Yelp Says “Cloffices” Will Be a Thing of the Past in 2022

In a matter of days, 2021 will be in the past. And in the new year, it looks like there will be a lot less makeshift home offices.

Yelp has released its 2022 Home Trend Forecast Report, predicting what’s going to be popular in the coming year. To do this, data scientists looked at the words used in searches and reviewed mentions to find which ones experienced the biggest increase in 2021 compared to 2020. One of their findings is that more homeowners are converting makeshift home offices — “cloffices” (aka closet offices) — back to their original state.

Searches for walk-in closets have risen (up 49 percent), as well as for guest rooms (up 33 percent), game rooms (up 22 percent), and media rooms (up 81 percent). Additionally, Yelp notes that terms like “home office,” which saw an 80 percent increase in 2020, did not trend this year.

With many hopeful to work in person come 2022, it’s understandable that they’d want to reclaim their extra space at home either for rest and relaxation or for aesthetics. The other trends on the list reflect this, as searches for wallpaper prints, Japandi, and bold accents, among many others, have all increased in 2021.

“Looking ahead to 2022, there’s a shift away from renovations and updates related to staying home, and instead we’re seeing a return to aesthetics — indicating a less urgent approach to our homes, where artistry, texture and details are able to take the spotlight,” Yelp wrote in the report.

Here’s to reclaiming spaces for less work and more play in the new year!