Are you fooling yourself with your space?
For eight years, I've lived in a 1-bed home. My partner moved in over two years ago. In that time, we've tried out some different life/work arrangements and had finally settled on something that was working...or so I thought.
Big Change That Definitely Works: We moved our bed out of the bedroom and into the living room.
Like any normal people, our bed used to be in the bedroom. But I also store my music equipment and always-on keyboard in the bedroom. That meant that the creative space was cramped and it was pretty tough/awkward if I ever wanted to play music with other people at my house. And with the bed in the bedroom, there wasn't also room for a desk, so we ended up both working on our computers out in the main room.
My partner had the brilliant idea of moving our bed out into the main room--after all, it's only really used at nighttime and taking up all this space during waking hours. As a former insomniac, I was a little worried at first that I wouldn't feel cozy out in the bigger room, but bedtimes worked well right from the start. Score.
And this meant that our long, lovely couch could now live in the former bedroom. People could come over and have singalongs. (Oh man, I wish I had regular singalongs...I don't.) And it meant that one person could be on their computer on the couch--with the door closed, while the other person was working in an entirely different room. Because my piano lives in the former bedroom, I got dibs on being the one to use the newly-created space and my partner got dibs on the desk out in the main room.
Big Thing I Thought Was Kinda Sorta Working: Using my dresser as a standing desk.
Ay, here's the rub. Sitting on the couch with a laptop hurts a person's back after like 30 minutes. And I had no desk. Even though we moved out a queen-sized bed, we moved in a very long (and beloved) couch, and there was no room to also add a desk. So I improvised. First I used a TV tray that was wedged between my keyboard and my dresser. It worked for a while, but I could never spread out projects I was working on, and I always felt constrained by the furniture surrounding me.
Next, I set up a makeshift standing desk at my clothes dresser, complete with an anti-fatigue mat and a place for incoming papers. While I was able to spread out a little more, I didn't like the condition of never sitting. So when I'd get tired of standing, I'd move over to the couch. And when my back would start to hurt, I'd return to standing.
It was a cycle I endured for over a year...until I realized I was fooling myself, trying to make something work that will only ever feel annoying and temporary. I'm an adult business person working on things all the time: I need a proper desk to do my damn work! Duh.
Big Thing That Is Now, Finally, Working: I figured out how to have a proper desk.
I wholeheartedly believe that we must have our creative tools available to us at a moment's notice. Otherwise, we have too many excuses and barriers that keep us from making our art. So I needed a keyboard set up and ready to play--this was non-negotiable. I considered moving my dresser out into the living room and took measurements several times. But there just isn't a place for it--it's enormous. I considered buying a new, slimmer, taller dresser instead, but I kept coming to the conclusion that it would not be a frugal choice. So I just stayed in my cycle, pretending I was content, but all the while knowing in my gut that my productivity and happiness levels could somehow be improved.
I don't know why it finally dawned on me. (I probably should've had a colleague come in months ago to give me another set of eyes, so I could've made this change sooner.) But I finally realized: the piano can live on top of the dresser! Its stand can be folded up! While a standing piano also isn't ideal, it's a pretty good compromise, and here's why: if I'm having a long music session with myself or others, the keyboard stand can be set up in 10 seconds and it doesn't matter if it's taking up space in the middle of the room because that's what the room is being used for at that moment. Meanwhile, I can still walk right up to the piano and write a melody at any time, just like before. And now I have a big ol' work desk for myself where the keyboard used to be. I can sit comfortably in one place, with no back pain, project papers spread in every direction, enjoying my blissful productivity.
So, how about you?
Are there things about your space you've just been putting up with, while your gut knows it's time to make a change?
Take a bold step. And don't look back.
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Bonus: I doodled a Before/Better™ rendition of this piano/desk case study. (Fig.1: Old Bedroom. Fig. 2: Better, but still need a desk. Fig. 3: Everything works--a whole lot better!) See it here.