The stand-up desk

It was getting a little hard to ignore all of those on-line articles about how sitting down all day will ultimately kill you.

A former colleague at work had a wonderful bar at her house that was stand-up height. It is in her very-sunny kitchen in the heart of her house. While my house isn't set up for the same sort of design, I do have a wall next to a window in my den, where my desk is (was), so I took the plunge, rummaged through the barn for a countertop, and set up my own stand-up desk.




I thought it would be harder to stand up all day, so I bought a cheap Big Lots upholstered stool, but I haven't used it much. I've discovered that with good music playing, I can boogie around a bit and keep moving as well. There is no longer the "oh hell, I have to work, I guess I'll go sit at the desk" attitude now. Working and living is more integrated. It can be a bit hard on the legs at the end of a long day (like right now) but in the morning and afternoon, it has been fine. I also brought my hand weights in so that periodically I can take a break and do a little exercise to the music I normally have playing.

I'm beginning to see some immediate health benefits that I'm not going to blog on for awhile until I note that they really are improvements and not just wishful thinking.

So far the only real drawback has been the lack of storage space, and the fact that I now have a big desk kicking around in the middle of my den until I find a new home for it. There are shelves in the entertainment center nearby that I can use for the time being, and I picked up an old wicker file box at the Re-Use Center in Ithaca to replace the file drawers I had.

At least I'm no longer sitting on my butt all day!

The stand-up desk is next to the window cat-seat, which has suddenly become quite popular now that I'm standing here all day.