Working from home: Creating a Pinterest worthy (yet practical) home office.

If I had a dollar for every time someone say “Teachers have it soooo good, your job is 9-3pm” we would all be rich!

As I explain in my post “Top 10 things I wish I’d know as a first-year teacher” a teachers hours are not constrained to the school hours of 9am to 3pm, in fact there are many MANY hours put in at home.

Taking work home can mean that you can split your time spent marking, data tracking or planning at school, and do some in the comfort of your own home (in your comfiest pjs perhaps with a bowl of delicious ice cream too!) Having a desk or work space set up at home can make the transition from school to home just that little bit easier. Having this space all set up and organised can ensure you have everything you need at both home and at school, without having to cart a giant bag full of stationary around!

Here’s Georgia and my tips on how to make a Pinterest worthy (yet practical) home teaching space.

1. A suitable desk or static workspace:

This might seem like a bit of a ‘duh’ moment, but having a desk or space that is suitable will help you to feel comfortable when working from home.
Make sure the desk or space you use is one you can keep that way. Using the kitchen bench or dining table might be ok as a once off but its important you have a space that is uniquely yours, one you can change and adapt and leave your things without needing to constantly move them.

Check out some of these cute and functional desks we like at:
IKEA
KMART AU
AMAZON
TARGET USA
TARGET AU

2. A comfy chair:

Marking and planning are time consuming, a lot of time will be spent sitting down. Having a comfortable chair is very important and will ensure you get the most out of your time spent working. No one wants to sit for hours in a chair that hard or that just isn’t supportive. Yet there is no one size fits all chair either, finding a chair that fits with your needs is vital.

Click Here to read some more about how to find your perfect work chair.

3. Organisational Tools:

Organisation, a teachers best friend (other than Pinterest, am i right!). Having a couple of book boxes and trays will help not only keep your paperwork and books organised, but will also keep your desk looking Pinterest worthy!

Check out KMART Australia and AMAZON for some awesome desk accessories to spice up your desk.
Some items we’ve used on Mel’s home work space from Kmart are:
– Black Magnet: Magnetic Memo Board.
– Wood look: Shelf desk organiser.

4. Spice it up!

Yes, your space is for working and it needs to be a place that helps you to focus and get the work done. However in order to do that you need to actually want to sit down there!
Create a space that is visually appealing, one you actually want to spend time in. I don’t know about you but we don’t like spending time in a place that is boring or isn’t very visually appealing.

Some tips for spicing up your work space are:

– Add some plants: Plants add colour and dimension to your work space. Plants have also been said to help productivity by reducing fatigue, they are also meant to be good for ‘out of the box’ thinking! Click Here for some more good reasons why adding a plant to your work space would be beneficial!

– Vision board: A motivational or inspiration board provides you something to look at and helps keep you inspired. Add some little goals to give you some inspiration while you’re working.

Here are some links to help you create your own vision board:
The Truth Practice: Some awesome freebies here to help you start your vision board.
Gurl.com: 12 insanely creative ideas on how to make a vision board.

– Add some colour:
Colour makes people feel happy. Your classroom is most likely colourful and therefore inviting for your students. You want to create a space you’d actually like to sit down it, let alone work! Use your favourite colours or create a colour scheme to create your happy space.

Click Here for a Buzzfeed article on the benefits of adding colour to your home workspace.

5. Storage, storage and more storage!

Having storage as a teacher is a MUST!! The amount of paper we bring home which consists of:
– Marking
– Lesson plans
– Unit plans
– Forgotten notes… etc.
All these bits of paper need a home, so draws and filing systems help to create an organised pile of chaos!

Click on the links for some cute filing systems we’ve found:
IKEA
Livemaster
Ebay
Domayne

6. Teacher Toolbox:

Having a teacher tool box on your desk will ensure that you’re never far away from those little essentials every teacher needs and will ensure your work space stays organised and free from clutter.

Here’s a cute freebie from ‘SIMPLY SPEECH’ on Teacherspayteachers (TPT). Click Here to access her FREEBIE!

Some ideas for things, you can add to your Teacher Toolbox are:
– Pencils and Pens
– Highlighters
– Paper clips.
– Stapler

TA-DAAAA: The final product!

… and here’s our final product! We went with a vision board with some quotes and colour to brighten up our space. A printer (because what teacher doesn’t need a printer!) A table organiser to keep our paper work tidy (or at least organised chaos) and a magnetic organiser to keep pens and other tid-bits tidy and off the table.

We hope you like our tips to help you build your own office space at home. If theres anything we have missed or you’d like us to add please let us know by commenting here or on our Facebook.

We look forward to your comments and if you’ve got a kick-ass home workspace we’d LOVE to see it also, share it with us on facebook or in the comments below. We can’t wait to see them all.

Enjoy!

Love Mel and Georgia x