5 Handy Costco Finds to Improve Your Home Office

If there is one good thing about being out of lockdown, it is realizing that there is a lot of work that can be done at home. Since then, hybrid workplaces have grown in popularity. While a solid laptop and reliable internet are usually all that’s needed, those who regularly work from home will benefit greatly from a few thoughtful upgrades. We’re talking about things like an ergonomic chair, a large desk, and other things that turn your living space into one that you can work on without distractions.

When shopping, there are a variety of retailers to choose from, but if you happen to be a loyal Costco customer, you’ll be happy to find that they also sell a variety of home office products. There are many options to choose from for your home office, and the right equipment will depend on your needs. To ease the decision fatigue a bit, we’ve rounded up five useful home office upgrades that you can pick up at Costco. You can see details about our method at the end of this article.

Perhaps the most important piece of furniture in the home office is the desk. A good workspace requires an open, sturdy surface that can hold your computer, monitor, and other peripherals. While markets like Ikea are a great place to shop for budget-friendly desks, a dedicated work-from-home setup could use more ergonomic options. Standing desks offer many benefits, and are a great investment if you have long working hours and find it uncomfortable to sit in a chair for long periods of time.

The $650 ApexDesk ​​Elite Series is a popular buy at Costco, with close to 1,200 user reviews and a 4.7-star rating. A height-adjustable desk, which means you can choose the right height for both your sitting and standing periods throughout the day. It comes in five different color options, including light and dark gray. Since it uses a two-motor hoist, it can carry multiple monitors and heavy objects without straining or shaking, especially during height adjustment.

It is 71 inches wide and 33 inches deep, and is rated to hold up to 235 pounds. Features a minimum length of 30 inches, and a maximum length of 49 inches. It comes with a cable management tray and a memory controller that can hold up to four profiles. With flexible little cable management, a standing desk can be a great addition to your home office.

A reliable desk is only half of the setup – without an ergonomic chair, you’ll probably feel the strain after just a few hours of work. This is a crowded market, and some of the best desk chairs include the Herman Miller Aeron and the Steelcase Leap. Ergonomic chairs aren’t cheap, typically going for around $1,000 – but they’re built to last and built with long-term life in mind. If you’re looking for a more reasonable option, Costco sells the La-Z-Boy Executive Office Chair.

With an average of 4.6 stars and nearly 1,500 reviews, the La-Z-Boy Executive Office Chair seems to be a crowd favorite at Costco. It costs $180, which is reasonable for an office chair of this luxury. That said, if you have a higher budget, you may want to check out ergonomic chairs that come with adjustable lumbar support. For its price, the La-Z-Boy Executive Office Chair is a solid buy, and it comes with an impressive ten-year warranty.

In addition to reclining and height adjustment, it includes hand rests. The chair sits on a heavy duty nylon base, and weighs up to 275 pounds. Customers who have purchased the chair are generally satisfied with its quality and ease of assembly, although a few reviews indicate that the chair’s seat is on the firmer side.

Powerful laptops like the MacBook Pro are more than enough to handle heavy workflows, but they’re still held back by their screen size. There’s only so much you can fit on a 14- or 15-inch display, but thankfully, this is where even an older monitor can act as a huge upgrade. If you’re looking to buy a new one, however, you may want to consider switching to a 4K panel. UHD monitors are now more affordable, and offer much better text clarity compared to 1080p displays.

The LG 32-inch Class Ultrafine retails for $250 at Costco and gets you a large 4K panel. It’s not built for gaming, but the 60Hz refresh rate shouldn’t be a bottleneck for office tasks. It’s an IPS panel that delivers vibrant colors and a decent amount of brightness, and you also get HDR10 support. Coupled with its high resolution, this monitor can double as an entertainment device between shifts.

Connectivity options include two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort input, and you get a cable for both types with the monitor. There is also an audio jack output that you can use to connect a pair of speakers or headphones directly. The included stand lets you tilt and adjust the base height, but you can mount it on the flexible monitor arm for more mobility. Reviews left by Costco shoppers are overwhelmingly positive, with users praising the monitor’s sharp image quality and overall value proposition.

Setting the right ambience for work, especially under the same roof where you relax and want to have fun, can have a positive impact on your productivity. A nice desk, a comfortable chair, and a productivity-focused monitor will get you most of the way there, but if you can’t block out the distracting noise in your surroundings, staying focused becomes a challenge. A solid pair of noise-canceling headphones can solve this, and the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones sold by Costco for $350 are widely considered to be among the best in their class.

They have an over-the-ear design and weigh 250 grams, making them comfortable to wear for long periods of time. A highlight of the XM5 is the ANC functionality, which uses eight microphones. You also get a portable transparent mode if you don’t like to be isolated from your environment but still want some music during work. For connectivity, you can use them wirelessly via Bluetooth, or connect them using a 3.5mm cable. Although there is a USB-C port for charging, it cannot be used for audio.

The XM5s received criticism for their non-portable design, but the XM6 rectified this complaint by incorporating foldable earcups, making them much easier to carry. However, if portability isn’t what you’re after, the XM5s undercut the new model by $100 while offering superior sound quality and noise-cancelling performance.

Improving your home’s lighting is one of the quickest and easiest ways to add some level of smart control. Once installed, smart lights allow you to control them remotely using your phone or voice commands. Since they use LED bulbs, they last longer – all the while being less expensive to run all year round. Feit Electric Wi-Fi Smart Bulbs come in four-packs and are available for $25 at Costco.

With over 4,800 reviews and an average of 4.2 stars, this is the most popular item on our list. Despite being easy to use, smart lights can bring unparalleled convenience to your home office setup. For example, you can have one set of floor lamps, ready to be controlled using your phone. Feit Electric Wi-Fi Smart Bulbs also include support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so if you have compatible smart hubs in your home or office, you won’t even have to reach for your phone to control them.

Like most smart home gadgets, these smart lights connect to your home network via the 2.4GHz frequency band. You can change the color temperature and adjust the brightness through the app, or choose any color you like. The app also allows you to organize your lights and add multiple bulbs to a group for quick control. Each lamp produces 800 lumens, which is equivalent to the light of a 60W incandescent lamp.

Costco isn’t usually the first place you think of when looking for home office upgrades or technology, but if you’re already a member and choose it as your retailer, there are some great deals. Our criteria for selecting recommendations was product popularity and customer reviews. Like most marketplaces, Costco allows verified shoppers to leave reviews and ratings for the products they buy. These are often a good way to check whether any item you plan to buy will be suitable for you.

As for why we chose these products, we focus on development that logically improves comfort and productivity. An ApexDesk ​​Elite Series standing desk and La-Z-Boy Executive Office Chair can completely customize your workspace, while small additions like Feit Electric Wi-Fi Smart Bulbs and an LG 32-inch Class Class Ultrafine monitor can adjust the small details of your setup.