For audio producers working at home, the cloffice can be a lifesaver
Under deadline and desperate for a quiet space, I find myself in the closet.
I rolled my eyes when I first heard the term cloffice in late 2020. Oh goodie! Yet another attempt to “make up a word and turn it cool.”
But I understand the necessity behind it. In many urban apartments, there just isn’t the space of privacy for an always-on work from home (WFH) day.
To mitigate that somewhat, people were transforming the spaces they did have into offices. This resulted in the cloffice. A former closet-turned-office complete with whatever accessories you needed to feel comfortable. (Pinterest is FULL of ideas, if you’re curious.)
The idea didn’t just “come to me,” though. When I first announced I was going to be podcasting, my husband mentioned I might find myself editing in the closet one day. But I scoffed. I’m claustrophobic. And our space is already maxed. And working in that space is just NUTSO.
We don’t have a Real Housewives closet. My dresses are crammed, only part of my shoes fit and I’m constantly playing the “bring-a-piece-in-then-one-goes-out game,” just to keep things hanging.
I also fear I made this worse. Years of buying my husband nice clothes for Christmas in an effort to bump up his style backfired. Now I feel aggressive competition from his army of Bonobos Hawaiian printed shirts and Paige jeans. If it continues, I may need to stage a coup of my own by relocating his militia elsewhere.
So there I was. Faced with a dilemma. And with a deadline looming, I told myself to suck it up buttercup. I packed up my must-haves, pulled two TV trays into the closet and set out to finish up the “Big Move” episode. (Note: one of the must-haves was my coffee mug.) I even locked the door. (But apparently I’ve shown everyone how to bust into a locked door
The gamble paid off. I finished the episode and the mic picked up NOTHING outside what I needed it to. And with a herd of kids 13-and-under cavorting around our backyard, I call that: cloffice for the win.