5 Handy Costco Finds To Upgrade Your Home Office

If there's anything good to have come out of the lockdown, it's the realization that a lot of work can be accomplished from home. Since then, hybrid work environments have risen in popularity. Though a solid laptop and reliable internet are mostly what's required, 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 tidbits that convert your living space into one you can work from distraction-free.

When shopping, there are various retailers you can pick from, but if you happen to be a loyal Costco customer, you'd be glad to find out that it sells a variety of home office products as well. There are a lot of options to deck out your home office with, and the right utilities will depend on your requirements. To ease the decision fatigue a bit though, we've put together five useful home office upgrades you can pick up from Costco. You can see details about our methodology at the end of this article.

Perhaps the most important piece of furniture in a home office is a desk. A good workspace demands a spacious, solid surface that can hold your computer, monitor, and other peripherals. Though marketplaces like Ikea are a great place to shop for budget-friendly desks, dedicated work-from-home setups could use more ergonomic picks. Standing desks offer a lot of benefits, and they are a great investment if you have long work hours and find it uncomfortable to sit in a chair for long stretches. 

The $650 ApexDesk Elite Series is a popular buy on Costco, with close to 1,200 user reviews and a 4.7-star rating. It's a height-adjustable desk, which means you can select just the right height for both your sitting and standing sessions throughout the day. It comes in five different color options, including light and dark shades of gray. Since it uses a dual-motor lifting mechanism, it can accommodate multiple monitors and heavier objects without straining or wobbling, especially during height adjustment. 

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

A reliable desk is only half the setup — without an ergonomic chair, you're likely to feel the strain after just a few hours of work. This is a well-populated market, and some of the best desk chairs include the Herman Miller Aeron and the Steelcase Leap. Ergonomic chairs don't come cheap, usually hovering around $1,000 — but they're built to last a very long time and are designed with long-term health in mind. If you're looking for a more reasonable option, Costco sells the La-Z-Boy Manager Office Chair.

With a 4.6-star rating and nearly 1,500 reviews, the La-Z-Boy Manager Office Chair seems to be a crowd favorite at Costco. It's priced at $180, which is quite reasonable for an office chair of this comfort. That said, if you do have a higher budget, it may be worth exploring ergonomic chairs that come with adjustable lumbar support. For its price, the La-Z-Boy Manager Office Chair is a solid buy, and it comes with an excellent ten-year warranty.

In addition to a reclining back and height adjustment, it features flip-up armrests. The chair sits on top of a heavy-duty nylon base, and has a weight capacity of up to 275 pounds. Customers who have bought the chair are generally satisfied with its quality and overall ease of assembly, though a few reviews mention that the seat cushion is on the firmer side.

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

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

Connectivity options include two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort input, and you get a cable of both kinds with the monitor. There's also an audio jack output you can use to connect a pair of speakers or headphones directly. The included stand gets you tilt and basic height adjustment, but you can mount it on a more flexible monitor arm for better maneuverability. Reviews left by Costco buyers are mostly 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 seek entertainment, can positively affect your productivity. A good desk, comfortable chair, and a productivity-oriented monitor will get you mostly there, but if you're unable to drown out distracting noise from your surroundings, staying focused becomes a challenge. A solid pair of noise-cancelling headphones can solve this, and the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones that Costco sells for $350 are widely regarded as one of the best in their category.

They have an over-ear design and weigh 250 grams, making them comfortable to wear for extended periods. A highlight of the XM5s is the ANC performance, for which it uses eight microphones. You also get a handy transparency mode if you don't like being separated from your environment but still want some music during work. For connectivity, you can either use them wirelessly via Bluetooth, or connect them using a 3.5mm cable. Though there's a USB-C port for charging, it cannot be used for audio.

The XM5s have received criticism for their non-travel-friendly design, but the XM6 fixed this complaint by featuring foldable earcups, making them much easier to carry. However, if portability isn't a deciding factor for you, the XM5s undercut the newer model by $100 while offering excellent sound quality and noise cancellation performance.

Upgrading your home's lighting is one of the quickest and easiest ways to add some level of smart control. Once installed, smart lights offer you the convenience of controlling them from afar using your phone or voice commands. Since they use LED globes, they end up being brighter — all the while costing less to run year-round. The Feit Electric Wi-Fi Smart Bulbs come in a four-pack and are available for $25 at Costco.

With over 4,800 reviews and a 4.2-star rating, this happens to be the most popular item on our list. Despite being simple to operate, smart lights can bring unmatched convenience to a home office setup. For example, you can have one set up on a floor lamp, ready to be controlled using your phone. The Feit Electric Wi-Fi Smart Bulbs also feature support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so if you have compatible smart home hubs in your home or your office, you won't even have to reach out to 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 brightness via the app, or pick any color of your choice. The app also lets you schedule your lights and add multiple bulbs in a group for quicker control. Each light bulb produces 800 lumens, which is equivalent to the brightness of a traditional 60W incandescent bulb.

Costco typically isn't the first place you think of when eyeing home office or tech upgrades, but if you're already a member and prefer it as your retailer, there are some good deals. Our criteria for picking out recommendations were product popularity and customer reviews. Like many marketplaces, Costco allows verified buyers to leave reviews and ratings for products they buy. These are typically a great way to check if any item you're planning to buy is going to be worth it.

As for why we picked these products, we focused on upgrades that meaningfully improve comfort and productivity. The ApexDesk Elite Series standing desk and the La-Z-Boy Manager Office Chair can completely overhaul your workspace, while smaller additions like the Feit Electric Wi-Fi Smart Bulbs and the LG 32-inch Class Ultrafine monitor can refine the smaller details of your setup.