on the clock. Many people find classical music to be inspiring when they're working on a project, and the lack of lyrics makes it into excellent background noise. 

Of course, those with little ones at home may not be interested in the idea of completely blocking out the sounds from around the house, as this may make it difficult to know what your child is up to. Rather than settling to work and then being interrupted, it's a good idea for working parents to consider developing a system with their children so that they can let you know if they need help with something but are also aware of when isn't a good time for you. This doesn't have to be anything fancy, for example, consider placing a "do not disturb" sign on the door to your office. This way, your family will know when you're having an important phone call or trying to finish something on a deadline, and will only interrupt you in absolute emergencies. 

If you're looking to improve your work from home experience, contact Bazaar Home Decorating. Our specialists can help you with whatever you need for your office. Whether you're in search of the ideal soundproofing solution or are badly in need of custom home organization, our Milwaukee fabric store has many solutions for you.