11 Ways life is different when you work from home
I recently started working from home full time. While the temptation to stay in pjs is strong, I’ve managed to get dressed and showered everyday. For the record, I didn’t think I’d be bragging about personal hygiene in my thirties. Overall being at home has been great, I’m more productive with work, less stressed about household stuff, more relaxed and a lot more caffeinated. Here are 11 ways my life is different now that I work from home:
-
Slice and bake cookies every day.
I’m a snacker by nature and will find any reason to meander into the kitchen and stand idly in front of the pantry. Lately I’ve been reaching past the yogurt, fruit, trail mix, etc for slice and bake cookies. It’s the closest I come to “baking from scratch” and trust me, nothing elevates your workday more than a warm chocolate chip cookie (or eight!).
-
I call customer service a lot more.
Our simple human soap dispenser stopped working. My deodorant packaging was damaged. Two of our Cree light bulbs with lifetime warranties went out. My Amazon package arrived in 3 instead of 2 days. Normally, we want to call customer service, but with evenings being the chaos that they are it almost always gets pushed aside. Now, if I have a quiet moment during the day, instead of gabbing with coworkers (which I totally miss!), I call customer service. As a result, Simple Human sent us a new and upgraded soap dispenser (for the record, the older model is better), Amazon sent replacement deodorant plus a $5 gift card and Cree sent new bulbs.
#smallwins -
A lot more trains around my workstation.
There used to be none.
-
I check the mail everyday.
Aaron and I used to go weeks without checking the mail. Sadly, some days checking the mail qualifies as cardio.
-
Shorter grocery pick-up wait times.
Flexibility is one of the perks of working from home. That means instead of scheduling grocery pick-up during peak hours and waiting upwards of 30 minutes, I schedule pick up in the middle of the day. Now I typically wait 5 or so minutes.
-
More clean, but much more wrinkled clothes.
While I’m home, I have boundaries on housework. I’ll run roomba or load the dishwasher, but heavy cleaning is left for some other time. With laundry I will start a load and transfer it to the dryer, but that’s where the process abruptly stops. Now, instead of a pile of dirty clothes sitting in our closet, we have a pile of clean clothes sitting in the dryer. And trust me, some mornings I’m knee deep digging through that clean pile, looking for that one shirt that will make my cranky 3 year old a little less cranky.
-
More pounds, less exercise.
Since Zoe was born, Aaron and I have struggled to find time to exercise. Not that chasing a 3 year old while bouncing a fussy baby isn’t exercise. Despite what I thought would happen - more exercise, fewer pounds - the opposite has occurred (probably no help from #1 on the list).
-
So many face masks!
I love face masks, but I don’t always have time on the weekends. Now, after I drop the kids off, I slather on whatever mask I’m trying that week and sit down to work. I can’t say if any of these make a difference, but these are a few I’m loving right now:
-
Leggings. Leggings. Leggings.
I’ve always been a jeans and t-shirt girl, so when I started working from home I assumed I would stay that way. But the world was right, leggings are incredibly comfortable, forgivably stretchy, and unexpectedly flattering. And if I’m being honest, I love the high waisted styles because I still have at least 10 lbs of baby weight to drop. I’m new to the leggings game, so please share your favorite brands! Someone recommended this pair to me, which I love for the $18.99 price tag, but I’d love to know what brands you all swear by.
-
More coffee.
-
More ‘adventurous’ haircuts.
If you know me, then you know my hair has looked more or less the same since I was 10. The most “adventurous” I got was occasionally switching my part to the other side, probably to strategically cover a blemish or two. But now that I don’t see humans during the day, I decided to go nuts and chop my hair off. And it’s short. Let me clarify, short for me. But my point is, and I know it’s just hair, but I never would have done it if I still went into an office everyday. (I think this is what crazy looks like when you are in your mid thirties and have 2 kids…maybe?)
Do you work from home? Love it or hate it?
(Photo by Death to Stock Photo)