6 Essentials for Your Home Office for 2023

Improve Your Productivity and Flexibility

Home office

Quick Background

Having worked on Best Homepage Ever from home for 12 years now, I can tell you it’s not always easy. And when the global Covid-19 pandemic hit the world in early 2020, most of us were working in commercial or office-type settings.

Bankers, sales people, admin workers, HR reps, call center operators, architects, and countless others who were mostly commuting into some sort of office on a daily basis, are now, at least partially, working from home.

But, with these changes, come adjustments to your work-life balance and ability to stay productive at home. So, as someone who has the experience of doing this over the last few years, I’ve created a short list of my absolute essential work at-home products that will help boost your organization, productivity, and ultimately your comfort of working out of your house.

I may make a commission from purchases made on the products listed below. Full disclosures can be found here.

So, without further ado, here is my list-

I've narrowed down the criteria to 4 important elements.

Justin's 'Essential Rating' System
  • Organization (25%)

    A clutter-free office environment, to me, is both mentally and physically important for productivity. Does this product help?
  • Functionality (25%)

    Does this product help you get work accomplished in a timely or productive manner?
  • Necessity (25%)

    Is this device a must for you? I'll weigh this also at 25% because sometimes this can be overlooked.
  • Value (25%)

    Is this product valuable to what it intends to do in an office setting?

Here are my favorite office products for working remotely

Headphones

With many headphones available with noise cancelation features, you can take calls without outside noise or sounds getting in the way. Dogs barking, kids yelling, television shows, and traffic noise are all very distracting. So, I view headphones as the first essential item for your home office.

Apple's Airpods Pro 2021

Justin's Pick Apple AirPods Pro

Summary: Apple's latest earbud style headphones are a worthy investment, especially if you're on the phone throughout the day. With seamless connections to other Apple products, a 4-hour constant-use battery life, and good call sound quality, I love these and use them daily.

The sound quality (non-calls) is excellent and you have the ability to select the level of noise cancellation.

Personally, I walk around the house with these while remaining connected to Bluetooth without issues.

According to Apple, bluetooth range is uninterrupted up to 30 feet. Lastly, when power runs low, you can pop the AirPods Pro into their charging case and get 1 hour of listening from just a few minutes of charging.

Essential Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0
(average score)

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Runner Up Jabra’s Elite 85t

Why it's also worthy: If you spend a LOT of time on calls in a given day, or prefer over-the-ear headphones, then these earbuds are arguably more comfortable and are less expensive.

Worth the wait? Also, be sure to look out for Sony's Quietcomfort 45 headphones that come out on September 23, 2021.

Dry Erase Whiteboard

My wife and I have both worked for home, in separate offices, for over a decade. If you’re anything like us, and you organize visually, then you may also find it helpful to have a dry erase whiteboard.

Sizes vary greatly, but I’ve found that bigger is typically better, depending on how many daily to-do lists you create, how many customers you may have, or how many accounts you manage. Of course, it’s obviously best to find a dry erase board that fits your wall space.

Justin's Pick Viz-Pro Magnetic Whiteboard

Summary: This simple wall mounted white board can be a lifesaver. excellent option since it comes in 10 various sizes (as small as 24x18”, all the way up to 96x48”). So, there’s a size for every office - small to giant. If you pick yourself up a pack of colored dry erase markers, you can easily categorize your lists and priorities, along with all of life's complexities.

Essential Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
(average score)

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Pro Tip: Make any old whiteboard look glossy and new using WD-40.

Viz-Pro Magnetic Whiteboard

All-in-One Printer

I’ve had mixed success with office printers over the last 20 years. Some home offices can go without a scanner, and certainly a fax or photo print capabilities. But after doing countless hours of shopping around 3 months ago, I found that the cost difference between including or excluding these capabilities wasn't much.

There are 2 standout products that are highly rated, take up an average amount of space, and are priced aggressively. Both are name brands, and the only difference may just be personal preferences (and the ability to use a fax).

Brother MFC-J497DW

Justin's Pick Brother MFC-J497DW

Summary: Since nearly every home office needs one of these, this printer gets the highest rating for being 'Essential'. But this printer was easy to setup for my dad, and I was really happy with the speed in which it warmed up and actually began printing. The functionality is also impressive, and the price point is reasonable. Overall, I was happier with this printer than my own, which is an older HP.

Essential Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
(average score)

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Runner Up HP OfficeJet 6978

Why it's also worthy: This HP Officejet is actually a bargain. It may not have the speed specs of the Brother mentioned above, but the cost is much less, and the ink for HP printers is always on par with other manufacturers. This printer is also quite compact, so it's great if your office is on the smaller side.

Desk Organizer

Whether you live in a small apartment where every square foot is vital, or a large farm house where space isn’t an issue, organizing your work is generally a worthy investment.

I’ve found that my focus, thought processing, and lack of clutter can actually help with my productivity while working. On the top of my IKEA desk, you’ll find only a handful of things - one being a desk organizer.

Justin's Pick Desk organizer by Simple Houseware

Summary: The layout is what I love most about it - with space for mail, post-it notes, a notepad, markers or pens, and paper clips (or other small accessories).

It's simple, durable, light weight, and doesn't take up too much space [13.25L x 13W x 9H inches]. Plus, it's just plain useful.

Essential Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0
(average score)

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Runner Up SimpleHouse Monitor Stand with Organizer Drawer

Why it's also worthy: This takes space saving one step further and allows you to put your monitor on top of mail, paperwork, files, etc.

desk organizer

Wall Calendar

Scheduling can be stressful, and online calendars can yield mixed results. I find it helpful (and almost necessary) to at least have more than 1 calendar. Add to that, the fact that sometimes it's just quicker and easier to look up at the wall than opening up a calendar online.

For these reasons, I like having a personal calendar on my wall in my office. This complements software like Microsoft Teams for scheduling nicely. This helpful item is the last organization item on my list, but I certainly wouldn't say it's the least.

Swift Glimpse Calendar

Justin's Pick Swift Glimpse 2022 Wall Calendar

Summary: I've bought this calendar annually for 5 years now. I find it extremely helpful to be able to see the entire year at-a-glance. This calendar comes comes in various sizes, but we love our 24x36, as it fits on any average office door vertically. If you prefer a horizontal look for the calendar, this one is also reversible (with the horizontal layout on the back).

Essential Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0
(average score)

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Pro Tip: I’ve found it best to use fine tip dry erase markers on these calendars. You can see entries more clearly, and fit more of them on each day.

Quality Coffee Mug

Are you sick of having to microwave your coffee repeatedly? I used to have to do this 3-4 times PER cup of coffee at home.

I’ve found that with this one simple upgrade, this issue is completely gone. What's the answer? Get one, good quality mug, and it will forever.

Justin's Pick YETI Rambler 20 oz

Summary: I LOVE this mug. As mentioned above, it keeps a cup of coffee hot (or cold) for like 2-3 hours.

Additionally, it comes in an assortment of 24 colors to choose from, and sizes can vary from 10oz and up. I personally like the 20oz because I can take it golfing, to the beach, or other places other than the office. This is a no-brainer for any coffee or tea drinker, and is easily worth the money in my opinion. No more ceramic mugs.

Essential Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0
(average score)

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Smaller Size Or, try its smaller cousin, the 10oz Yeti Lowball

Yeti 20oz Rambler and 10oz coffee mugs

Summary

The products I listed above are, in my opinion, high quality respected additions to any home office. I have used them all personally, and hope you find the reviews helpful.

For a full list of items that I may not have covered, here is a list of some of the Best Selling Office Supplies.

A few simple additions to your office will hopefully help you work smarter, more efficiently, and improve your flexibility.