Secrets for a successful home office
Be mobile. “It’s rare that I have meetings at my house,” says Nelson. “I generally have them at the site of the project. It’s practical in the sense that we are in the space and that I don’t worry too much about hosting clients at my home.” Look upward for storage. “The reality is that a footprint can’t grow, so I’ve gotten creative by adding vertical storage. Much of it is Ikea, which surprises most people — I’ve elevated it by putting my own hardware on it.” Get the kids out. “The only way a home office works for me is to have the kids out of the house,” says Nelson. Her older daughter, Kaila, attends a nanny share a few blocks away, and once Nelson’s maternity leave is over, her youngest, Emmy, will probably join her. “I’m close enough to be able to get to them quickly, and flexible enough that sick days aren’t a tangle of logistics.” Embrace it. “Having a separate space is nice to delineate your professional and personal life, and I may have to move one day, but this setup works for me now,” says Nelson. “Having my office at home means I’m not losing time commuting, and I can work day or night when I have the time. When the girls are napping all I do is step into the other room.” Edit, edit, edit. “I had a habit of keeping everything, thinking I might use something for a shoot or a project one day, but I had to stop that to make this work,” says Nelson. “I did a huge purge before Emmy was born, and now consciously practice the art of only keeping what I really need.”