10 Weird But Unavoidable Things That Happen When You Work From Home

By Winona Dimeo-Ediger

I’ve been working from home full-time or mostly full-time for the past 5 years now. When I tell people about my work situation, their first reaction is often, “I’m so jealous! I wish I could hang out at home all day.”

And, yeah, many parts of working from home are pretty sweet, but truth be told, this lifestyle seriously skews your view of reality.

Over the course of months and years of working from home, many odd habits and quirky routines start to feel totally normal. Here are a few of them:

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1. Viewing pants as “totally optional”

When you work at home, alone, pants are most certainly not required. You might even find you do your best work without them.

Unfortunately, this is not a generally accepted view in society.

2. Getting out of bed 5 minutes before you need to be at work

The ability to walk 15 feet from your bedroom to your office at the beginning of your workday, often with a toothbrush still dangling out of your mouth, is both a blessing and a curse.

It lets you optimize sleep time and completely removes the stress of a morning commute, but it also makes you forget how long it takes to actually get ready and go other places.

I can wake up 10 minutes before I need to be at my dentist appointment across town at rush hour, right? Wrong.

3. Talking to yourself at length

I think most people talk to themselves occasionally, whether it’s a quick pep talk before a job interview or a to-do list muttered to yourself on the way to the post office. But when you work from home, those fleeting moments of self-talk often become full-blown conversations.

4. Taking showers in the middle of the day, just because

The hardest thing about transitioning to an in-office job after working from home for a long time? Not being able to tell your boss, “I’m gonna take a quick shower to clear my head” after a stressful team meeting.

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5. Feeling like you should get some kind of award for putting on a bra

Because seriously, that requires effort, valor, and diligence.

6. Scheduling your work around a daytime talk show

You might realize that it’s worth it to work through lunch in order to take an extended break when The Chew comes on. It’s all about balance and priorities, people.

7. Forming a genuine friendship with the UPS guy

Not that many of his customers are always home for deliveries, so it’s easy to get to talking while you sign for your Sephora delivery. All those little talks add up, and pretty soon you’re excitedly greeting him by name and asking how his daughter is doing in calculus.

8. Cleaning your kitchen as part of your creative process

I don’t know about you, but something about scrubbing a pan really gets my mind moving when I’m feeling stuck.

And I don’t think I would feel as enthusiastic about kitchen-cleaning as a brainstorming technique if I were staring down an office kitchen filled with random people’s leftovers and crusty coffee mugs. It’s so much more meaningful when it’s my own filth I’m cleaning.

9. Relocating your work space to your bed when you’re tired/crampy/cold

This is a pretty sweet perk, I have to admit.

10. Considering the squirrels that hang outside of your office window to be your close friends

When you don’t have coworkers, your workday connections can become, well... slightly non-traditional. As is the case with the family of squirrels that live outside my window, who all have names and distinct personality profiles.

Oh, look! Shelly is stealing vegetables from my neighbor’s garden again! Sigh. That is so Shelly.

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Winona Dimeo-Ediger is the editor in chief of Livability.com. Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Country Living, National Geographic and NPR.