posted by Allyson Scott

As many people return to regular office life, some of us intend to hang onto working from our home offices at least some of the time. I made two purchases during the pandemic that have made life much easier, and I want to share these silver linings with you!

The first is a standing desk that is not only adjustable, portable, lightweight, and affordable, but is also made in Canada! It’s made of birch panels that are kept natural to enable their recycling, but you can also choose to paint or varnish them if you so desire.

Easy to assemble like a jigsaw puzzle with no nails or screws, you can take it apart and easily change where you work from in your house – or take it with you to the office!

Adjustable standing desk from Etsy © Allyson Scott

Handmade in Montreal by a guy named Eric, you can purchase it through his Etsy shop called EcoFurnitureDesigns for $179 CDN. He was great to communicate with, and it shipped quickly right to my front door. I looked at all kinds of office furniture companies, but this was the easiest solution that allowed me plenty of flexibility on where I set up!

Secondly, I finally purchased a proper ergonomic office chair! I think I delayed because the options were so overwhelming, plus didn’t love the idea of going into big office furniture stores at the time.

An online search led me to a Canadian company called EnvirotechHome, which offers completely refurbished high-quality office furniture at deep discounts. I was amused to discover that I had no idea chairs came with different casters for hard floors or carpet – I always assumed it was necessary to just buy those ugly plastic floor covers! You learn a new thing every day. Envirotech asks which casters you want, assembles the refurbished chair, and delivers it to your front porch!

Refurbished ergonomic desk chair © Allyson Scott

Both purchases have been game changers for my home office.

Those of you with eagle eyes might notice there is also a wine fridge in the back corner of my office, but no need to discuss the other things that became pandemic necessities…