Working From Home? 2 Tips To Keep In Mind When Adding A Hutch To Your Desk
If you started working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then you may have created a small office space with a desk that makes telecommuting easier. However, you may find that keeping your desk organized is difficult, especially when you work in a small room or area of a room that lacks additional storage space.
One way you can increase the storage space in your small home office without installing a storage cabinet that takes up a large amount of floor space is to add a hutch to your desk. Desk hutches are furniture pieces equipped with shelves and/or cabinets that are attached to the surfaces of desks.
Read on to learn two tips to keep in mind when choosing your first home office desk hutch.
1. Ensure Your Hutch Meets Both ANSI and BIFMA Furniture Standards
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) are two unbiased, non-profit organizations that have created office furniture standards that many companies strive to meet. The standards these organizations have created help ensure that office furniture products that are designed and manufactured today are safe, environmentally friendly, high-quality, and perform as they should.
When you choose a hutch that meets both ANSI and BIFMA furniture standards, you can more easily ensure you are purchasing a quality furniture piece that was produced with environmental conservation in mind.
2. Choose a Hutch with Desk-Compatible Dimensions
Before browsing available desk hutches online or at local stores, you should decide what hutch size you need and want. This way, you can hone your search down to only the units that fit your desired dimensions.
When determining your ideal hutch width, remember that while you want a hutch that is wide enough to provide the storage space you need, you do not want it to occupy so much desk space that you then lack the space to perform tasks you need to on the desk. Many different types of hutches, like the Realspace Magellan Performance 71inW hutch cherry, are a good option for a large, L-shaped desk.
To determine just how tall your hutch can be, measure the distance from the surface of your desk to the ceiling above it. Of course, you do not necessarily want a hutch that is ceiling height, but this measurement can help steer you away from hutches that are so tall that they may not fit on your desk at all.
Finally, determine if you would like clearance space between the bottom shelf of your hutch and your desk; some people neglect this space and then quickly realize they could have chosen a hutch with clearance space under it where a computer keyboard or other item could be stored when not in use.
Keep these two tips in mind when choosing your first home office desk hutch to make choosing a quality, safe, and environmentally friendly hutch easier.