Courtesy of Melissa Petro
The writer's husband and baby in their overcrowded NYC apartment.
- Melissa Petro is a freelance writer living in a tiny, roughly 500-square-foot apartment in New York City with her husband and their two small kids.
- The apartment boasts no natural light, is poorly ventilated, and in some places is literally crumbling, but the rent-controlled price has been hard to give up.
- Petro follows a few key rules to work from home successfully: She follows a strict schedule, saves chores for outside working hours, and takes advantage of "third spaces" like coffee shops.
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Documented cases of COVID-19 are on the rise, and we've all been advised to "cancel everything." For some people, the idea of social distancing and working from home may not sound that unpleasant. Others with less hospitable living environments and tiny coworkers - aka children compelled to skip school and daycare - may not know how to begin.
melissa.petro/Instagram
Melissa Petro.
As a freelance writer, I'm well accustomed to negotiating the challenges of working from home. My decrepit, shotgun-style one-bedroom in New York City boasts no natural light, is poorly ventilated, and in some places the ceiling is literally crumbling. But when I was single and just starting out as a freelancer, this rent-controlled space was a blessing. The price was so right that when my now-husband and I first moved in together, we made do rather than looking together for an apartment that would more reasonably accommodate two grown human beings, two dogs and our then-hypothetical children.
Now that those hypothetical children have manifested into a toddler and a newborn, our cozy home feels a lot like a clown car. And yet somehow, I still manage to work from home. Here's how.