One of my biggest pain points in-moving to the RV was giving up my amazing home office setup. I spent a lot of time (and money) creating the perfect ergonomic workstation where I could concentrate, and bust out my best possible work. At the time, I was spoiled with my beloved mechanical keyboard, dual 27″ monitors, my favorite 2012-era Razer Naga mouse that fits my hand perfectly, all sitting on an adjustable desk that can convert to a standing desk. Needless to say, I was really, really comfortable in my office, and I knew it was going to be hard to give it up.

I am a web developer, and run a small WordPress development agency called DesignFrame Solutions. I spend many, many hours in-front of a computer, on client projects, personal projects, and work at my full-time job. Not only is this space a place for me to get privacy, and do things I love to-do, but it also represents a place for me to be productive, and do my best for the people who count on me. This is the space where I did the things I needed to-do to allow us to live the RV life in the first place, and it was very important to me to ensure that I did everything I could to protect, and continue to-do those things.

At the onset, I wanted to try my hardest to re-create as much of my home-office experience as I could for when we made the switch to the RV. Some of the biggest things I valued in my home office setup were:

1. An ergonomic layout
2. A detatched keyboard and mouse
3. Dual-monitors
4. A silent place to concentrate

In our RV, absolutely no space serves a single purpose. Everything, and I mean everything, serves at least two purposes. Because of this, everything that sits on a table must be designed to be set up, and torn down easily. This allows that precious space to be used in multiple different ways. My at-home office setup was no exception.

So, what we’re looking at now is an ergonomic, fully featured desk setup where I can sit silently, concentrate on my work, and tear it down quickly and easily when I’m done. Oh, and I should be able to-do this early in the morning without waking up everyone else in the RV in the process. This is asking a lot. Ultimately, I ended up with this setup:

I am not going to make any attempt to suggest that this setup is as good as my true office setup. However, I can say that this setup works pretty darn well, and feels surprisingly similar in many ways. In fact, this setup works better in some ways than my old setup, and honestly, I’m every bit as productive, if not more productive in this new space. I consider that to be a win.

This setup is a dual-monitor setup, with a separate keyboard and mouse. The laptop is elevated by an absolutely amazing laptop stand. It takes less than a minute to set-up. And the best part? All of this can comfortably fit in my laptop bag, where it can be neatly tucked away for the day when it’s not in-use.

Let’s talk about each piece that make this work.

The Screens, and Computer

In-case it wasn’t completely obvious, I use a 13″ MacBook Pro. Aside from the myriad of technical reasons why I choose this particular laptop in my profession, there is another big benefit of going Apple in this scenario. And that is Apple Sidecar.

Apple Sidecar is a relatively new Mac OS feature that allows newer iPads to be converted into a second monitor for your Mac. This is great because there aren’t really any good laptop screens on the market that are as compact as an iPad, and there certainly aren’t any with stands that are be as compact as a good iPad case.

As you can see, my iPad is an 11″ iPad Pro, and I’m using the amazing Muse Case. I selected this case because the stand is sturdy, and most-importantly – the flap that covers the screen when-closed goes behind the iPad when it’s opened up. This is critical, because otherwise that stupid flap will get in the way of your keyboard, and you’ll go crazy.

The Laptop Stand

The stand is a key component to ergonomics. The extra height from the stand keeps your head from tilting downward while using your computer. This reduces strain on your back, and your neck. It makes a big difference, and was something I knew I wanted when I started building this setup.

I looked at a handful of different laptop stands, and then discovered this stand. I selected it because of its insanely small footprint when folded down, and because it seemed to be really sturdy.

The Keyboard and Mouse

Since I went with Apple, I opted to stick with Apple products, and go with the Apple Keyboard, and Apple’s trackpad. I was ambivalent about both of these, for different reasons.

I love my Razer Naga so much. It fits my hands comfortably, and I’ve had it since 2012. Millions of clicks, and countless miles of scanning and it still runs reliably, and without any noticeable degrade in quality. There’s one key problem, however – it’s not all that easy to connect to a modern MacBook, due in-large part because MacBooks do not have any traditional USB ports. Instead they only have modern USB-C ports. This is fine, for the most part, however this means I’d have to connect my laptop to a dongle, and then to my mouse every time I wanted to set it up. I knew I would be tearing this down, and setting it up many, many times while in this RV and wanted to make this process as painless as possible.

For that reason, I opted to go with the Apple Trackpad. This thing is wireless, connects via bluetooth, reliably connects to my MacBook every time, and had an ultra low profile. Plus, all of the hand-gestures I’ve grown accustomed to work perfectly on it.

Like my mouse, I also had a deep, deep love for my mechanical keyboard. It had the perfect switches, and that satisfying clank sound when typing with it. It was so comfortable, and made typing feel good. But, like the mouse, the USB ports would have made connecting to my laptop cumbersome. Plus, those keyboards are really loud, and I didn’t want to drive everyone else in the RV crazy with my incessant clanking at 6:30 in the morning while everyone else is asleep.

Like the Trackpad, I opted to again go with the Apple-specific peripheral. Like the Trackpad, this provided two key benefits – low-profile, and ease-of-connectivity. This works really well. I don’t feel great typing on this keyboard, but honestly I never think about it when I’m working, so apparently it wasn’t as important as I believed.

The Space

The final piece of the puzzle is the space. This includes the physical place where I do most of my work, and my ability to concentrate in it. When we first purchased the RV, I assumed that I would simply work at the dinette that was built-into the RV. Kate, however, had other plans for…pretty much the entire camper. One of those changes included completely gutting the dinette, and couch from the camper. We ended up building a custom tabletop that can convert into a few different desktop configurations. It’s pretty handy, covers up our heater, and provides a good spot for me to work.

We designed, and built this desk to fit in this space as there wasn’t anything that fit would fit here. You can see the 3D model of the desk here, if you happen to need it.

My chair is a run-of-the-mill folding chair, and no, it’s not great. There doesn’t appear to be a truly compact, comfortable office chair on the market. In fact, the design of a typical office chair is the complete opposite of compact. But, with this folding chair, we’re able to fold this chair and hang it on our wall when it’s not in-use. This keeps it out of the way when I’m not working, and that’s pretty nice.

The last, and probably the most-important thing about this entire setup are my noise-cancelling headphones. Even when the kids are quiet, the air conditioner is pretty darn loud in these RVs. As-such, a good pair of these headphones are a must-have for anyone who needs to concentrate when they’re working. I often wear these PLUS a pair of ear plugs. This combination gets rid of pretty much all noise, and allows me to really hone in, and focus. We have set a barrier with our kids that they should not talk to me if I’m wearing headphones. That goes about as well as you’d expect, but honestly they interrupt me as-often as they did when I was in the office in a house, so it’s not technically worse than before.

Conclusion

All-in-all, this setup does a pretty darn good job of replacing my immobile setup. I sacrificed some comfort for portability, but honestly I move around pretty often when working, anyway. I’ll work at our picnic table, the daybed, or around the campfire throughout the day, and take frequent breaks. All of which you should be doing, anyway.