No, you don’t have to claim the home office deductions if you don’t want to, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t.
And, anyway, you can only deduct home office expenses for the period of time that your spouse was actually using the home office, not the entire rest of the year if she wasn’t using it then.
You can take the home office deduction for 7 months in 2021, as you suggest, and then claim it again for the final months of 2022. If that matches her period of use, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
There’s not really a right or wrong answer for you, but there’s not really any need to “retire” the home office deduction. If the benefits for you claiming the deductions are minimal, just make your own quick cost-benefit analysis to see if it’s worth your time.
Please see the TurboTax Help articles Can I take the home office deduction? and What does "Regular and Exclusive Use" mean?
for additional information.
