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One of the things I was looking forward to the most when I first started working from home was kitting out my home office. I’m being serious when I say I had around a thousand ideas to make my own little man cave when working from home. The downside…. I was super light on space and had to put my office in my spare bedroom. Would having a bed in my home office ruin my productivity and can a home office have a bed in it?
Home offices should not have beds in them. Having a bed will mean that you are less likely to have a clear separation between your work and personal life. Having a bed in your home office is also non-tax-deductible, the IRS won’t see your office as falling under exclusive and regular use.
So what are the tax implications of having a bed in your home office? And are there other items that you should have or avoid in your office when working from home? Keep reading to find out more.
(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)
Can a home office have a bed in it?
So for a lot of us, 2020 was probably one of the biggest shifts we’ve had when it comes to working from home, changing our tiny one-bed apartments into places of work.
With future trends showing that working from home is soon to be the new normal for the majority of Americans (seriously there are estimated to be around ten million permanent remote workers by 2030) a lot of us are trying to maximize the room we have.
This can often mean using spare bedrooms as makeshift home offices.
Now whilst having a designated workspace is better than having no workspace when working from home I would urge you to avoid putting a bed in there for a few key reasons including:
- Tax implications
- Not good for zoom meetings
- Increased distraction ad getting lazy
- Poor posture
- Increased weight gain
- Reduced home value
- Lack of work-life balance
- Takes up excess space
Let’s explore these further detail below:
Taxation and home office deduction implications
Traditionally, a lot of people who work from home usually have their own businesses and as such, claim a tax rebate from the IRS to claim back-office expenses.
This can cover things like
- Heat
- Lighting
- Equipment used for work (laptop, a monitor)
- Electricity
- Internet
When working from home a proportion of these can be claimed back for example let’s say your electricity bill for the month is $100 you would divide up the estimated usage of your home office and be able to write that off as an expense (consult your financial advisor for more details)
Now if you put your bed in the office you can throw a spanner in the works for a few reasons.
Having a bed in the office will conflict with the IRS’ position on expenses from a home office needing to be claimed for exclusive and regular use only.
This means that if you have a home office, you can claim expenses on it so long as the sole purpose of that room is used for your business.
The best way to get around this then is to move your bed if possible, to another room in the house.
Now if you work for an employer, the good news is that most employers will allow you to claim back some of these expenses for working from home or even get your employer to expense the cost of your items such as an office desk.
Your workplace should also allow you to split the cost of any home office equipment if your horse has recently changed and you’re now working from home
Not good for zoom meetings
So one of the biggest things that we’ve had to deal with working from home is increased zoom calls.
As such it’s important that we have a nice background to work from and seem professional at all costs. This is because a lot of us want to prove to managers that we are taking work seriously.
Having a bed in your room, especially the one that you can sleep in might show to the people you are in meetings with that you’re a little unprofessional.
If you are unable to move your bed I would recommend having a look at my blog on the best zoom backgrounds for your video.
Increased distractions and getting lazy
Probably the biggest challenge and reason why you should not have a bed in a home office is just the increased distraction it can cause.
I mean let’s face it, human beings love the path of least resistance, and having a bed in a home office sooner or later means you will be lying down on it when working from home.
This can have a huge impact on your productivity causing you to push tasks into the next day or not being as productive as you would be working from a dedicated space.
As we all know, it’s a lot harder to restart a task when we get out of our flow state and so aim to do things to make it difficult to lie down when working from home.
I found one of the best options for this is investing in a standing desk (click to find my recommendation) which gets you up on your feet, making you get in a little bit more exercise keeping you busy as you work.
Poor posture
As mentioned, if you have a bed in your home office, sooner or later you’re more likely to use it… a lot.
As such you’re going to be spending more time lying down per day than you would if you were in the office.
Even if your productivity stays the same or increased there are some very real physical implications that you need to take into consideration, mainly poor posture.
8% of Americans will experience poor posture at some point in their lives. Lying down for too long can cause long-term damage to your back and neck and so it’s important that you get up and try to spend as much of your workday standing up or sitting down.
Increased weight gain and poor health
You will be lying down more in your home office if you have a bed in it and so the thing that will occur is that you will be exercising a lot less as these few steps you took when sitting on a chair or on a standing desk go out the window.
Whilst this might not seem like a huge impact in the forest in a few days, over time this adds up and sooner or later you’ll find your health may have deteriorated.
Doing stretches when you work from home, getting out on your lunch break, or taking regular breaks are all super important when you work from home.
Diet is another aspect you’ll want to keep an eye on too as lying in bed when you work from home may have you going for meals that are easy to eat (In bed even) meaning that the quality of the food you will have is also likely to deteriorate, further adding to poor health.
Reduced home value
So if you have decided to put your home office in a spare bedroom you may want to reconsider this when working from home.
You see eating into bedrooms when you are trying to sell your house can potentially reduce your home value with the majority of home offices either being downstairs or in loft spaces.
What is the best room for a home office?
Loft spaces are the best room for a home office and can potentially increase your home value by around 20% and so it is defiantly worth considering moving the bed out of your bedroom or better yet, moving your home office to another room.
You can read up more about this in my post here.
Lack of work-life balance
Employees who work from home and remote workers on average work 16.8 days more than their office-based counterparts.
Whilst this increased productivity is fantastic for the companies we work for the truth is that this can easily lead to an overworked workforce.
Working from home is tough enough as it is already with the distractions around us.
Adding a bed into your home office further complicates this, blurring the line between your work life and your personal life.
This can cause you to feel burnt out, lethargic, and just leave you with feelings of frustration which can damage your productivity going forward.
Beds take up excess space
Finally, one of the last reasons to avoid having a bed in a home office is the amount of room.
Anyone who has worked from home for longer periods of time knows just how quickly your storage space gets taken up and so having a bed that is likely going to be taking up a lot of space in your room is one of the first things you should remove if you are looking for space in your home office.
If you are adamant that you need a bed in your home office, consider investing in something like a futon or fold-out sofa which has multiple functions to best make use of your workspace.
When should you have a bed in a home office?
So whilst my recommendation is to avoid having a bed in a home office is possible are there any scenarios when you should have a home office with a bed in it?
- If you have a small flat – If you have a small flat or live in a studio apartment you might not have the room to put your bed away, if this is your situation, invest in some quality bedding or a fold away bed to maximize your room.
- If you work in certain fields – If you work in certain markets for example as a therapist or have a YouTube channel then this can add to the homely feel of your home office actually improving your value.
- If you are not people facing – If you mainly use your home office for admin work, don’t have a lot of zoom meetings, or have people coming round to see you then in these situations having a bed in your home office is perfectly acceptable.
What should you have in your home office?
So now you know that beds should not be in home offices, what are some bits of furniture that should?
The following, in my opinion, are essential to allow you to not only be productive when you work from home but feel good in the process too.:
- Desk (standing preferably)
Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
This post was written by Fehed Nicass who has over 10 years’ worth of experiance in sales and has been working from home for the past 3 years.