Real Estate Tips |6 min read

Balance Life and Work from Home in a Small Apartment

When you work from home, it can seem impossible to balance business and leisure. After all, if you work at home, each part of your life collides and happens in the same place, at the same time. Uncover some expert ideas to help you keep your work life and personal life separate–both physically and psychologically.

Main Takeaways

  • There are many ways you can separate your home and personal life. You can physically and visually isolate your workspace area from the rest of your apartment. You can tightly organize your schedule so that neither half of your life spills into the other. Finally, you can create an end-of-day routine that lets your brain know it’s time to turn off the work switch.

Table of Contents

  1. Physically Separating Your Personal and Professional Life in a Small Apartment
  2. Psychologically Separating Your Work and Private Life in a Tiny Home

Physically Separating Your Personal and Professional Life in a Small Apartment

Here, let’s focus on the ways you can physically separate your home office space from the rest of your humble abode. Take note of the tips below.

Look for the Little Corners and Cracks

Search around your space to see if you have any untapped crevices that haven’t been used yet.

To start with, our Northern Virginia property management company recommends you explore those tiny openings.

By this, we mean a little empty gap in your living area, an unfilled hallway, or a little cranny at the edge of your kitchen. Maybe you could squeeze a chair and a compact table there. Overall, if there’s an unused patch of space somewhere in your small apartment, that could be your new mini office.

Reposition Your Furniture

If you rearrange your furniture’s placements, it could broaden your horizons, literally. For instance, you could move the sofa around a bit to make room for a narrow table behind it. Or, you could relocate your bed from one corner to the next so that it makes room for a desk. These little fixes can go a long way.

Double Your Closet as an Office

If the bottom of your closet is bare, it’s an area begging to be used to its full potential. You could move a desk in there. This way, you are facing the wall, away from any distractions. To finish the home office setup, you could add a lamp and some décor.

Make a Mobile Office

If you don’t have space for adding or rearranging furniture, there’s another alternative. You could create a mobile office to take wherever you are.

For instance, you could buy a craft cart. Then, you can fill that cart with all your necessary supplies and equipment. Finally, you can freely wheel the cart around your apartment as you work from home, from the dining room table to the sofa.

With this method, you can also separate work from leisure. After you’re done for the day, you can close up shop by wheeling the cart away to a hidden place. This way, you’ve set a boundary between work hours and afterward.

Separate Your Workspace and Living Space

No matter how small your space is, it’s essential that you physically separate your office area from the rest of your living space in some way. After all, you deserve to make your small apartment a sanctuary.

To accomplish this, put hanging curtains, a screen, or shelves around your work area to isolate it from the rest of your space. You won’t have to see your workspace when you’re not there, because it’s blocked off. Plus, this gives you more privacy if you have roommates nearby as you work from home.

Psychologically Separating Your Work and Private Life in a Tiny Home

It’s easy enough to rearrange your small apartment’s furniture, but rewiring the tangled mess that is a person’s brain is a whole other matter. However, with some time and practice, you can make it work. Here’s how.

Create a Strict Schedule During Your Workday

It’s harder to set a concrete boundary between on and off-work hours as you work from home, especially in a small apartment. After all, when you work at an office, you leave your working materials behind at the end of the day. But at home, you always have access to these materials.

Because of this, you must compartmentalize each section of your day so there’s no overlap. Maintain a routine with discipline. For instance, just as you would at an office, organize your day around blocks of time. In each block of time, plan to accomplish certain tasks.

Most importantly, don’t work after hours. Set a firm line in the sand to stop working after business hours are over. After all, you can’t be productive if you don’t take care of your mental wellness, first and foremost.

Stay Physically Active

Yes, we know this is a cliche answer. It feels simplistic to say that your problems will be magically solved if you just do yoga. However, this advice is a classic for a reason.

Your body is a well-oiled machine that needs continual maintenance, just like a car. If you overlook any of its gears, it could stop working as well as it should. In turn, if you don’t take care of your body, you won’t have the energy you need to take care of your mental health or your work. It’s all connected.

So, keep your body as active as possible. And remember, there is no right or wrong way to perform wellness. Do whatever works for you specifically, your unique abilities, needs, and goals!

Create an End-of-Day Routine

To really turn off the work switch in your brain, it might be a good idea to make an end-of-day routine.

As one routine example, you can start your end-of-day routine with a calendar reminder. When you get these reminders, it can signal that you should start packing your things. From that point on, try to shut off your phone’s notifications. By doing this, you can experience a more satisfying severance between each side of your life.

To finish it off, call a family member or friend to decompress from the day and transition into your personal life. Even better, plan a party in your small apartment to really lighten up the space.

Work From Home in a BMG Property

There are many small apartment ideas you can use to create a divide between your home and personal life. You can physically and visually isolate your workspace from the rest of your home. You can tightly regiment your schedule so that neither half of your life spills into the other. Finally, you can create an end-of-day routine that lets your mind know it’s time to turn off the work switch.

But, to strike the perfect work/life balance at home, you have to find the perfect home for doing that in the first place.

At Bay Property Management Group, our team can help you find the perfect small apartment or home for your budget and lifestyle needs!

As a full-service property management company, we collaborate with landlords and tenants to make sure everyone is satisfied with their home, sweet home.

So, whether you are a tenant looking to refresh your life in a brand-new place, or a landlord who needs help overseeing your properties – BMG is here to help.  Contact us today or visit us online to learn more!

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