Office setup

[Cobweb]

Welp, my dream has come true. I got a job where I can mostly work from home :) But I need to set up an office space! Right now I have a two-tier computer desk with an recliner, which I have to slide back and forth on the floor when I want to get in or out.

I am looking for an easier setup. I must be able to put my feet up, and the chair has to be comfortable on my rickety old bones. I need some space to spread out papers and such when I'm auditing charts (we still have some paper charts that I have to work on). The two-tier desk is OK for gaming, but it is not big enough to give me room to work and set up two monitors, so I'll have to have a new computer setup as well. I figure a regular flat desk or even a kitchen table will do for that, but I am not sure what kinds of chairs to be looking at. Any other fat old arthritic nurses have chair suggestions? I actually had to stuff pillows in my chair at work because it is so uncomfortable after an hour or two, although I rotate sitting in it and sitting in my power chair a lot.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

A new recliner and a laptop. An "over the recliner" table on wheels to set up the laptop. Good wireless internet so that you can go wherever you need to for comfort. Side tables to the recliner to set up what you need to.

At the desktop, I have a sturdy wooden seat with a cushion on the seat, and a lumbar cushion on the back. The cushion is the important part! LOL And you can look at cushions designed for long car travel.

You could have your own corner--a long sideboard with book shelves on one end, file cabinet under--and a wheeled table that you can move at will. The desk top could be your second monitor--if you need one, or an Ipad device.

Good luck in your endevours!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Another fat old broad here :) : Jadelpn has given you some good ideas. Another is to call your local OT/PT facility and ask for someone who knows how to do an ergonomic assessment of your office space. These folks are terrific and can give you specific ideas about arrangements, facilities, chair, and other adaptive stuff that will make your office perfect for you. Meanwhile, we can tell you about ours. :)

My desk is an enormous piece of wood set on top of two, two-drawer filing cabinets. I think it might have originally been a lab table in a turn-of-the-last-century classroom. My college BF and I boosted it in 1970 from the attic of a college building where it had probably sat unused for at least fifty years before that, and made it into our kitchen/dining table. You, however, should check the local thrift shops, flea markets, or lumber yards. :)

On top of it I have a three-shelf unit I had the local high school shop teacher make for me out of plain pine with a light polyurethane finish-- it's as long as the desk, and has shelves deep and high enough for binders and stationery storage on the top. And the cat bed. Be careful about that part-- she sometimes pushes boxes of business cards from up there down on my keyboard and one day the shock will stop my heart. Now she's asleep up there, enjoying the AC in the only cool room in the house, neatly tucked into the spot where the business card boxes were this morning.

My scanner-fax sits on top of a three-drawer file cabinet next to the desk, and I have another shelf unit behind me with reference books, a small fountain for ambience, and some plants.

I have a Mac 25" desktop model and a cheapie satellite 17" monitor next to it for extra viewing "real estate." Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so I can use them anywhere. You could also use a laptop with a Bluetooth connection to one or two monitors on your desk if you go for the recliner chair with lap table combo, or use the Bluetooth keyboard on a lap desk with your recliner chair. You could also go really awesome and get a Bluetooth-enabled 60" TV up on the wall, but I digress.

Wish there was a good way to share pictures here.

My chair is a high-backed upholstered armchair on a single post with wheels, like the base for a secretary chair, but it's this nice upholstered thing that rocks ( I mean that literally, it rocks back to 45 degrees), nice for position changes. I have a small pillow for lumbar support. Got a nice electric foot warmer pad for winter on an angled footrest under the desk. Sometimes I get to use it if the cat doesn't get there first, but it's nice and cozy behind the Mac, too, so sometimes she sleeps there on cold days. My monitor purrs.

As to paper management, once I discovered AdobePro a few years ago I never looked at piles of paper again. When I get paper, I scan it in that nifty Brother MSC B&W laser printer/fax/copier, then it all goes in the wood stove (winter) or shredder (summer). AdobePro lets you sort, rearrange, remove, and search. Lovelovelove it, after having huge boxes of paper everywhere for years. Now I charge a premium for paper records. I don't even want the money, I want the records on disk.

[Cobweb]

Those were amazingly helpful posts. Some of those things never even occurred to me. You have given me some great ideas...especially the over-the-chair wheeled table, which I did not think of, and the cat bed on the desk /grin. I have been wanting a cat...I've always been a dog person, but for some reason kitties are calling to me this year. I hadn't really considered a laptop either. My son is a computer geek and could probably Bluetooth my desktop monitor to a laptop. I'm going to call the ergonomics folks Monday!