The Search for Under-Desk Storage Drawers

Since not all desks come with drawers — or you may be using a table as your desk — you may be looking for storage units you can put under that desk. And, like some of my clients, you may want a storage unit that has four or more shallow drawers to hold various supplies, rather than the more customary one or two supply drawers and a file drawer.

Space2 in the U.K. has this four-drawer mobile pedestal shown above; it's 67 cm (26.4 inches) tall.




AJ Products in Ireland (whose parent company is AJ Produkter AB) has this mobile pedestal, available in three finishes; it's 550 mm (21.7 inches) tall. AJ Produkter sells throughout much of Europe.




Wellemöbel, a German company, is another source for mobile pedestals. This one is 55.3 cm (21.8 inches) tall.




And Endo, in Australia, has this mobile pedestal, which comes in 16 different finishes. It's 675 mm (26.6 inches) tall.

These are just some of the under-desk pedestals I found around the world. But when I tried to find the same thing in the U.S., it became much harder. There's a similar product available from Herman Miller, but at a price higher than you might prefer.




So what are your other options? You could go with the Bisley multidrawer cabinets; Bisley has dealers in many parts of the world. These steel cabinets are 670 mm (26.5 inches) tall, and come in seven configurations — ranging from five drawers to 20 drawers. Unlike many of the other options listed here, this one's not designed to be mobile. Update: Bisley let me know that there is indeed a castor base option for this product — so it CAN be mobile!




Or you could go with mesh products, like this mesh cart from Safco; it's available through Amazon.com and many other sites. It's 27 inches tall.




And The Container Store has Elfa desk drawers; they're 29 inches tall.




If you don't want either steel or mesh, you could consider this drawer cart from Alkali Scientific; it's 27 1/8 inches tall.




And then there's Ikea, where you can get the Alex drawer unit. It's 26 inches tall.




Finally, for something different and fun, there's the Boby trolley storage unit from the Italian company B-line — but available from many sources in the U.S., including Gibraltar Furniture and Nova68. It comes in a number of colors and drawer configurations. However, it's 74 cm (29.13 inches) tall — the tallest one listed here, and a bit too tall to fit under some desks.

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How to Hold the Rubber Bands

Photo by Michael Basial, found on Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons.

No one needs a product specifically intended to hold rubber bands. Any little basket, bin or box will do — or you can use the approach that Michael Basial's relatives did, and just use the doorknob to hold them. (That's what I do, personally, with the few rubber bands I keep.) But if you'd like a fun way to store them, read on!




The newest product, available for preorder, is the Rafael rubber band holder from J-Me. There are three color choices, and each one ships with three rubber bands to start you out. [via Book of Joe]




Oomy makes this one: the Fitness Addict, which you can see on the company's Facebook page. This one comes with a few rubber bands, too. You can buy the Fitness Addict at Perpetual Kid. Oomy says it can also make these as branded products — that's a promotional product that would grab some attention!




The Rubber Bando comes from India, and you can order it shipped from there. If you're in Australia, you can get it from Roaring Hippo.

You can also go see the Metaphys desk organizer, with a container designed specifically for rubber bands, mentioned in my February 2009 newsletter.




And finally, let me mention some special rubber bands, which come to us from Switzerland: the Plattfuss rubber bands by tät-tat, made from recycled bicycle tubes. Each package has 70 rubber bands, in various sizes. You can buy them from tät-tat or Pico Bollo or Pigr. In the U.S., you can get them through Spitfire Girl.

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Five French Ribbon Memo Boards

With Valentine's Day approaching, the heart-shaped memo boards from BeGreenCue caught my eye even more than they normally would. But I've found a number of lovely French ribbon memo boards that might help anyone who wants photos and other mementos, bits of inspiration, or important notes to be out and visible.




Kim, at Memories to You, has French memory boards in five sizes — and some stunning fabrics.




This University of Texas French Memo Board from TresBelleJamie seems like a great idea for a Longhorns fan.




Vera Bradley is known for wild patterns — and now you can get those on a ribbon board. [via Naomi Dunford]




But simple solid-color French memo boards, like the ones from French Knot in Australia, can be quite wonderful, too.

Related Posts:
A Bulletin Board Alternative: French Ribbon Memo Boards
Memo Boards with a Multitude of Fabric Choices

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Organizing the Papers: Putting Your Walls to Work

Want to keep some papers close at hand? Have free wall space? Want something with a splash of style? I've seen two products that take a familiar product and translate it to something new to address just this kind of situation.

The first is the Neuer_Ordner, or New_Folder, from Haseform. This one was all over the design blogs when it came out in 2007; I saw it on swissmiss, Apartment Therapy and more. You can buy these yellow ones from design3000.de (individual or set of three) or you can buy the folders from Connox (which has individual folders and sets of three, in both yellow and white).




And just a few days ago I found the Envelope Mail Holder from Goodwin + Goodwin. [via From Europe]

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Organizing the Pens and Pencils: Pencil Cups and More

I'm still a fan of taking some of those more-than-you'll-ever-use coffee mugs and turning them into pencil cups. But if you're one of the few people without spare mugs — or you'd just prefer a different storage solution — I've got some ideas. Let's start with the Nemesis Now 'Bosco' gothic fantasy dragon penpot, available here and numerous other places.




If you like the Fornasetti style — and don't mind spending $179 for a pencil holder — head on over to Unica Home




For something much more modestly priced, head over to Etsy and see the papered pencil cups from Monica Marks — a nice use of old tin cans! They're all one of a kind.




Jerry Moon of Jerry's Wood Works sells his pencil cups on Etsy, too. This one is made from English walnut.




And Andrew's Reclaimed is yet another Etsy seller with a nice pencil cup.




The Desktop Tidy Organizer is a combination pencil cup, paper clip holder, and mini magnet board. You could buy it from Animi Causa Boutique or Mocha.




But a pencil holder doesn't have to be a cup; it could also be a wooden hedgehog, from Down to the Wood.




Or it could be a pencil tree. [via Swissmiss and Ohdeedoh]




Finally, if you're looking for the "bastard lovechild of your office pen holder and the Barbie Party Palace," here's your answer: the Princess Collection Pen Holder.

Related Posts:
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Creating an Ergonomic Workspace

I'm not an expert in ergonomics — and consulting with an expert can be a very worthwhile investment. But it doesn't take much expertise to see that many of the offices I walk into have major ergonomics issues — as do many of the "on the go" offices I see as people work in coffee shops and such. If you're spending any significant amount of time on your computer, please take the time to get your workspace as ergonomically adjusted as you can.

The single best source of information I've found is the illustration and description of a user friendly workstation from the University Health Service at the Tang Center, UC Berkeley. (There's a PDF version available, too.)

You may notice that some of the recommendations are a bit different from what you've seen in the past. The biggest change I noticed is that slightly reclined seating is now recommended by many experts, rather than the totally upright seating I always used to see. (Of course, the common hunched-over pose was always known to be a bad thing.)

And what about laptop users? The advice I see, time and again, says: "First and foremost, whenever possible plug an external mouse or trackball and keyboard into your laptop." [Wi-Fi Planet, via Lifehacker] Nowadays, we may not even have to "plug them in" since many mice and keyboards are wireless.

For more suggestions specific to laptops you can see my prior post on laptop ergonomics, which linked to some of the best information around. There's been more written since then, so you might want to also look at the articles I found on GigaOM and Core77, as well as the advice from Dr. Stephanie Maj.

For a bit of fun, take a look at the videos produced by Vodafone - showing proper ergonomics for working at home and on the road. (OK, it still promotes that "sit up straight" approach, but aside from that, the advice seems solid.) Here's the first one:



[Photo from U.S. Department of Agriculture, found on Flickr, licensed through Creative Commons]

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Feng Shui and Your Desk

My desk, with Sunshine in one of her favorite places.

Shannon Del Vecchio told me I needed to move my desk.

Shannon was my feng shui consultant, and she was helping me get my office arranged back a number of years ago. I'd read enough about feng shui to know I had the desk poorly placed, but it took Shannon standing there with me to get the change made.

What's a good desk position? Shannon McGinnis discusses this in her new book, The 10-Minute Tidy: 108 Ways to Organize Your Office Quickly. She writes about putting your desk in the empowerment position:

The empowerment position will have you facing the door of the office when you are sitting at your desk. Ideally you would have a solid wall behind you and if your office has windows, it’s great to be able to look outside.

The position of my desk in my home office now meets all of those criteria — and it really does make the office feel great.

So now I really notice desk placement — in the offices I visit, in magazine photos, in catalogs, and on the web. I see many lovely office pictures — and almost all have them have a desk position that feng shui would frown upon. Pictures showing anything other than the desk facing the wall are so rare that I've started bookmarking them when I stumble upon them!




Here's a desk from Ballard Designs.




And here's one from Horchow.




And here's a fun desk from Restoration Hardware.

For a couple more examples, take a look at Unclutterer and Apartment Therapy.

Yes, it's more complicated when you're talking about a desk with a computer, printer, scanner, etc. — and all the cords that often involves. (I still struggle a bit with cord control.) And yes, not all offices will accommodate such desk positioning. But it's worth at least considering whether such an arrangement might work for the office space you have. Try it, and see if it makes a difference to you.

Disclosure: Shannon McGinnis was my roommate at the 2011 NAPO conference, and she gave me a free copy of her latest book, in PDF form.

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Fun with Office Supplies: Paper Clip Holders

If you've got paper clips scattered all over the place — or if you have one of those boring paper clip holders sold at big box office supply stores — you might want to look at some fun ways to corral those clips. The one above is called the Desk Knight.




This car-shaped paperweight and clip holder comes from Philippi.




Troika, in Germany, has so many fun choices that it's hard to pick just one. This car is sold by The Black and White Gift Shop in Australia. Liberty in the U.K. has the Troika ocean liner and red racing car. Morphose in Germany has the motorcycle, the excavator, and more. [via Retro to Go]




OK — I can't show you just one, because I have to include the Inukshuk. You can find this one at Rolo and Skripta-Paris (lava and pebble colors).




Alessi makes this paper clip holder, called Chip; you can find it many places, including Unica Home. [via Switched On Set]




This paper clip holder comes from ScanWood, also available from Panik and Modetwentyone. [via Better Living Through Design]





And let me leave you with a couple of the bobble head paper clip holders by Amy Hardacre.

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4 Staplers to Brighten Up Any Office

A Pac-Man inspired stapler? Yes, indeed! While the Stap-Man stapler from Propaganda was originally available in just white and black (and you can still get it in those colors), it's now available in yellow, too. [via Retro to Go and GeekAlerts]




Propaganda is also the source for the Shark Bite! stapler, available in your choice of three colors from Panik Design and Zucker Online.




For something much more conventional-looking, there's the Anything stapler - also available in a range of colors. It's sold many places online, including Rare Device and Velocity Art and Design.




And finally, there's this Italian stapler sold by Present&Correct, available in six different colors. P&C says these staplers are "used in offices all over Italy."

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Dry Erase Boards - Not Just Your Basic Whiteboard Any More

"Dry erase boards are a staple of office life, but they’re not usually known as fashion statements." So writes Belgrave Trust in its blurb for the SkyPaper dry erase board. There's an interesting history behind it, too. "The striking design started when the team made a trip to look for reclaimed wood. But at the architectural salvage yard the team happened upon a set of giant rolls of anti-vandalism grade polycarbonate, surplused from a local construction project." [via Inhabitat]




Not your style? What about bamboo? This bamboo dry erase board comes from CB2; it's actually a bamboo veneer over engineered wood. [via Ohdeedoh]




Three by Three has a whole range of bamboo dry erase boards; this is just one. [image from Uncommon Goods - another place you can buy these boards]




You can also get a board that's a combination magnetic board and dry erase board - such as this one from Ekohdesign. There are a huge number of designs to choose from. These boards are made from steel, with printed overlays.




I'm very fond of this ceramic magnetic whiteboard, made in Russia. The online store says "We can ship to nearly any location around the world."




Finally, there are the whiteboard stickers. You could get a basic WhiteyBoard, or choose from the many Whiteboard Wall Schtickers - such as that rhino.

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