Consumer Reports: Essential Home Office Updates

Even if you don’t work from home every day, many of us do it from time to time.

Making sure you are comfortable is key to any good setup. With some help from the experts at Consumer Reports, adding a few ergonomic improvements can improve your office and maybe even your productivity.

Creating a comfortable and ergonomic home office can be a challenging task. Ergonomics experts at Consumer Reports recently rated budget office chairs that help people feel comfortable while working from home.

When choosing an ergonomic chair, the only thing you should look for is the adjustability, which will allow you to fit the chair to your body. CR reports that the Staples Dexley chair costs $199.99 ($271.72 in Canada) and you can adjust the height, armrests, lumbar headrest and headrest.

If you’re working on a laptop, a stand can raise the top of the screen to eye level so you don’t strain your neck looking down. The Insignia Ergonomic Laptop Stand, which costs $29.99 ($40.75 in Canada), requires no assembly or tools to adjust the height.

When using the mouse, the wrist rest keeps your wrist in a neutral position, which helps reduce hand or wrist discomfort. – Consider a small and convenient option from Belkin WaveRest Gel Wrist Pad, which costs $9.99 ($13.54 in Canada).

If your feet aren’t flat on the floor, try a footrest. A footrest helps support your feet and relieves some of the pressure on your lower thighs that would occur if your feet were dangling.

The Mount-It Ergonomic Footrest costs $33.99 ($46.08 in Canada) and will get you on the floor.

CR says it’s a good idea to try out chairs in store or online before purchasing, with easy returns available. But no matter how long it takes to upgrade your space to suit your needs, it will be worth it.

More: Consumer Reports