Work from home

If your home office has a door, chances are it's a hollow core door which won't do a lot to block kid/pet/kitchen noises and the like. A cheap fix with stuff you probably already have is a couple (or more) heavy curtains, especially blackout curtains, on the non-opening side of the door. I've got several hanging from some of the spring loaded rods with the rubber tips for hanging curtains inside window frames since my door is in at the end of a narrow hallway and I didn't want to bother with truly mounting anything, but use whatever hardware works for your situation. You can also use a cheap door-sweep or weatherstripping for the top, bottom, or sides of your door to seal it even better.

 

I've been working from home for >10 years and love it. Others have made good recommendations and I'll add a few more;

• make a sign for the office door for when you are on camera. Mine says just that - "Camera On". Or Do Not Disturb. My other half, who also works from home, has the same. We do not disturb when the sign is up unless it's an emergency.
• You don't have to have a blank white wall background but be cautious of things like your calendar. Make sure it's not reflected in something and can be seen on camera.
  
• You're going to be in there all day so make it comfortable beyond the chair. I like vintage mod-century modern so that's what I went with. I work from around 6:30am to 4:30/5pm so I take breaks throughout the day. Run errands, work a little on any woodwork project I have going, relax on my small sofa and watch something on my TV (that doubles as my 2nd monitor).
  
• Get fast internet and wifi. I have Comcast and was able to hardwire to my office, but I also put in a mesh network for wireless devices. The little white box sitting on my stereo cabinet it one of the "satellites ". With both of us on Zoom and/or Teams it's much better than when we had just the modem/router combo.

 

the more I read suggestions the more im leaning towards converting my guest bedroom into the office. i could knock out on a weekend a loft bed set up and make a wrap around desk under it.