Has Lockdown Changed Your Home?

March 2020 and with lockdown the world became a very different place. Our homes became very different places with it and as they actually became our worlds, not only the place to play and live but to work, holiday, school and everything else in between, we saw adaptions to our lives and our houses that were unprecedented. EVERYTHING had to happen from home in a way like it never had before and for the first time in years it even became the preferred (and highly encouraged) place to give birth so quite literally our whole of everything began and ran through home and home alone. While I myself, as a freelance writer and columnist have always sat down to my lap top to bash out the words I suddenly found myself in very unfamiliar territory for everything else my job entails. Like everyone else I had to merge the very social side to my work with also being sat behind a computer screen – most discombobulating. I was used to flitting in between London and Norfolk attending functions, press shows and events on a weekly basis. a lot of networking and for a short while, as the dust settled, everything stopped but time moved on and ways were carved for the show to go on and my work recommenced in a way like never before.

Though I was well versed in waking early to sit down and write I now had to attend press shows, screenings and other events for the media all via my lap top and with (then) three small children and a growing baby bump I realised my house wasn’t entirely geared up for the quiet and calm environment this demanded. I have an open plan downstairs living arrangement with the kitchen, dining/play room and living room all merging in a circle around my house. It was a great way to play but not so good for working and I soon realised something needed to happen to the living room or the dining area so that I could also make where we relax or eat a bit of an office. a bit of an office I could shut away from the rest of the house but one I could open up and still have my open plan living vibe once work was over. Tricky… Or so I’d thought!

As it turned out all I needed was some double patio sized doors but internally and though it wasn’t at all what I’d wanted for my home I can see the silver lining now. I will get to open up the bifold doors and live as we were used to but going forwards, instead of a space which was very definitely for fun I’ve created an area which is for work and work alone. A desk area, some space for me to continue with the job I love but from home. Now that the world is opening up a bit more there will of course be times when I get to go back out into the big wide world but as with many businesses my line of work has seen the benefits to being able to do things from home and where money is saved it’s generally passed onto me in work so a little bit of home Zooming and I’m very much in thank you, especially since our new baby has been born!

Of course for me and my family it was very much about making space for work in the place we had traditionally left it all behind at but for many others the home adaptions are vastly differing with so many needing other things to incorporate into their home to make our new normal work. I read this article about home adaptations during lockdown and realised there is so much potential for making changes to our home.

I think the thing that’s most prominently come about from lockdown is that adaptions for physical needs have had to be made for many. Stairlifts and disabled baths and the like for those who had ordinarily relied on relatives they could no longer and a whole host of other things. Makes me realise finding a calm place to work isn’t so important in the grand scheme. Another important factor for change has been to make homes greener as we are in them more so from the frivolous decorating the hall, stairs and landing to the necessary I think the majority of us have changed something. I bet the DIY shops were over the moon when they got the green light to open (and I bet the tradesmen all over joyed when we all bodged those jobs we have no skills in and needed to call in the experts.

So, did you change your home in lockdown? If so, how?

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