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6 • SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2022 • HOUSE TO HOME
RETURNING TO ‘NORMAL’ after going back to work
The number of professionals
working remotely
skyrocketed in 2020, when
businesses were forced to
close their offices in an effort
to slow the spread of the
covid-19 virus. As the world
transitions from the pandemic
phase to an endemic
phase, many office workers
also are transitioning back
to their offices.
A recent survey from the
Pew Research Center found
that 59 percent of workers
in the United States are
now working from home
all or most of the time,
while 22 percent are rarely
or never working from
home. In 2020, 70 percent
of workers were working
from home all or most of
the time, while 17 percent
rarely or never worked
from home. Those figures
reflect that work life, albeit
gradually, is returning
to pre-pandemic norms.
As individuals find themselves
going back to the
office with increased frequency,
they might be wondering
what to do with their
home offices. If space inside
a home is at a premium,
then repurposing a home
office into a space that can
be used more frequently is
a great way to make better
use of the existing square
footage. The following are
some ways homeowners
can transform home offices
created during the pandemic
into more useful spaces.
• Go back in time. Perhaps
the easiest thing to do with a
home office that is no longer
needed is to return the room
to its pre-pandemic state.
Because the shift to remote
work was so sudden, many
homeowners were forced
to turn washrooms, breakfast
nooks or areas of their
basements into home offices.
Returning those spaces
to their initial functions can
make a home feel less cluttered
and add more room
for residents to relax and
get around.
• Create a new entertainment
area. Many homeowners
converted a spare
bedroom into a home office
during the pandemic.
In such instances, guest
beds and other furniture
might have been moved
into storage or even sold
or discarded. Either way,
that means the office was
cleared of bedroom furniture.
Now that the room no
longer needs to be an office
and now that homeowners
have made do without the
extra bedroom, the room
can be converted into an entertainment
area. Swap out
the desk for a foldout couch
that can still accommodate
overnight guests when
necessary. Then mount a
flatscreen television on the
wall and utilize the room as
a gaming room for kids or
a film room/man cave for
mom or dad.
• Create an in-law suite.
The pandemic separated
families, as people living in
different households were
advised to avoid gatherings
to stop the spread of the virus.
Individuals with aging
parents may have felt particularly
heartbroken by
this forced separation, especially
if their elderly parents
were living in nursing
homes that were stretched
thin by staff shortages and
other challenges. In the aftermath
of the pandemic
phase, families may want
to invite aging relatives to
live with them. Home offices
can be repurposed into
in-law suites so aging parents
don’t have to confront
the isolation and loneliness
many felt during the height
of the pandemic.
METRO CREATIVE
What to do with a home office
If you don’t
want to just
return the
room to
its original
state,
among the
options for
repurposing
your
pandemic
home office
are creating
a new entertainment
area or an
in-law suite.
METRO CREATIVE