Hasta La Ideas

I’ve been working from home since 2009. The temptation to tweak or add to the gadgets in my office is enormous. I love gadgets to begin with, but give me a personal office to fill — one that’s in my home — and I can get carried away.

Recently I’ve made an effort to identify what I really need instead of what I think would be cool. The following is a list of gadgets that serve a utilitarian purpose beyond, “Oh man that’s so neat.” Each one actually makes my home office a more pleasant and productive place to be.

1. The RadTech OmniStand. After a few months of using a laptop all day every day, I noticed that my shoulders and neck were quite sore at the end of the day. The laptop stand lets me get the computer’s screen up off the desk and just about at eye level. After a couple of weeks, the pain was gone. Sure, I had to buy an external keyboard and a mouse, but I’d rather do that then contract a repetitive stress injury.
2. The Glif for iPhone. I love this little piece of rubber because it can be many things. It’s an iPhone stand with notch on the bottom that will fit into a standard tripod mount. It’s great for shooting photos and video, for talking on FaceTime, for being an alarm clock or a mobile photo frame. I use it to reference quick information while I’m at my desk. I can’t recommend them enough.
3. Jawbone Jambox bluetooth speaker. Here’s another stellar device that takes up little space and works very well. Since it’s a bluetooth device, it connects to your smartphone wirelessly. It sounds great and looks good, too. I use it all the time.
4. A Dropbox account. I don’t know why computers don’t just come with Dropbox installed. It makes online backup and sharing so very easy. Plus, it’s supported by almost any platform you can think of: The Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.
5. An Inbox. Don’t scoff. At first I resisted buying one of these, as it seems like such a cubicle thing to own. But it’s so much better than a stack of papers, notes, and who-knows-what cluttering up my desk. Take your pick from Amazon or your local office supply store to find one you like.
6. A decent filing system. Again, visit your favorite office supply store or look online. Many people have intricate filing systems. I do simple manila folders, labeled A-Z. Nothing fancy.
7. A backup system. Your office machine is probably backed up by your company’s IT department. At home, you’re on your own. There are several options to choose from, like CrashPlan and Carbonite. Even if you don’t work at home, you likely have work-related information on your home computer (not to mention other irreplaceable files). Back it up!

I have more items in my office, of course, and you likely need other items depending on if you work at home and what kind of work you do. But these are the universal things — beyond my laptop and smartphone — I can’t work without. Pare down to what you need and avoid cluttered items like this that get in the way of the work you need to do.

Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today.

Unless you have a guillotine-style paper cutter, cutting in a straight line is near impossible! The Linear Scissors, however, take the heavy equipment out of the equation and are so easy to use that premarking the line with a pencil isn’t even necessary. The solution:  handles with a built-in right angle that square up to the edge of any table, making it possible to cut perfectly straight. Better yet, the handle’s shape diverts the excess material out of the way while cutting. Genius!

Designer: Tamás Fekete

–
Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Fool-Proof Perfect Lines was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. Fool-proof Violin
2. Better Infusion and Convenient Form, Fool!
3. The LMacTouch: Perfect Desktop for a Perfect World?

Charging your iPhone at home or the office often means the device is out of arm’s reach and chained to the nearest outlet. Realizing this, LA-based design studio Bluelounge—which has already garnered an impressive arsenal…

Continue Reading…

In early January, we embarked on a ambitious project to remake an entire office into an environment conducive to collaboration, brain storming, and most importantly fun. Every aspect was considered and with a tiny budget, started planning with the one item often disregarded until the last minute. I’m talking the trash bin. Do you know how hard it is to find a good trash bin? In its simplest form, a trash bin is just a bucket in all shapes and sizes but we were looking for an engineered solution and who better than simplehuman.

simplehuman’s ethos is to create simple tools for efficient living. Every desk, every room, and every common area has a trash bin. For an object to occupy nearly every corner of the office, we needed a bin that could hide rubbish yet add to the overal architecture of the interior space. We looked at many bins but found they either veered too far on utilitarianism, or too deficient on utility, relying solely on marketing and big designer names.

We settled on the simplehuman 10 litre profile open can. At on $29.99 a piece, this compact stainless steel can is modern, sculptural, and minimalistic. The can itself is made up of three components – the shell, a lid, and a removeable/washable plastic liner bin. The liner bin is what you wrap your disposable bags around. The lid cleverly hides everything so the shell maintains its clean look.

Their appearance provides just enough contrast against the stark white walls accented by dark walnut shelves and doors. After months of use, the bins have held up well to the everyday rigors of office life. Every can still gleaming, lids neatly hiding liner bags, and not a single dent in any of them. Although most people don’t think of a trash bin as an integral part of decorating, I hope this a reminder that even the little things can add up to a more organized and efficient workspace. The less time you have to think about trash, the more you can spend on working and having fun.

I want to personally thank simplehuman, and David Lai for helping us procure these bins on such short notice.

Designer: simplehuman, $29.99

–
Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Perfect Workspace: simplehuman was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. 30 Days of Simple, Win simplehuman Products!
2. The LMacTouch: Perfect Desktop for a Perfect World?
3. Open Up For More Workspace

Situés dans le quartier de Roppongi à Tokyo, les bureaux japonais de Google ont été pensés par les équipes de Klein Dytham. Mélangeant avec talent les influences occidentales à celles du pays du Soleil levant, des images de cet environnement aux multiples ambiances sont à découvrir dans la suite.