Working from home is an awesome opportunity to accomplish things that you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. From the chance to care for pets that wouldn’t otherwise like to spend eight to ten hours alone to the ability to answer the door and supervise work on your property that would be impossible if you were at the office: this opens a lot of metaphorical and literal doors for you.
Unfortunately, working from home while you’re making changes to your property isn’t as easy as you’d hope for. Remodeling while working from home is stressful and can take up a lot of time and attention that should be spent working or studying.
These are the top ways to survive a home remodel while you need to focus at home!
1. Create Quiet Focus Spaces
A large distraction to many when they’re trying to focus is sound. Any noises that can pull their attention away from work or classes will immediately prove successful at doing so. This can be difficult when you’re in the middle of a home remodel since almost every change is something that’s going to make noise.
Consider starting with window replacement inserts before you update any other portion of your home. New windows reduce the amount of noise pollution that gets in and ensures that you won’t be interrupted by the hammering of someone building your garage just a hundred feet away.
For additional reading check out this guide on Noise pollution and wellbeing | Comparethemarket
2. Keep Your Air Quality High
The air we breathe is important, not only for our focus but also obviously for our health. If you’re working from home, you might not immediately notice if the air quality gets worse. Because of this, it’s a good idea to ensure you work in well-ventilated spaces so that when workers are applying sealant, the fumes that result until it dries don’t agitate your lungs or cause health complications in any of your loved ones.
This can simply be a fan turned on, with a window open, or you can look into strong air filters if you’re interested in going further.
3. Increase Security for Privacy
Many of us who work from home deal with delicate information or calls that don’t need to be shared with the world. Because of this, it’s a good idea to update your doors as well. This means both exterior and interior since both add a layer of security and soundproofing between you and the outside world in the same way smooth siding would.
If you’re nervous about missing anything important, set a sign on your interior office door asking people to text you instead, which you can remove between meetings. This can feel silly at first, but it’s a great way to avoid interruptions for anything that’s not an emergency.
4. Time it as Well as Possible
If you have kids and they’re taking classes from home, it’s important to try and schedule around them as much as possible. Kids have a harder time focusing, and although we can accommodate to some degree, the best option for them is to avoid any construction as long as school is going.
Instead, time noisier projects for the summer or the evenings when they won’t be in classes. In this time, you can keep them distracted with games, television, playing together outside, or other ways: and their classes won’t suffer.
5. Declutter Before Anything Starts
Before you put in your first metal studs: it’s important to get rid of any and all clutter. When you’re doing home renovations, things are likely to get moved around and displaced, and clutter will just make your workdays even more stressful. Take the time to go room to room over the course of a couple of weeks, and get rid of any clutter that could get in your way. Although this can feel stressful to deal with, it’s important in order to ensure this clutter won’t get in your way when you need your full attention on work or classes.
Make sure you donate, sell, or recycle anything you no longer need, only trashing things if they truly couldn’t be used in any way.
6. Give Yourselves Perks Along the Way
It can be rough to focus while your home is going through major changes, so don’t forget to reward yourself for working so hard to get through these shifts. These don’t have to be major rewards, like a vacation out of state: but treat yourself along the way.
This might mean that you order in for dinner more often during the week or that you take yourself out for a big movie and dinner night at the end of your workweek, but you should put your all into giving yourself things to look forward to. These are large changes to acclimate to, so you deserve a treat.
Home Remodels Aren’t the End of Your Attention Span.
Although it can be distracting at first: even the noisiest home remodel can eventually become a part of your life that you acclimate to. Don’t forget to take breaks and be patient with yourself in this transitional phase.
Matt Lee is the owner of the Innovative Building Materials blog and a content writer for the building materials industry. He is focused on helping fellow homeowners, contractors, and architects discover materials and methods of construction that save money, improve energy efficiency, and increase property value.
