‘Cloffices,’ Sweat Rooms, and DIY Determination: 11 Ways the Pandemic Changed Our Lives at Home Forever

Margaret Heidenry | May 6, 2021

Home, sweet home became home, still home over the past year-plus of the COVID-19 pandemic. Home is where we hunkered down, and faced massive upheavals to our routines.

Maybe the biggest change is what home came to mean to many people—office, gym, school, restaurant, bar, movie theater, and farm stand, all in one.

And the home adjusted to accommodate all these new demands on its spaces. Here’s a roundup of all the pandemic-related changes we’ve seen over the past year that are here to stay.

The rise of the ‘cloffice’

Not everyone has the room for a dedicated home office. The “cloffice” (aka a closet transformed into an office) was the perfect solution.

“It’s small and compact enough to hold a work area that can be really efficient,” says Mark Cutler of Los Angeles’ Mark Cutler Design. 

And now that we’ve discovered the cloffice, many people may be loath to give it up.

“Even if you’re not working from home in the traditional sense, it’s great to have a centralized space to check email, pay bills, and do some light filing, all with the added benefit of being able to close a door and walk away,” says Cutler.

Closing off open floor plans

Having your family around is wonderful. But the pandemic showed us that having your family around all. the. time—well, let’s just say that was an interesting social experiment. So it was little wonder that people began putting up walls in their previously open-concept homes, creating more traditional—and private—spaces.

“I’ve always felt that the large, open-plan homes ignore basic ideas of how a family really lives,” says Cutler. “Each family member has different agendas, whether it’s cooking, studying, relaxing, or watching TV.”

And these activities are best served in their own space.

“Now that people have experienced how a home can function with broken-up spaces that don’t feel isolating, I think we’ll see it stay that way,” says Cutler.

Read the whole article at realtor.com