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SUCCESS ORGANIZED SPACES HELP FAMILIES WORKING, LEARNING AT HOME BY KATHY KNOTTS
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ABOR DAY is around the corner, and behind it comes that nostalgic “fresh start” feel. September brings the promise of cooler weather, new school supplies, school clothes, and the sound of the school bus... wait. For many families in 2020, the school year is taking place at least partially—if not entirely—at home. And a lot of grownups will spend another season working from home, too. This spring, social distancing restrictions were a brand-new concept and households scrambled to conduct business and school from home with almost no warning. Emailing from the kitchen table and Zoom meetings from the couch were suddenly standard professional practice. If you had multiple adults working from home and kids doing distance learning, you just might have found yourself on a conference call in the closet, for a last-ditch attempt at peace and quiet. Now that fall is arriving, we’ve had plenty of time to adapt to work-fromhome routines, and schools have developed comprehensive distance-learning plans. Many families will be home for the forseeable future. But are the spaces in your house ready for productive work and learning? This is the time to get your home office and distance learning areas organized. CBM Bay Weekly advertising representative Susan Nolan feels the pain of parents nationwide who are trying to figure out who sits where when everyone needs to be online at once. For the Nolan family, the virtual learning that took place last spring felt chaotic. “My husband and I were both working from home. The kids were at home. We’d all use our tablets and laptops to log-on wherever we could find a quiet space. I’d be in my bedroom. My husband would be in the living room. One child would be in the
dining room and the other might be on the front porch. The next day, we’d have a completely different arrangement. It was like we were nomads all looking for a space to call our own.” Nolan wasn’t the only one feeling like a drifter in her own home. CBM Bay Weekly’s news director Meg Walburn Viviano commiserates, “We live in a townhouse so we have to sort of be nomadic, and I carry around my laptop and notepads and pen. But it’s starting to get so old and I’m dying for a space where I could have a calendar on a wall to look up at! I’m sure lots of people are at the point in the workfrom-home life where we need somewhere more settled to work.” Nolan says her tipping point was when Anne Arundel County announced school would be virtual for the whole first semester. “I knew we would need more structure,” Nolan said. “For me, part of that structure is having designated work space. However, I felt overwhelmed when I thought about creating work space. I didn’t have the time to really think about what would work for each person.” To put her mind at ease, she hired personal organizer Dixie Schneider to help her create learning spaces for each of her children, 7th grader Elizabeth and 5th grader Thomas. “It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it might be and since I’m not spending money on uniforms, book bags, lunch
8 • BAY WEEKLY • August 27 - September 3, 2020
Elizabeth and Thomas Nolan used the dining table (above top) and a makeshift desk (above) during their spring online school sessions. Mom Susan wants a better solution for the fall semester. Photos by Susan Nolan.
