how do I move into my first office when I’m excited to decorate?

A reader writes:

After years of toxic workplaces, I am starting at what feels like a dream workplace: positive culture, fair pay, generous benefits, a genuine commitment to diversity, and an understanding that people have different working styles and ways of getting things done.

I know this is a very low-stakes problem, and I am genuinely grateful to have it. But I need advice on something I am particularly excited about: for the first time in my career, I will have my own office. Everyone else seems to really make their space their own. There are plants, bookshelves, large pieces of art, framed band posters, colorful keyboards, rugs, and all kinds of personal touches. This is exciting for me because I love interior design. I spend a lot of my free time decorating my home and thinking about how spaces can feel more comfortable and intentional. I already have a vision for my office: large paintings, pastel colors, cozy textures, and a generally calm, inviting atmosphere. I am even considering bringing in a few pieces of furniture.

The problem is that I am extremely socially anxious, and I am also significantly younger than most of the people in my department. Throughout my career, I have often been the youngest person in the room while still having a fairly significant amount of responsibility. I am proud of that, but I am also very conscious of not wanting to come across as an inexperienced young person who is overly eager. I do not want to walk in and immediately make a huge production of decorating my office. At the same time, it seems like this is a workplace where people genuinely enjoy making their spaces personal, so I do not want my anxiety to stop me from participating in something that would make me happy. During the interview, they even said that it’s a running joke to bug anyone who hasn’t decorated and tell them to make it their own.

There is also a practical issue: my office is on the bottom floor, down a long hallway and a flight of stairs. I am very small and have essentially no upper-body strength. If I bring several large paintings or furniture pieces, am I supposed to slowly drag everything down the hallway myself? Ask a coworker I have barely met to help me carry tons of stuff? Show up hours early and try to move everything in before anyone besides security sees me?

How would you handle this? Would you bring things in gradually, ask a coworker for help, mention your plans to your manager, or arrange for someone (like a friend or family member from outside work) to help move the larger pieces?

I am very excited to be starting somewhere that feels like a genuinely good fit. I just want to approach this in a way that feels natural and respectful rather than turning my first week into an interior design show.

Yeah, you don’t want to show up with a couch on your first day.

That said, it sounds like you can go fairly all-out in decorating — people already do that there and your interviewer told you people get teased for not doing it. It would be different if everyone else were sitting in offices with a lone framed print on the wall and you were hauling in rugs, lamps, and beanbag chairs. (In that case, it’s not that you couldn’t do some decorating, but — especially in your first few months — you’d want to calibrate it to the norms there.)

The thing to be low-key about here is the pace of your decorating. In the first few days, bring in a few things that are easy to carry — a small plant, a nice desk lamp, etc. But then live in the office for a week or two, because you’ll learn things that you can’t anticipate beforehand, like how much storage space you might need, what the temperature is like, the possibility that you might actually move to a different office in a month, etc. But after the initial week or two, you can start bringing in more. (Also, I wouldn’t bring much of anything the very first day; they might have you in orientations and other meetings all day, and you might not be in your actual office much at all.)

For the heavy stuff, ask what people normally do. At the end of your first week, you can ask your boss, “I have a couple of larger things I’d like to bring in for my office. Is there anything I should know about what’s allowed, and what’s the easiest way to get things downstairs?” That way you’ll find out whether there’s an established procedure for moving things, a facilities person who will help, a cart you can borrow, restrictions on furniture, etc. And with furniture in particular, there may be rules about electrical access or floor protection, so it’s smart to have the conversation first.

And yes, if you have a friend or family member who is willing to help you transport large things, it’s fine to take them up on it, as long as the office is okay with visitors or after-hours access.

But also, leave some room to let the space evolve as you use it. Don’t try to create in one week the exact space you’ll have in a year or two. (This is good advice for moving into a house too! If you give it some time, you’ll get a better idea of how you really want to set up the space.)