You'll find plenty of home office checklists online. Most of them were written for a different market, assume you're furnishing an office from scratch with a corporate budget, and use "ergonomic" as a marketing word rather than an actual measurement. That's not much use if you're working from a kitchen table in Brisbane or a spare room in Perth and just want to know what's worth fixing this weekend.
Here's the more useful starting point: Safe Work Australia publishes guidance on setting up a home workstation, and the fact that it exists is the important part. Working from home doesn't put you outside the same basic thinking that applies to any other workstation — it just means nobody's facilities team is going to walk past your desk and notice the monitor's too low. That job falls to you. Below is a checklist ordered by what tends to matter most, with the genuinely optional stuff flagged as optional.
The fixed points: four things worth actually measuring
These are the settings that are wrong on most home desks, mostly because nobody measured them in the first place — the laptop just landed on whatever surface was available.
- Monitor height. The top of the screen should sit at or just below eye level, at roughly an arm's length away. If you're on a laptop, that usually means a stand or a stack of books plus a separate keyboard — the laptop's built-in screen and keyboard were never designed to both be in the right position at once.
- Chair depth. You want two or three finger-widths of space between the back of your knees and the front of the seat, with your feet flat on the floor. A chair that's too deep pushes people to perch on the edge, which quietly undoes whatever back support the chair was supposed to provide. This is also where slouched, rounded posture usually starts — worth a look at how rounded shoulders develop from sitting at a desk if that's sounding familiar.
- Desk height. Elbows at roughly 90 degrees, forearms close to parallel with the desk when typing. Too high and your shoulders creep up toward your ears for hours at a time; too low and you're leaning forward to compensate.
- Lighting. Screens facing a window cause glare you'll unconsciously lean and squint to avoid; screens with a window behind them force your eyes to keep readjusting between a bright background and a dim one. Neither is dramatic on its own, but both add up over a full day. A desk lamp that lights the room rather than just the screen is a cheap fix.
None of this requires new furniture — it's mostly about where the furniture you already have gets positioned. Once those four are sorted, the finer points of shoulder and neck alignment are covered in our desk setup guide for neck and shoulder comfort.
Two checklist items people leave off entirely
Most home office checklists stop at furniture. Two other line items are worth adding, both aimed at the same underlying problem — staying in one position for too long without noticing.
- A surface to stand on, if you use a sit-stand desk. Standing on bare tile or hardwood for long stretches gets uncomfortable in the feet and lower back well before most people expect. A textured anti-fatigue mat gives your feet somewhere to shift weight and change position without you having to think about it, which matters more than any fixed standing-to-sitting ratio. We've written more on how long standing itself should actually last in how long should you actually stand at a standing desk — the short answer is that switching position matters more than any particular split.
- Something to keep you moving while seated or standing. This can be as simple as a resistance band kept in a drawer, or a balance board you stand on for a few minutes at a time to give your legs something to do that isn't just standing still. The goal isn't a workout — it's breaking up static posture often enough that no single position gets held for hours. Our 5-minute resistance band routine for desk-worker shoulders is a reasonable place to start if you want something structured rather than open-ended fidgeting.
The habit that matters more than any piece of furniture
You can get every measurement above exactly right and still end the day stiff, because the actual problem was never any single position — it was staying in it. A perfectly set-up desk that you sit at motionless for six hours will still leave your upper back and shoulders tight. This is where most checklists quietly fall short: they treat the setup as the finish line rather than the starting point.
A sensible target is a short break in posture every 30 to 45 minutes — not a walk around the block each time, just standing up, rolling your shoulders, or shifting from sitting to standing if your desk allows it. If the upper back has been the sticking point for a while, how to foam roll your upper back covers a five-minute end-of-day routine that a lot of people find useful.
Common questions
Do I actually need a second monitor?
No — a single monitor set at the right height beats two monitors at the wrong one. If you're constantly twisting toward a laptop screen while a second monitor sits central, the twisting is the bigger issue. Get the primary screen positioned correctly first; add a second one later if your workflow genuinely needs it.
What if I can't afford an ergonomic chair?
Chair depth and seat height matter more than the chair's price. A basic dining chair with the depth right and a rolled towel for lumbar support will outperform an expensive chair set up badly. Spend money on the desk and monitor position first; upgrade the chair when you can.
Is a laptop stand enough, or do I need a separate keyboard too?
A stand alone usually isn't enough. Raising the laptop to fix screen height pushes the built-in keyboard up with it, which is uncomfortable for your wrists and shoulders. A stand plus a separate keyboard and mouse is the combination that actually works.
How often should I actually get up?
There's no single correct number, and anyone quoting one with total confidence is oversimplifying. Every 30 to 45 minutes is a reasonable default. What matters more than the exact interval is that you notice you've been still for a while and do something about it, rather than waiting for discomfort to force the issue.
Does working from home change what my employer is responsible for?
The general principle in Australian WHS guidance is that a home workstation isn't treated as separate from workplace obligations just because it's in a spare room rather than an office. Exactly what that means for reimbursement or equipment provision varies by employer and by award, so it's worth raising directly with your manager or HR rather than assuming either way.
The short version
- Monitor: top of screen at or just below eye level, arm's length away
- Chair: two to three finger-widths behind the knees, feet flat
- Desk: elbows at roughly 90 degrees when typing
- Lighting: no window directly behind or in front of the screen
- Add a mat if you stand at your desk, and something to fidget or move with if you don't
- Change position every 30–45 minutes — the switching matters more than any single setting
- Furniture is the starting point, not the fix; movement is what actually carries the day
If discomfort is sharp, persistent, wakes you at night, follows a specific injury, or comes with numbness, tingling or weakness, a checklist isn't the right tool for it. That's worth raising with a GP or physiotherapist, and sooner rather than later.
Untense publishes practical guides on posture, desk setup and mobility for people who work seated.