The pandemic resulted in us having to shelter in place for the better part of a year. Businesses and schools were all forced to shut down to prioritize everybody’s health and safety. The effects of the pandemic continue to be felt in both our personal and professional lives.
Seeing our friends and family became increasingly difficult as different states and countries started to temporarily close their borders to contain the rapid spread of the virus. Corporations that initially came to a standstill slowly transitioned their workforce to work from home. For a lot of us, this was the longest period we’d been forced to stay in the dour walls of our home.
Our home lives were suddenly forced to morph and adapt to make room for our whole daily routine. Getting a cup of coffee at the café, working in our offices, meetings, dinners, and movies were all squeezed into the confines of the four walls we call home. A place that used to be for relaxation has now transformed into a multipurpose home base for our multiple daily activities.
The real estate, interior design, and home renovation industries have all strived to accommodate the changes our homes needed to serve us during these difficult times better. Jamming so many activities into one place can result in chaos at the drop of a dime. Add the number of people in one space, and some guidance is needed to keep things in order.
Home office
Making sure to separate the areas in our homes dedicated to being productive from the ones meant for leisure can help us burn out. When you’re spending so much time at home, it can be easy to blur the lines of your working hours. Going in and clocking out of a physical office helped us disconnect, to an extent, from the stress that comes with deadlines and deliverables.
Transferring all that stress into our homes is a recipe for burnout. That’s why establishing a home office became so popular during the pandemic. Whether it’s a dedicated room in your home that you’ve made into an office or a small corner of your apartment, working in just one spot helps get you in and out of that productive mindset.
Outdoor spaces
Spending so much time at home, it’s also normal to feel a little claustrophobic. Social distancing protocols and lockdowns limited how much time we could spend in the outside world. Not being able to get a breath of fresh air can be detrimental to our physical and mental health. Outdoor spaces became lifesavers for a lot of homeowners.
Transforming their yards into areas where they could dine, work out, learn and relax became an extremely popular trend. Properties with big yards, previously underutilized, were filled with outdoor furniture to make the space more functional. Allowing people to work out outdoors, spend work breaks outside, and even have dinners in the fresh air. Smaller places with balconies also saw more people making the best of these small spaces. They filled them with plants, comfortable furniture, and small tables to have their morning coffee.
Storage and utility
Organization also became a popular trend during the pandemic. The last thing you want is to be spending all your time in a cluttered space. People may have previously looked past during their rush to get out the door has become an eyesore that they see every day. Having a place to store everything and keep your living space neat and orderly became essential during the lockdowns.
Home renovation projects that concentrate on dual spaces that offer additional storage continue to be a trend these days. Utilizing every inch of the home also became a top priority. Bulky elements in homes like big furniture and decorations have been switched out for more seamless pieces. Streamlining the look and feel of your home can help keep things organized and bright instead of cluttered and dim.
Security
As schools closed down, child care also became a big topic of conversation. Having children spending all of their time at home became a cause for security concerns. Many homes started to install modern security systems that allow you to monitor different rooms in the home on one device remotely.
Parents working in one room of the house could watch where their children were and what they were doing throughout the day. Properties with open yards and pools set up fences to protect younger children from wandering from safety. Installing garage doors also served to protect vehicles from the elements while providing parents with peace of mind that people couldn’t just wander in and out of the garage.
The changes to our homes don’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. The new normal brings a new set of factors to consider making the most out of our homes.
