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Unclutterer

Daily tips on how to organize your home and office.

The humor website Cracked.com ran a crass article last week about the dirtiest places you encounter in a day.

The “6 Items You Touch Everyday That Are Filthier Than a Toilet” article isn’t safe for work and contains some non-child-friendly language, so if you want to see the original, you’ll need to go to Cracked.com and do a search yourself (we try to be at least a wee-bit family friendly here on Unclutterer). But, the research linked to from the article is super safe (albeit disturbing), so I’ll put a few of those links into this post describing the findings from the Cracked.com article.

Coming in at #6 is the soap in public restroom dispensers. If the liquid soap isn’t in a sealed and disposable bag, it likely has bacteria in it. The door knob is also pretty bad. And, the faucet knobs aren’t all that clean, either. Turns out, the toilet seat has less bacteria on it that these three other items.

Taking the #5 spot is paper money. The Cracked.com article says there is a “sponge-like ability for money to absorb whatever it comes in contact with.” Ew.

The #4 award went to dirty laundry and washing machines. They contain

Workspace of the Week: Office away from the officeYesterday

This week’s workspace of the week is more of a question than a space. What do you do to make working from a hotel room a bearable experience? (Image is My_OCD’s hotel office):

There isn’t anything particularly interesting about this setup, and that is because it’s in a Super 8 hotel and it’s a dreadful environment most of us have experienced. If we’re being honest, working from a hotel room is usually pretty awful. But, when business calls, it’s the office we have to use. So, instead of looking to this specific setup for inspiration, I wanted to open up the comments for suggestions on how to make working from a hotel desk a more enjoyable and productive experience. How do you create a pseudo-ideal working environment when you’re on the road? Please share your ideas in the comments — we’re all looking for inspiration!!

Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kit

And the winners of the Alice.com $250 shopping giveaway are …July 2

Thank you to EVERYONE (all 1,313 of you!) who participated in our Alice.com $250 shopping credit giveaway. Now let’s get on to the good stuff …

At 10:00 a.m. ET this morning, I closed the comments and counted up the entries. Then, I headed over to the Random Integer Generator at random.org and entered in the data:

Out popped the following numbers:

94 — Aliya

811 — David

I have contacted the winners and they will be receiving $250 credits in their accounts at Alice.com. (I’m a wee bit envious!!) Congratulations to our winners and thank you to Alice.com for their generosity.

Control cable-clutter with a monkey braidJuly 2

An excellent post on cable clutter from The Closet Entrepreneur has been making the rounds this week. It shows how to use a monkey braid (or chain sinnet) to shorten cables so they stay out of the way and don’t get tangled.

I tried it out with a particularly annoying 25′ 13-pin MIDI cable I use frequently and it works just as advertised. Sometimes the best things in life really are free.

(via Lifehacker)

Unitasker Wednesday: The Beaba BabycookJuly 1

Okay, I know that choosing unitaskers from Williams-Sonoma is so simple that it’s like shooting fish in a barrel … but I can’t help myself! There are so many wonderful unitaskers lining their shelves. It’s fruitless for me to try to steer clear. I am drawn to their shiny, unitasker-ness like a moth to a street lamp. I can’t help myself.

This week’s winner of the unitasker title is the Beaba Babycook.

Simply by using a pot, a steamer insert for that pot, and a blender (or potato masher or food processor or even the back of a sturdy fork) that you already own, you can make your child’s food without this contraption. Heck, if you already own a rice cooker you don’t even need a pot and steamer insert (a rice cooker, although the name implies it only cooks rice, is actually quite a wonderful multitasker). I am stumped as to why a parent might possibly need this Beaba Babycook appliance. Oh, and it’s $150 for an appliance you will maybe use for a year, if you even use it at all.