How to set up a desk in a small apartment

Measure the room before you buy anything, place the desk for light and power, and keep the surface short enough that it does not take over the space you live in.

Measure the room, not the desk

Most small-apartment desk problems are placement problems. Before you choose a desk, take four measurements.

1. Wall length available. The run of wall the desk could sit against, minus anything that has to stay clear: a door swing, a radiator, a closet. 2. Total depth. Desk depth plus the space to pull the chair out and stand up. Sit in your chair, push back as if to stand, and measure from the wall to the back of the chair. That is the real footprint. 3. Outlet position. Note where the nearest outlet is and whether furniture blocks it. 4. Window position. Note which walls get daylight and when.

Write the numbers down. They decide the desk size more than any product listing will.

Depth decides more than width

Width decides how much fits on the desk. Depth decides whether you can use it.

OSHA's workstation guidance puts a screen about 20 to 40 inches from your eyes. On a shallow desk with a laptop at the front edge, that is usually fine. Add an external monitor on a shallow desk and it ends up too close. Two fixes work without a bigger desk: move the screen to the back edge on a stand, or use a monitor arm that clamps to the rear of the desk and frees the surface below.

On height, most fixed desks sit somewhere around 28 to 30 inches. You adjust the chair to the desk, not the other way round. Set the seat so your forearms are roughly level with the desk. If your feet no longer reach the floor, add a footrest. A box works.

Place it for light and power

Light. Put the desk so the window is to your side. A window behind the screen makes you squint into brightness. A window behind you reflects in the screen. OSHA's guidance makes the same recommendation. For evenings, a lamp to one side of the screen lights the desk without bouncing off the glass.

Power. Put the desk near an outlet. An extension cord across the floor of a small room is a trip line. If you have to use one, keep it along the wall, not under a rug. US electrical safety guidance, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission's, identifies cords under rugs as a fire hazard.

Bedroom or living room

In a studio or a one-bedroom, the desk usually shares a room with something else.

In a bedroom, place the desk where it is not the last thing you see from the bed, if the room allows it. Where it does not, make the desk easy to close down at night: laptop shut, surface clear.

In a living room, a desk against the back of a sofa or along a side wall keeps it out of the main walkway. A desk that faces the room reads as furniture. A desk that faces the television reads as a problem.

Build up without drilling

Renters usually cannot drill shelves above a desk. Options that leave the walls alone:

• A freestanding shelf or ladder shelf beside the desk.
• A monitor riser with space underneath for a notebook or keyboard.
• Clamp-on trays and arms, fixed to the desk rather than the wall.
• An under-desk tray for power and cables, so the floor stays clear.

Each one moves something off the work surface. That is the point.

Keep the surface short

A small room makes a cluttered desk look worse, because you see it all evening. Keep only what you use every day on the surface:

• Laptop, or laptop and monitor.
• Keyboard and mouse.
• One lamp.
• One notebook and one pen.
• A fixed place for the phone.

Everything else goes in a drawer, a box or a shelf. If you have not touched something at the desk in a week, it does not live on the desk.

Finish each day with a two-minute reset. Close the laptop, take cups to the kitchen, put the pen back. The desk then sits in the room as furniture, not as unfinished work.

When the desk is also the table

If the desk doubles as a dining table, plan for a full pack-down. One box or tray holds the keyboard, mouse and chargers. A stand that folds flat goes in a drawer. A mat that rolls goes on a shelf. Setting up should take a minute, and so should clearing it. If it takes longer, you will stop clearing it.

The short version

Measure wall length, total depth, outlet and window. Choose depth before width. Window to the side, desk near an outlet. Build up with freestanding or clamp-on pieces. Keep five things on the surface and reset at the end of the day.

From Undivided

The Undivided Pen Holder is a weighted aluminium base sized for a few pens, so the one you use stays in the same place on a small desk.