In autumn 2022 we asked freelancers how they were finishing packages from home offices when the edit bay lived somewhere else. The pattern that kept showing up was unglamorous: a stable local network, predictable folder names, and a written handoff beat another collaboration login every time.

Desks that treated the home router like part of the kit — labelled ports, a known gateway, and a short “where the raw files live” note — spent less time chasing missing cards and more time cutting sound. This critique collects those habits without pretending a new app can replace file discipline.