I set up my home ofiice/study on what was the sun porch of our house. My wife and I decided this would be good as it is spacious, well lit and comfortable and right off the living quarters of our house. This last one has turned out to be the problem. Its' too close, wife and son always come back, even with door closed, also wife thinks that any time spent in office is too much(never mind the fact that I do supplement our income here). Anyway I have come to the conclusion that it will be better if I move my setup to an out building away from the house. Maybe then , they will treat the situation more as when I "go to the job", I think if they have more than 20 feet to walk they may let some things wait till later. Anyone else have this "traffic problem" with your home office? What were your solutions? Thanks in advance.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 06, 2000

Answers

If you are supplementing your income from your home office, then you need to keep 'office hours', and you need to explain to your family why those hours need to be respected. Does your wife have a computer? Get her e-mail and tell her to e-mail you.

Perhaps you could let your wife know what you are working on, and the time constraints you are facing. Also, you could take 'coffee breaks' and come out and talk with your wife, and periodically show her what you are doing (if she's interested or understands what it is).

-- Karen Isaacson (karen@terraceweb.com), August 06, 2000.

I think that what kind of business that you have has a lot to do with what you need and how you operate. I am a real estate broker, and I solved the problem with an older 10X60 mobile home set up about 300 ft. away from the house. This provides sufficient office space and storage room as well. This also eliminates a lot of questions as far as IRS is concerned since it is a seperate building, not part of my residence. Since my commute to the office is only 300 ft. it is a lot easier to justify my auto expenses, which start and end at the office.

-- Ed Copp (edcopp@yahoo.com), August 06, 2000.

Assign anyone who interrupts during work hours a tedious, but inarguably neccessary task, such as filing or data entry. I soon predict that intrusions will slow to a bare minimal trickle. Motto If you're in the office, you're obviously there to work. A modified version of this always kept us kids out of Mom's hair while she was writing, that and the threat of an imminent, and permanent, marker mustasche being imposed by said aggravated (and deceptively quick) mater.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 07, 2000.

I work from home full time (telecommute) and have the same problem. It's like they don't percive your work as "real" work if you're working in the office while wearing your overalls... And I have set hours that don't vary a whole lot, seperate phone lines, a "work" PC, a "family" pc in a different room, etc. Still doesn't eliminate the non-essential / trivial interuptions and noises (dog's barking, children fighting, blaring TV when the 2 year old plays with the remote, etc.)

I'm saving my pennies for an outbuilding, and I'm putting it a good 50 to 75 feet away from the house. Seperate electric, heat, A/C, etc.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), August 07, 2000.

It helps for me to have added on to the house for my office (10' X 10') and a private full-bath attached. As soon as you enter my house (dining room) you can turn into my office. My clients now have little encounter with my "real" living space. I have an old church pew, and a rocker if need be, available for waiting folk (which I really discourage). This has diminished the need for other household members to "hide". There are several other exits for family.

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), August 07, 2000.

Our office used to be between the kitchen and the living room. It also had our one bathroom attached to it and led to one of the stairways. At that time Dad was still teaching and so Mom did the majority of the work and with the office in our main living area, she often got distracted by office work! We now have our office where our wood shed used to be and it works better. Mom still gets distracted, because she just has to think about it and off to the office she goes! We don't have a problem with noise. We are all usually outside working, we don't watch t.v, except for an occasional movie, (once every 3 or 4 months) and British comedies on Friday nights, (not the youngers); so noise isn't a problem. Setting office "hours" is helpful, but I think that in a home office situation it takes awhile for others to learn not to bother Mom/Dad while they're working!

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), August 09, 2000.