Absolutely this! Takeout containers or food scraps From cooking alone is a huge factor. And before COVID I could just pay someone to take care of this while we were at work, but where do I go now for even half a day? I honestly considered doing day-by-day coworking space rentals which would be an additional expense. Unfortunately my work involves a lot of talking on the phone and getting a dedicated office, even for a day is getting expensive.

Also I think just because we're home more I have more chance to notice what slobs we are. I never noticed our baseboards in the house before wfh but now I look at them every time I'm in the bathroom. They're WHITE!! And they're getting dusty!

Seemingly my sink is never free of dirty dishes no matter how many times I stop in my tracks in the middle of the day and take 10 minutes to do the dishes, breaking all concentration. Everywhere I look there is something to be done. I take a break to piss then see the bathroom is a mess. I go to grab a granola bar and realize I need to take an hour later to go shop at the grocery store, and return to my workspace hungry and defeated. I spend my days alternating between working on the couch and working on the bed, seemingly constantly doing chores around the clock. The list of things to do never ends, I just decide to put most of it off for the day once I'm too exhausted to do any more thinking or spend any more time on my feet. I can't do any deep work anymore with all the shoehorned zoom meetings I have to show face for. I feel more beat at the end of the day than when I was working 50 hour weeks busting ass as a groundskeeper in the hot humid sun.

It's suffocating spending 100% of your time in one place. My apartment feels like a submarine at the bottom of the ocean. My productivity is somewhere down there, too. Despite all this, I drag on, just biding my time for that glorious day when I can get inoculated for COVID.

Is that a time or monetary expense? Are you paying for cleaning service?

(More than you would be for the corresponding takeout that cooking from home is replacing?)

To be fair, car expenses for road trips for entertainment are pandemic costs but aren’t reasonably work-related expenses.

True! I can see a gym membership adding a non-significant monthly expense. Or having to re-locate to accomodate additional working space (rent asides, the cost of moving can be significant). Good insight.