I need some help..

Mrs Tiger is a work machine who just fires up her tiny laptop, connects it to an old VGA 12” monitor out of a skip and plugs away all day not caring about her mid 90s IT setup. She has no interest in the tech or setup. I know she’ll appreciate a better setup but I know she’ll never do it.

I want to build her a much nicer working from desk base but not being an office type worker I’m stuck about what’s best.

What do I need? Laptop stand? 30” monitor ? Keyboard mouse? Hub?

Help, please… pretty please…

Is it broken?
Does it need fixing?

No?

Leave well alone

I’d say from a H&S perspective it probably does need fixing. Had a couple of skip monitors in my time and they were all in there for a reason, usually because it was burning out. If this is the case then her eyes will certainly thank you.

Laptops are an ergonomic nightmare. Both Mrs Sheeps and I have (homemade) laptop stands (really just a pile of books) to bring the screen up to just below eye level, and a separate keyboard and mouse.

We both have second screens… 24″ and 27″ respectively. Not sure I could go back to 1 screen, especially with my proprensity to have at least 7 documents open at once!

My ex insisted and from what I can see still persists is working on a laptop on a kitchen table all day long. She also had endless neck problems that appeared to be directly related, so yes, it’s worth improving.

A decent size, modern monitor which is either height adjustable or you can use a stand , shelf / books etc to adjust the height. Add a keyboard and mouse then only use the laptop screen as a second screen if anything and jobs a good’un.

2.7″ monitor separate mouse and keyboard. What laptop does she have? It maybe there is a docking station or if it’s new enough with USBC then a usbc with hdmi out. This way you can leave monitor mouse and keyboard plugged into hub and it’s only one plug into laptop when setting up.

Top of screen level with eyes. Arm length away is usual starting point.

If she wants to use laptop as second monitor a stand to prop it up higher. Mine is not as high as it should be but even sat on a block 3″ high makes it easier.

Funny how during lockdown when the company offered free monitors for home pretty much everyone I work with put in for one.

A part of the ‘submit’ was you had to state that you couldn’t do your job without one.

Before lockdown we all worked from home at least one day a week – and I was the only one with an external monitor…

2.7″ monitor separate mouse and keyboard

I know this is a typo on an otherwise very helpful post, but the mental image of someone sitting with all the ergonomic trappings of office work while squinting at a teeny screen gave me a chuckle. Thanks!

Funny how during lockdown when the company offered free monitors for home pretty much everyone I work with put in for one.

A part of the ‘submit’ was you had to state that you couldn’t do your job without one.

Depends what your doing doesn’t it.

I used to use wfh days to catch up on admin-document filing , document control. Missed email

These days I need my dual screens to do my actual office job.

I can see why you don’t need monitors and such cluttering up the house for the occasional day but as above long term ergonomic nightmare and have nightmare for company.

Is it broken?
Does it need fixing?

No?

Leave well alone

Yes, it’s broken
Yes, it need fixing

Just trying to help 👍

Are all monitors created equal?

And is 27” the goto size nowadays?

If you can get a monitor that is height adjustable like this one Iiyama ProLite as it saves a lot of faffing with monitor stands or stacks of books

As suggested get an external keyboard and mouse, you can make connecting and disconnecting easier with a docking station

A laptop stand will help if you want to use the laptop as a second monitor

Two equal sized monitors, and 5 minutes spent setting the display and lid close options on the laptop. (Or one of those double wide monitors, that’s on my shopping list)

Laptop closed and proper keyboard/mouse. Might be a webcam as the laptop is no good when it’s shut.

Set the top of the monitors level with eyes (lots of people seem to want them sky high on full height propped up on a box) add push them right back on the desk so you can rest your forearms on the desk when typing.

I find it useful to have the right monitor directly in front of me, and the other one with the start bar to the left and angled. Gives you a primary screen rather than randomly flitting from screen to screen and gets rid of the gap in the middle.

If the budget allows, a dock does simplify everything and provides the extra ports needed. Newer laptops get a little USB C docking dongle rather than needing a desk unit which saves desk space.

Try to avoid using a laptop screen and one monitor, it can mess with the resolution, and for the benefit of your eyes the screens should be the same size so you don’t need to squint at the smaller screen.

IKEA make some decent, relatively inexpensive height adjustable desks. I put up with the sofa for a month before finally admitting to myself that it was causing a sore neck and buying a proper desk.

I added a relatively tall chair and have the option now to do Teams meetings standing up, which is actually quite nice. I also have a couple of the plastic laptop stands to give the cameras a little more height and make typing easier.

For monitors, I would go 27” or bigger, but I am a tart. VESA mount to arms on the back of the desk or to the wall behind and get them at the right height.

I’ve 21″ monitor balanced on a wooden block, laptop to the side, separate wireless keyboard and mouse.

No dock, just a few cables tucked down the back.

I upgrade my working from home with this 27” Ilyama which is height adjustable etc. Super happy with it after 2.5 months and though I still get screen fatigue, other parts of me don’t hurt. I bought a laptop stand in March but to be honest, the laptop just sits in it plugged into the screen on the side, with the screen off, as I’ve found the size and resolution of the monitor enough to just run everything on one (including side by side documents) which avoids different size screen issues. So if you got one of these you could probably get away without a stand. And then any reasonable keyboard and mouse. Wireless stuff just gets rid of the clutter. So probably a decent upgrade for £300 + desk if needed.

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Ignore the iPad, as I was having to do some social media stuff at the same time at that exact moment. I’m likely to be here for another 6+ months and I don’t feel I need to make any more adjustments.

Watching with interest as my new employer is offering to pay towards a home office set up – a Surface Pro on the dining table loses its appeal.

Needing a desk, chair, screen, mouse, keyboard and probably a WiFi extender as I’ll be at the furthest point in the house from the router.

and probably a WiFi extender

After loosing my rag with my WiFi, and some input from here, I’ve put in powerline adapters, rather than a WiFi range extender, and have had good connection since.

I shall investigate powerline adapters as well then

There is a checklist from the HSE that sort of helps as it gets you to check seating, eye level, etc. It’s what my work got us to fill out to check we were set up Ok at home and in the office. Might help you and your partner work out what is the best compromise for you all.

Decent keyboard and mouse I find fairly essential. Screen size needs to be large enough to not have to lean towards to read stuff when placed properly behind the keyboard. 19 inch is Ok for documents but larger is a nice to have if you have space. I have 2 screens, 21 and 19 inch.

I don’t have an up and down chair at home but probably sit better on an upright dining chair than some of the rubbish in the office.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/ck1.htm

Edit: as above I got a power line adapter as wifi is flaky in our back bedroom. I have to lean towards the door to load emails onto my phone.

Also a proper office chair helps (if you have space). I managed to nab mine free but look on FB market place and there are loads very cheap.

Edit. Didn’t see above. Obviously personal preference but I definitely found a proper chair helps.

Wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, monitor. That’s all you need. Plus whatever adapter the laptop needs to plug into the monitor. Most monitors have DisplayPort sockets IM(limited)E, so a cable with that on one end and whatever’s on your laptop on the other (but not VGA).

A chair that goes up and down is good, and a desk – whatever table fits in your spot, doesn’t really matter.

Any old HD monitor will do, they are about £100 new or £50 refurbed from Amazon. You can also get all manner of stands if you want, if you need a tilt-swivel arm to make it fit into a small space these are also cheap.

Incidentally, whatever you want for standard PC hardware, go to Amazon and type in <required item> refurb, you get loads of cheap kit.

32″ monitor and wireless keyboard/mouse. Uses a desktop, but can (and do) link laptops, but don’t really need to very often as all my work is on Onedrive

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2j9hq3K]2020-06-06_04-40-06[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

If she works for a company rather than a one-woman-band, her employer has the same legal obligations for a safe working environment as if she were in an office. Ask them for a workstation assessment.

After the office chair thread on here, and the prices some were paying, I decided to bypass that bit and bought an electric sit stand desk.

I have one in the office and much prefer to stand, although alternate every hour or so to keep my back moving.

£200 off of amzzon excluding the desk top – i just used my old desk top after removing the base. Cant recommend this setup enough if you have any back issues (or want to avoid them).

Amazon sit stand desk

Sittin’

Standin’

I’ve for a similar setup to ahsat, albeit with a 24″ LG monitor – 27″ would be nicer I’m sure, but I don’t think it’s necessary. And I have to disagree in part with what molgrips says – I don’t think there’s any particular need to go wireless, and IME batteries have a habit of dying exactly at the wrong moment… but definitely get a proper keyboard and mouse.

I shall investigate powerline adapters as well then

Powerlines are far better than WiFi extenders. You can hard wire your laptop in to it or put an old router on it with virtually no loss of speed

@tiger6791 need to know the model of laptop she has, if it’s ancient it might struggle to output 1920×1080 (which you’ll need to for a 24″ monitor and that or higher for a 27″ monitor). Also the laptop might just have a VGA port and some monitors won’t have that as an option (all though you can buy adaptors). 24″ would be a good start for someone currently working on a 12″! You can always get a second monitor later (although you need to think about how they connect).

Outside of a monitor then an external (pref mechanical) keyboard and mouse would be my go to peripherals to make a laptop more pleasant to use. If she moves the laptop a lot then also consider a port replicator so she just needs to plug one thing into the laptop at the desk (rather than monitor, keyboard and mouse each time).

I personally wouldn’t bother with a wireless keyboard or mouse, battery charge is just one more thing to worry about IMO.

After than then a decent chair & desk would be next on the list (possibly higher up if she say her current chair is uncomfortable).

I charge my wireless mouse (Logitech Mx Master 2) for about 30 mins every 2-3 months, and can still use it while it’s charging.

I kind of agree that you don’t need wireless but charging is really not a big deal and a clutter-free desk is nice.

For me a nice big decent monitor is essential. If you’re sat staring at something for hours on end every day then you want that to be as good as possible. Everything else is secondary assuming the old laptop/computer is performing well for her needs.

The two main benefits of a decent screen are it’s easier on eyes and posture if positions correctly but also means you can be more productive because you have the screen real estate to have multiple windows open on the same screen which means you can work more efficiently.

However the problem you’ll face with an old system is that if you try to plug in a nice new screen into an old computer it wont work and then you’ll be into upgrading the whole setup.

Personally In think wireless is a bit pointless for a static workstation. If you travel alot and hot desk then its essential, but on a static workstation at home you can get much cheaper and better keyboards and mouse’s that are wired. An easy area to save a bit of cash and put it into something more beneficial, like a decent monitor.

So errr… I went a bit crackers with the solution to this…

Thanks all,

– got a decent monitor –
– and a 2nd hand quality office chair
– and a load of timber from the builder merchant
– and got to work with a hammer and some head scratching

Started here

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAhHBODdNy/

Dug a bit, concreted a bit, started to nail to wood stuff together

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAhSL7D-rO/

Then put some of that minging yellow impossible to cut square stuff in

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAhayQjfYB/

Cut some more dead tree up

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAhkkaj0fs/

and nailed more of it together to make its skeleton

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAhsS0jhV0/

and first coat on

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAiGyMDuBV/

added some sound insulation

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAhzv0DdjK/

and more yellow, foil heat stay inside stuff

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAh-G_DJRS/

glued a massive fat bike inner tube to the roof

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAiTAajnfN/

and paid a man to add some wires

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAiftdjT8B/

put some doors in so we can get in and out which would be needed

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAim58j6cO/

dug some more holes buggering up my pristine lawn

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAivI9jtit/

got some more dead tree stuff from Canada

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAi77jjFBJ/

nailed it on

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAjD8ADGlK/

put some of the heaviest known material to man on the walls

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAjY4vjuRu/

painted it and sanded about a 1000 times

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAjixSjeUM/

put a sink in with some soap that doubled the cost of the build with a Star Trek door

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAjlqMD8fk/

and put desk in

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAjlqMD8fk/

With any luck she’ll be happier than sat at the kitchen table…

Bloody hell. It looks more like you are building an entire office with that lot.
Good effort and well done on hiding buying timber under a good excuse

Blimey, that escalated! Looks awesome though.

Desk photo, somehow I cocked up that last link..

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAjoUyDdX_

Impressive, do you want to come do mine??

Nice. What’s the rest of the space used for?

If it is relatively open I’d suggest putting her desk in the middle looking out so it feels like a proper office. At least in the far corner looking out rather than being pushed into a corner staring at a wall.

I’m a recent convert to this seating arrangement, having been sat staring at a wall for the past 6 months. Never really seemed to bother me, until I changed it.

Or is the space full of bikes and a workbench now 😀

Plan is to get a sofa and a TV and use it as 2nd lounge type space, but for now it’s a quiet office.

Here’s the outside. https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAmmrKjCnJ/

Lawn is totally mother ducked and needs re-turfing.

Need to build a small patio or deck in front also

Impressive! Did you follow plans?

Impressive! Did you follow plans?

Thanks 🙂

Not really, sketched the timber frame out on paper to make sure I wasn’t wasting materials at 400 centres.

Went mainly metric as floor T&G, plasterboard, PIR and roof T&G are all metric but stupidly Timber and OSB sheets are imperial.

Watch a few different YT videos, Ali Dymock and Oakwood and others for the main frame and base and then more specialist videos for fitting Windows and Bi-Folds and some American vids about Tape & Jointing plasterboard. (never again!)

Drains and water were subject to building regs and notifiable so had to read up about them.

Paid an electrician to do sparktronics and to certify it.

Wow that went a bit further than a proper monitor and keyboard!

Looks a great office / garden room. Hope your wife appreciates the improved desk setup.