Top tips for working from home in a shared space

Make finding suitable office furniture online a breeze with help from DIY Homefit

In 2025, an estimated 44% of UK workers work from home at least some of the time. 34% of these work from home full time, whereas 66% are hybrid workers, working partly from home and partly from an office.

This equates to around 24.3 million people working from home at least part of the time.

But where do they actually work?

In an ideal world, everyone working from home would have a fabulous home office, with space both to work and to store everything they need in a secure and aesthetic manner. You would spend days browsing office furniture online to come up with the perfect design for you. 

However, real life is often not like that, and many people working from home have to make do with some kind of shared space.

So in this article we look at a few tips to make the most of your shared workspace – however small – so that you can work from home effectively.

Claim your desk space

When working from home, hot desking takes on a whole new meaning! You are not competing with adult colleagues for a fully functioning work desk . . . you are competing with the whole family for whatever desk space you can get.

Firstly, take a good look round your home to see if there is anywhere suitable for a proper desk. For example in your living or dining room, the space under the stairs or perhaps at a little used end of a hallway or landing.

It does not have to be a huge desk; even a small desk would work, as long as it is the right height for you to be able to work properly at. DIY Homefit supplies a wide range of office furniture online that includes pedestal desks in various sizes and configurations. Check out our pedestal desk ideas here.

If there is no space to fit a proper desk, start thinking outside the box. Might there be a kitchen or dining table where you could set up shop during the day? Or your child’s homework desk perhaps? You could even use surface space between chests of drawers, as shown in the image below. 

The important thing is to find somewhere consistent to work, and stake your claim to it during working hours. 

Set up your equipment properly

Wherever you find your workspace, it’s important to set up your work area properly every day. This can seem a bit of a hassle in a shared space, and it can be tempting just to slouch on the sofa with your laptop instead. But if working from home is your permanent arrangement for most of the time, it’s important to consider ergonomics. For example, if your posture is not right during your working day, you will soon start to get aches and pains as a result of this.

So experiment with the best setup for you and before you start work for the day make sure that both your chair and computer/laptop are the correct height, so that you don’t have to slouch or bend to either to view your screen or use your keyboard and mouse.

Also make sure you have ready access to everything else you use regularly, such as your phone, notepad, pen, current documents etc so that you are not stretching or grappling for things and straining your muscles in the process.

Organise your storage

Ideally you want to store all the daily essentials that we’ve just mentioned in a place where you can get them out easily in the morning, ready for action. But also give some thought as to how you organise other items that you may need to be able to find quickly even if they are not on your desk at the time. Items such as stationery items, printer paper, client files, company manuals and personal documents such as invoices and expenses all need to be kept together close at hand.

DIY Homefit offers a range of office storage equipment as part of our range of office furniture online. For example, you can customise the pedestal desk we mentioned earlier with different bases such as cupboards, drawers, filing cabinets and shelves. Take a look at our home office furniture range here. Even if you don’t have space for a desk, you may be able to fit in one or more of these storage solutions close to the area where you are working.

If there is absolutely no space for any additional furniture at all, why not try the “office in a box” concept? Just keep everything you need for your day to day work in a large and lovely box. In the morning everything comes out, and in the evening it all goes back in again. Not perfect, but if it’s the best solution for now then so be it.

A break out area

One of the issues many people find when working from home is that they are either chained to their desk or face the distractions from the rest of the household. So if at all possible, it’s a great idea to designate another area as your breakout area. Perhaps you just want somewhere to sit quietly for a few minutes and regroup over a cup of coffee. Or maybe somewhere a bit more aesthetic to take a video call. Or even a change of scenery when you need to think deeply about something.

If there really is nowhere at home suitable for this, one option might be to decamp to a local coffee shop for a while. But you may be able to find space closer to home. If you have a spare bedroom this could be ideal. All you need is somewhere comfortable to sit while you change direction or clear your head. Or is there an outbuilding you could use, weather permitting?

With a bit of thought and creativity, you should hopefully be able to find a suitable space for a while. Then get back to the main business of the day refreshed and ready for more.

Shutting down for the day

At the end of the working day bear in mind that you may now need to pass ownership of your shared space back to another member of the family. So shut down your computer or laptop, and put everything away in your beautifully organised storage. 

It can be tempting to shortcut this and leave your stuff lying around. But a proper shut down and tidy up will ensure that you can then get on with the rest of your evening, knowing that your work items are safe and secure from prying eyes or clumsy hands. It’s also a good discipline to “leave work at work” and enjoy the healthy work/life balance that working from home is supposed to be able to bring.

We hope that the above tips help you to find the best place to work from home even if you have to share it with others. For home office solutions check out DIY Homefit’s range of office furniture online. And why not also take a browse through our gallery of home office ideas for more ideas and inspiration.

Do check back here soon for more home and lifestyle tips from DIY Homefit.