In any workspace, whether a garage, craft room, or office, creating an ergonomic and healthy space requires a number of products and design ideas. Height adjustable standing desks and garage workbenches are the centerpiece, but you have to build on that foundation with other pieces. Common options include chairs, wrist supports, foot stools, elevated monitor arms or other specific work items and tools, anti-fatigue mats, and even pillows.
Figuring out what ergonomic accessories you need requires balancing the desire for optimal ergonomics and the comfort, healthy, and efficiency they bring, against the aesthetics that a workspace cluttered with ergonomic products sacrifices. To establish this balance for your home or workplace, think about and evaluate your needs in order to identify which ergonomic accessories are the most important. The best way to do this is to wait until you have your adjustable garage workbench and your work station set up so you can figure out what your issues are.
If you are creating a computer work space, start by assessing your needs in both the seated and standing position. If you have any existing issues or pain, such as aching wrists and forearms from typing, get the articulating keyboard and mouse tray you need to address those initially. Based on charts of proper ergonomic positioning, evaluate your regular use. Do you repeatedly reach for certain papers in a way that requires stretching or bending over either while seated or standing? Do you experience pain, as opposed to tired muscles or soreness, after standing on your feet for an hour? These are indications that you need a specific ergonomic product to address those problems.
The same steps work in a craft room or garage workspace. After using the standing desk in both positions for a few hours and considering any problems you already know you have, you can put together an initial list of the kinds of ergonomic aids you might need. But then you need to think about the most space-efficient way to meet those needs and whether common ergonomic products fit that strategy. For example, in a garage or office, it might be more aesthetically effective and space efficient to forgo a paper stand designed to make reading instructions easier, in order to free up standing desk space and increase flexibility. Or it might be smarter to add a keyboard tray that you can hide under the desk when not in use to minimize the desk’s footprint.
With adjustable garage workbenches and work space ergonomics, you need to find the balance between enough products to get maximum comfort and efficiency from your standing desk, and attractive design and staging that uses space efficiently. Sometimes the answer is adding proper ergonomic accessories, and sometimes you just need to get creative.
