Truth be told many of us hate the demoralising Monday morning alarm and rush to the office only to be greeted by a desk of paperwork and your evil boss. The 9-5 grind can get the better of even the most workaholic individual, so why not bite the bullet, clear up your office desk and work from home? Here are seven reasons why running a home-based business can be the best decision you will ever make.
If Delia Smith can make a mint working from home, why can’t you?
1. Dress code. T-shirt, pyjamas or even your birthday suit, working from home can let you dress as you like without comments from HR and management regarding corporate dress code policy. This has many benefits, but few are better than the satisfaction of rolling out of bed in your Superman PJs straight into the office. Ultimate efficiency. No time wasted.
2. Your office is your castle. Working from home enables you the privilege of designing your very own office sanctuary. Comfortable and productive, the days of sitting on uncomfortable office furniture, at bland generic desks, will soon become a thing of the past. Just imagine the possibilities of creating a completely unique work station with a range of beautiful furniture and accessories.
3. Stationary won’t grow legs. There is nothing more annoying than every piece of office stationary you buy disappearing. Communal offices provide a perfect environment for stationary evolution; where, in a matter of minutes, single cell biros can develop the ability of movement and walk off without warning. With the correct furniture and storage space in your home you will be able to keep all of your stationary essentials safe. And threaten any want-away with the staple gun.
4. Home Cooking. Nothing beats a hearty home-cooked meal. Working from home will enable you to eat what you want, when you want. No more boring, bland packed lunches or overpriced vending machines. If you are lucky you could even have your partner or parent cook the food for you, letting you fight the hunger pains without sacrificing levels of productivity/looking on YouTube.
5. Flexible Hours. Getting up early on those cold winter mornings isn’t for everyone. Well, when working from home there would be no need to chuck the alarm clock at the wall anymore. You will have the freedom of a butterfly in a country meadow. However, it still requires a bit of discipline as you will still have to work in line with your client’s expectations. Breakfast meetings they might be happy with, bed and breakfast meetings… not so much.
6. Daytime TV. Working from home will introduce you to the wonderful world of daytime TV. Why not work away listening to the tranquil background noise courtesy of your country’s finest individuals on the Jeremy Kyle Show? If nothing else, it’ll make sure you work you backside off so you don’t end up on the programme too.
7. Save money & save the environment. Nothing raises blood pressure more than rush hour traffic. No longer will you have to contend with grid-locked roads, full of workers desperate to get home at the end of the day. This, in turn, will help you save money, which would normally be spent on fuel and also save the environment by reducing your carbon footprint. In other words you can add the title ‘Eco-Warrior’ to your ever-expanding CV. Take that BP!*
*Other oil companies are available.
Author Bio: Chris is a recent University Marketing graduate and keen sportsman (armchair sports fan). He is currently writing on behalf of thefurnituremarket.co.uk.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of seat covers? Probably those plastic tarps draped over the chairs in your grandparents’ house, the ones that stuck to your leg when you sat down and refused to let you find a comfortable position. Sure, they may help extend the life of your furniture by a little bit by keeping spills from sinking in, but seat covers can also be uncomfortable, unsightly and downright impractical.
There are a lot of great ways to keep furniture clean and looking great, so here’s some great advice if you were considering buying seat covers. If you already have them, well, consider this your intervention. Here are the top seven reasons not to use seat covers.
1. They look bad. I’m sorry, but it had to be said. It’s taking the nice, colorful fabric of your chairs and covering it up with the equivalent of a bed sheet. Would you buy a nice new outfit and then drape a giant rain poncho over the entire thing? Probably not. If you want your living room to look its best, spend the time straightening up rather than covering what is supposed to be one of the central points of the room.
2. They encourage you to be dirty. One of the main reasons people use seat covers is to keep the chairs from getting dirt of stains, but covering them often gives less inventive to clean them as often as they need it. Chairs need to be vacuumed regularly to keep out the dirt and dust that can make your air unhealthy, but with a cover on them cleaning this is often neglected.
3. They’re expensive. If you want to avoid putting an ugly sheet over the chair, then the only alternative is to find a custom seat cover for it. Though these may come in many styles, colors and shapes, the price is not exactly cheap. You can save money by just skipping them altogether and instead keeping the original furniture in good shape with regular cleaning and some small repairs as needed.
4. They’re not comfortable. Anyone who has ever sat on a covered chair knows the uncomfortable feeling as it shifts and wrinkles underneath them. The plastic ones are even worse, warming up under bare legs until you basically have to peel yourself out of them.
5. They’re a lot of work. Sticky legs and wrinkles isn’t the only drawback of getting out of a covered seat. They also have a tendency to shift out of position easily, becoming bunched in the middle and pulling up at the bottom, revealing the furniture you were trying to cover. Covered seats need adjustments after every sitting, and when it comes time to clean them the fabric often requires special settings and drying. Some of the more expensive or exotic ones even require dry cleaning.
6. They’re not easy to find. If you want seat covers you have two options—get the material and make them yourself or scour home decorating stores to find the right size. Either way you’re in for a lot of measuring, price comparisons and trial and error as you fit them onto your chairs. If you instead put the same amount of effort into fixing the furniture, you could end up with a sparkling living room and seats that look better.
7. They limit your options. Maybe you don’t spill things on your chairs, and maybe you only need seat covers to extend the life of your old or worn furniture. If that’s the case, then those covers are serving a useful role—but it still doesn’t make them the best solution. Covering up older chairs is the easiest route, but it often keeps you from getting really creative and thinking up better ways to spruce up the room. You could try re-arranging the living room to take attention away from older furniture, installing a new design scheme or buying artwork to become the focus point of the room. Whatever you do, simply covering up the problem is not a great way to deal with it.
Author Bio:Denise Hill is an avid blogger for NetQin, writing on a variety of topics.
Remember those great days when you’d put the chairs together, turn the table upside down and grab ever available cushion in the house? That’s right, when you were making a fort. You probably haven’t done that for a while have you? We can’t help but think that’s wrong. Which is why we are delighted to welcome Ewan MacDougal to the 7 Reasons sofa. He’s going to put it right. And given that he spends most of his time playing around with Furniture 123’s living room furniture, he probably knows what he’s talking about. Here’s Ewan:
The relaxed ambience of The Keep
So over the last two or three years I’ve regressed, I don’t think it’s that uncommon – something to do with not wanting to be called a grown up I guess, anyway I’ve noticed a definite increase in the amount of toys I’m buying, cartoons I’m watching* , Dinosaurs I’m absent mindedly doodling**. I’ve even suddenly got an obsession with wanting a pet tortoise, mostly because I think it will look like a baby dinosaurs. In essence I think I’ve become about 7 years old (which is actually about a third my age). A few things are different about being 7 this time around though, one is that I have a job, so I can buy the big box of second hand dinosaurs from eBay without being forced to save up for a year, and another is that I now live with “contemporaries” rather than “parents” meaning that when I decide it’s a good idea to scrap the traditional living room lay out in favour of a fortress built out of living room furniture. The idea should theoretically be open for discussion rather than immediately vetoed as it was in 1994. So here are my seven reasons why having a fortress in place of living room furniture would be infinitely better.
1. End To Classism. So nearly everyone I know around my age in this area lives in basically the same pre furnished rented house, if they’re paying a lot the furniture looks quite nice, if they’re not it’ll smell a bit damp and has the odd hole. Basically you can walk into any house and instantly know what they’re paying and judge for your self if you’re socially better than them. I believe this is unfair, I believe that we should judge people not by the tatty state of there furniture but by the quality of there posters and there DVD / CD collection. I’m no historian, but I am vaguely aware that communism made similar attempts, and tried to get rid of this kind of class signifier. Where they went wrong, however, was to try and standardise everything***. How boring. No, no one wants to live in a generic living room, so instead let’s let creativity flow, let’s all spend our free time draping sheets over armchairs and turning sofas upside down. Let’s make tents out of cushions and barricades out of book shelves. I want all our furniture over turned and torn apart until it no longer has any value as furniture, but instead must be appreciated for the creativity and effectiveness as an awesome fort.
2. Privacy. So windows, yes I guess they were a good idea, the whole day light thing and being able to see what’s going on outside are all pretty handy traits. The trouble is though windows work both ways, people can look in at you whilst you’re looking out. I’m part of the anonymous internet generation.. by that I mean, I’m not always that sociable. I’m not that sociable and some times I have shameful TV taste that I don’t want the neighbours and passers by to know about. Curtains might be a temporary solution, but let’s face it, if I start closing the curtains every few hours; it’s going to look suspicious. Net curtains will work for some purposes but you can still see TV screens. The only real way to find privacy in the 21st century is to build a fort. Forts are all about secretness. The more secret a fort is the better, and let’s face it even if you have nothing to hide, pretending that you have can be really fun. Watching the lunchtime news under a duvet canopy with headphones, knowing the postman won’t even bother ringing your bell to deliver that parcel because it’s so obvious you’re “out” is incredibly exciting.****
3. Home Security. When I was growing up I never actually built forts, I built hide outs. I think this is probably because of my pacifist parents thinking that fort was too violent a word. However you’ll notice that I’m arguing that we build a fort. Why? well simple, reason 3 home security. Part of being a grown up now means that if a big nasty robber decides to break into the house, it’s now my job (as probably the biggest boy in the house) to defend us. What happened to the idea that Mum and Dad would always be able to protect you from everything? Despite my excellent Batman knowledge, I’m not sure how easily I can fend off these villains, so I need every advantage possible. Having an intricately built fort in the living room, with all kinds of escape hatches, hidden home alone style weapons and booby traps that only I, as architect of the fort, know the locations of would defiantly be an asset. These villains probably have all kinds of murdering experience, but when I’m hidden in my fort they’ll have no idea where I am, then when they least expect it, KAPOW I’ll pop out behind them with a water pistol filled with slippery oil. I’ll squirt them and the floor behind them. The shock will make them slide on the oil and they’ll fly all the way out of the house. Problem solved!
4. Exercise. One of the reasons why I’m a bit nervous about taking on all these villains is that I’m probably not in my peak physical shape, I’ve never been to a gym, and running seems incredibly boring. What I really need is some kind of obstacle in my living room that I had no choice but utilise several times a day. One of the arguments I’ve heard against building a fort in the living room is that it’d be like having a “blinking obstacle course in the way.” Well I think it’s in the whole homes interest that we are able to defend our selves against any attack, therefore the extra exercise we will get from this obstacle is indisputably a good thing! Anyone who doesn’t want it is surely in league with the murders and robbers and should be treated accordingly.
5. Squatter’s Rights. I only work part time*****, as a result I don’t earn that much, therefore paying rent seems to take a rather large amount out of my pocket. I’d rather not pay it to be honest. I don’t claim to understand the intricacies of squatters rights, but I know it has something to do with being allowed to live in a place for free if you stay there for a long time without being kicked out first. I quite like the idea of living in my home for free. I think if I just stopped paying the rent though Mr Shake the landlord would probably evict me fairly quickly. Now if I had an incredible fortress that I could hide in, filled with midnight feast supplies and spy holes, I’m sure I could hide from him with out being caught for literally hours. I’m sure that means that eventually squatter’s rights would be declared mine and I’d be able to live in my fort forever. Maybe I could even raise a family there?
6. Safety In Wartime. We live in uncertain times, terror attacks, a recent wave of revolutions, people over reacting to reality TV shows. War could break out at any moment, and with most WWII Anderson shelters turned into garden sheds, and 1950’s nuclear bunkers being kept top secret, a well built living room furniture fortress would probably be my place of choice to feel safe when the sirens go off. Shelters with walls made from pillows and blankets are going to make for a far more comfy retreat than the cold out door and underground shelters of the past, and let’s face it, in this age of advanced nuclear weaponry they’ll probably be just as effective.
7. Just Because. Building forts out of furniture is an awesome fun activity and anyone who disagrees is just a big loser face!
*My Batman knowledge is now amazing!
** These dinosaurs by the way tend to be locked in epic wars against robots, there pretty incredible!
*** Also maybe labour camps, mass executions and those kinds of things were a bad idea too? I think there traditionalist view of forts missed the point.
****Where as having a basement room with no curtains, where your woken up every day off by the postmen peering in your window and knocking on the glass to deliver your house mates parcel is not fun.
***** Perhaps the free time this leaves me with has contributed to my desire to build a fort
This morning I was completely devoid of inspiration. Initially I was going to attack a 10 year-old girl. Not literally obviously. I wasn’t bored. And it would be wrong. I mean literately. I was going to question why the girl – whose design has been chosen as the emblem for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – couldn’t be bothered to use a ruler. Or indeed colour between lines. But as I was writing, I felt a deep sense of shame. It is not in my nature to pick on 10 year-old girls, so I stopped. Instead I googled ‘7 Reasons’ and, lo, what did I find? This beautiful analysis of all that is good about 7 Reasons. I was delighted. Here’s why:
1. Backed By FIRA. It’s news to us, but we are delighted to be backed by the capital city of Santorini. And, having looked it up on wikipedia, we are pleased to say that we reciprocate. Go to FIRA. You’ll love it. Especially the Santorini Archeological Museum.
2. Exceptional Performance. It is highly unlikely that this refers to our web hosts so we can only assume it is a compliment aimed at the robotic manner in which both of us knock out 7 Reasons posts day after day after day. We are just short of 500 posts now, or 3,500 reasons if you prefer. Quite an achievement given that one of us thought we’d struggle to get past 14. (Reasons).
3. Experts That Live And Breathe Furniture. Okay, so the use of the word ‘experts’ my have been somewhat over the top, but we happily accept that the 7 Reasons sofa is a thing of beauty. And this is not by luck, but by design. We took great care when sawing the original sofas in half and even more care when we staple-gunned the two required halves together. The fact that it has lasted eighteen months is testament to our expertise. In fact the only thing we bemoan is the number of lemons that keep falling down the back of the cushions. Along with the cat.
4. Understanding & Insights. I am a little surprised this isn’t Reason One. After all, understanding the world around us and providing insight into a variety of topics is our bread and butter. Without this attitude you wouldn’t now be the proud owner of an orange door, you’d probably still be thinking about dating a polar bear and you’d own The American on DVD.
5. Leading Edge Infrastructure. This is very much Marc’s domain so he deserves the applause. From day one he has only been too happy to tinker with the back-end of stuff and he has done a marvelous job. The fact that none of you (or I) have ever noticed any improvements just goes to show how deep into the back-end Marc has gone. The result is a thing of beauty. When it works.
6. UK & Eire Coverage. We are glad this impresses people and it vindicates our original decision. Jon was very keen to prevent anyone outside of the British Isles having the ability to read the British humour website, but Marc muttered something about ‘impossible to do’, ‘xenophobia’ and ‘write about cricket and we’ll get loads of India-based readers’. That was enough. The website has always had Eire coverage. And the rest of the World too.
7. Partnership Approach. One of the seven reasons that 7 Reasons continues to astound the internet is because of this thing they call a partnership. When one of us can’t be bothered to write anything, we don’t. Instead we watch the football knowing the other will eventually crack around 5pm and rapidly write something about winning a country. It’s probably a flawed plan, but it works. For me.
