Working from home has its ups and downs. The upside is that your commute time has decreased to being non-existent and your boss isn’t getting upset with you for wearing the same sweatpants 5 days in a row. You also get your full 30 minutes or an hour lunch time without having to factor in any drive time.

However, the downside is the energy and utilities your company was paying for now adds to your home monthly utility bills. You may not have thought much about it until you saw your utility bills for the month. Yet, you have to work and currently you can only work from home so what can you do?  

Living with good roommates can be tricky but living with bad roommates can cause all sorts of tension and take a toll. Which is why we find it important to interview your potential roommate before signing a lease with them.

But even if you did interview them before becoming official roommates, things have changed. With everyone suddenly working from home, roommate etiquette isn't as cut and dry as it once was. 

You no longer just have to see them in the morning when you're both on your way to work or in the evenings when you cross paths in the hallway. Now you see each other all day every day and on top of all the normal roommate things, you're now having to deal with making sure both of you are staying COVID safe. 

While we all hoped to be back in the office by this point in time, it doesn’t look like we're going to be anytime soon. Therefore, having a workday plan that makes working from home effective and efficient is important as ever!

It can be hard when you don’t leave your house to get out of “home” mode and into “office” mode. Which is why we put together a list of eight things to do that help make it seem as if you left home and are in the office (if only mentally!).

Maintain Regular Work Hours

When working from home, it’s important that you do everything you can to keep your regular office hours. This will help you keep your mind and body on track of when you are at “work” and when you are at “home.” While the idea of sleeping in till 10am sounds great, it means you have to work till 7pm when others are off work and wanting to catch up on the latest Netflix binge.

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice…

There are hidden edible gems all over Chico, waiting to be discovered. Yet, how do you discover them when most are only open for take-out? To guide you in the right direction along your path to foodie nirvana while in the midst of home delivery, the following delicious pointers are full of local knowledge and insight into the Chico food scene through a delivery service. 

When dreaming of owning a home, it’s easy to get lost in all the benefits that buying and owning a home gives you. Yet, do you ever dream about renting and the benefits it can give you?  

Let’s face it, renting doesn’t hold the same curb appeal that buying a home does. However, renting does have a lot of benefits and perks that buying a home does not. For example, the deposit on a rental is going to be cheaper than a down payment on a house. 

Here’s an article that goes into details on 9 of the most beneficial reasons renting is better than buying! Spoiler Alert: not all of them have to do with money!

With gyms still being closed or requiring you to wear a mask while working out, staying at home to exercise in your rental is starting to sound better and better. Yet, you’ve probably always shied away from it because you weren’t sure what to do.

Winter is upon us in Northern California, which is usually the time that everyone turns up their thermostats and experiences the not so seasonal joy of higher power bills.

Add that to the extra energy you are already paying from having to spend more time at home and it can be a little overwhelming! But what if you could stay warm inside your rental this winter season without paying more for your energy bill?

We found 9 different ways you can help to warm your rental that have nothing  to do with turning up your heater!

After a year that led everyone to spending more time than ever inside their home, the new year allows for you to reimagine what your living space could look like with added comforts and function.

When it comes to looking through the new home design or décor trends for the year, there will be certain trends like redoing your floors, painting your walls, and knocking down walls (or putting them up) that just isn’t doable when living in a rental. Yet, with every new trend there is usually a way you can incorporate it on some level without damaging or updating your rental.

Take a look at what you’ll start to see in homes and rentals across the country this year!

All holidays and celebrations this year have required us to be creative and find the joy in the small everyday things that are right in front of us. Just like all of the other holidays this season, the CDC stills suggests you limit your gatherings to the people you are in direct contact with on a daily basis (i.e. your roommates). Even with places being closed and the ability to throw a party with a large group of people has been squashed it doesn’t mean that this New Year's Eve celebration will be a dud.  

In fact, we found 11 different ways you can spice up and enjoy your New Year’s Eve celebrations in the safety of your rental this year. 

One of the best parts of the Christmas season is going to pick out your Christmas tree and spending time decorating it with all the family ornaments, colorful lights, or all the garland you can place on it. Rental living may mean you have to become a little more creative when it comes to getting your tree inside your rental, but it adds to the fun, right? PIVOT!

The worst part about the Christmas season ending is having to undo all the hard work you did in the first place. You have to take all of your family ornaments and lights off the tree, figure out how they all fit into that one box that goes into the storage closet, and finally, dispose of your tree. 

Chico has two different options for you to choose from when it comes to how you want to dispose of your tree this year, even in the midst of a global pandemic. Hint: all of the options deal with recycling your tree not throwing away your tree.