7 Ways to Organize Your Home Office in 2012

Last year we checked in with professional organizer Angela Kantarellis about getting ready for tax season and this year we look at the sorts of organizing mistakes you can easily avoid in your home office.

Angela: “It’s 2012, a brand-new year wide open with promise and possibilities. If ‘get organized’ is one of your resolutions again this year, let’s look at what might have gotten in the way in the past and work to change it in the future. I’ve compiled a list 7 Organizing Mistakes to Avoid in 2012 to help you sidestep the most common roadblocks to a well-organized workspace.”
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Five Ways with Hexagons

1. Soft Pale Beige Hexagon Shelf, $40.00 Made from reclaimed pinewood, this shelf can appear pale grey, warm beige, or pale pink depending on your room’s lighting. Get it: Junglai

2. Worther Woody Mechanical Pencil, $14.00 Designers, artists, and engineers favor this writing instrument’s comfortable (and ergonomic) hexagonal shape. Get it: Canoe

3. Hex Paperweight, $26.00 Bring cool graphic simplicity to your workspace with this design from Seattle studio Iacoli & McAlister. Get it: The Ghostly Store

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Unplggd: Touch Sensitive Wall Organizer

Jiyoung Seo‘s touch sensitive Modular Wall Storage Unit is called SAI, Korean for “between”, and seems in the lineage of the classic Utensilo wall organizer. Tap the silicone blocks and they light up like you’re a contestant of your very own organizing game show. Watch it in action below.

By Gregory Han.

Five Ways with Red, White and Blue

We hope you had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. Here’s a roundup that takes its inspiration from red, white and blue.

1. QLOCKTWO TOUCH, $599.00 A matrix of characters spell out the time using LED technology in this conversation-starting table alarm clock. Get it: Biegert & Funk

2. Letter Holder Bookend, $45.00 Clear clutter from your workspace with this smart two-in-one solution. Get it: mollaspace.com

3. Tape Dispenser, $8.00 Add a small pop of color and clean lines to your desk with this charming design. Get it: Poppin

4. Truncheon Task Light Designer Cmmnwlth’s simple lamp is fashioned out of traditional materials and shaped by advanced digital technology. (Contact vendor for pricing.) Get it: Matter

5. Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair with Wood Base, $909.00 The gently curved shapes of these iconic chairs paired with a red aniline stained veneer finish are a firecracker combo. Get it: Herman Miller

Images linked to their sources within the numbered text

Dropbox: More Ways to Use this Handy Application

Dropbox has quickly proven itself to be one of those “must have” applications. Its seamless interface make syncing files between your multiple computers are breeze. While your primary reasons for using Dropbox may be the ones advertised on the site, with some third party hacks and settings tweaks there are some truly awesome uses for your Dropbox account.

DropTunes: Playing audio files from your Dropbox account is already something that can be done. However, DropTunes takes the pain out of clicking each individual file and creates playlists from the music folders that you store in your Dropbox. Additionally, DropTunes give you a nice user interface to adjust volume, pause, and even click forward and back tracks.

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Unplggd: Using Those Pesky Bookmarks Properly

As much as we like to think that Unplggd is your only daily stop on the internet, we recognize most readers shuffle through a set of favorite websites throughout the day while taking a a break/avoiding work. We recently implemented a little shortcut that has made it much easier to stay on top of the primary sites that we like to read that we thought we’d share.

All of the major web browsers let you save bookmarks to folders. You can then open all of the shortcuts in any given folder all at one time, each in its own tab. If you’ve got a slow computer and a ton of links, this may take a slight bit of effort on your computer’s part. Then again, should you really be reading blogs all day at work? [Perhaps!]

General initial steps
- Create a folder in your bookmarks and name it “Daily Reading”
- Save all of your favorite sites to this folder

Mozilla Firefox
In Firefox, you can store this folder in either your Bookmarks Toolbar or your Bookmarks Menu. Wherever you prefer to keep the folder, simply click the folder from either location and then select “Open in All Tabs.” You can also right click the folder to see this option as well.

Microsoft Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer requires you to open the Favorites Bar and then mouse over the folder you want to open. A little arrow shows up to the right and you click it to launch all of the sites into separate tabs. Microsoft doesn’t give you the option of using the file menu to launch all of your sites at once.

Google Chrome
Chrome has a bookmarks bar where you can keep your daily reading folder. Here you simply right click the folder and select “Open all bookmarks.”

Apple Safari
Safari has a Bookmarks Bar as well. You can click normally or right click on your daily reading folder and then select “Open in Tabs.”

You’re done
Now it’s quick and simple to take a break during the day and get through all your favorite websites in one fell swoop.

By Jason Yang

Unplggd: Cat Power

If you’ve got a cat and a laptop, you’ve probably found your kitty lounging about near or on your laptop (or just on computers in general). While we understand that cats enjoy sitting on something warm, it’s kind of funny and annoying at the same time. I can’t remember the number of times that I’ve shushed my own cat Yoda off my laptop. What can you do to stop this behavior?

Sure, finding your cat on your laptop is funny. My wife finds it pretty funny when Yoda climbs up on her own MacBook, but I dislike it as she tends to knead. This means that she’ll most probably end up scratching up my laptop at some point in time. It’s not something I want to happen. Here are a few ideas to keep your pet off your laptop.

1. Move your laptop You can easily take your laptop away into another locked room. Currently, I’m using part of this option since I don’t want to take chances. My laptop ends up in the bedroom with the door closed; no pets allowed.

2. Place some cat obstacles on your laptop This involves stacking a few light things from your desk, like notebooks, calendars, a tissue box, to create an obstacle to prevent your cat from lounging on your laptop. In my experience, this only works part of the time as an intelligent cat will most likely just throw these off to make space for itself.

3. Use a notebook stand This is a simple solution that will probably leave everyone happy. The stand, that will put your laptop at an angle or upright, makes it impossible for a cat to lie on it.

4. Create a cat bed nearby Using a small blanket or cushion, you can create an alternative resting spot for your cat. Although I wouldn’t put it on you desk, since cats tend to throw stuff off them, it could be put on one of your nearby shelves. Since I also have a dog, my pets are a lethal combo. The cat throws something off and the dog chews on it.

5. Take your cat on your lap Our feral little cat has turned into a lap cat, and we’re sure that your cats are like this as well. The best spot in the house is on your lap, and cats enjoy staying there for hours at a time, especially if you’re working.

By Range.

(Image: Flickr member Nanda licensed for use under Creative Commons, Flickr memberLaihiu licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Five Fabulous: 2011 Calendars (yes, it is that time of year again!)

1. A Year in Caps, $32 This series of 12 sustainably harvested wood veneer cards interprets each month typographically. Get it: Heather Lins Home

2. Calendar Print, $42 Clean. Simple. Cool. Get it: Gold Teeth Brooklyn at Supermarket

3. Twenty Eleven Calendar, $16 This limited print wall calendar doubles as a piece of art; just frame and hang. Get it: The Must Stash

4. Desktop Calendar, $30 Printed with graphic, vintage type that’s over 50 years old, this letterpress and steel calendar adds easy elegance to your office. Get it: smeurer8 at Etsy

5. “The Chairs” Calendar, $20 We might be biased, but we’re charmed by this handmade design. Get it: storybymia at Etsy

Images linked to their sources within the numbered text

Five Fabulous: Umbrella Stands

1. Design House Stockholm Umbrella Stand, $140 Designed by Eva Schildt, this inspired stand is as useful as it is sculptural. (Bonus: it comes with its own umbrella.)Get it: Huset

2. Aki Umbrella Stand, $149 Choose from a variety of bold, fall-like colors (and more) for the Aki—Japanese for “autumn.” Get it: Generate

3. Porcelain Umbrella Stand, $115 Collect your guests’ and clients’ umbrellas in this clean, classic, handcrafted receptacle. Get it: Horchow

4. Umbrella Pot, 66,700 JPY This eco-friendly, eco-chic, eco-smart (eco-everything) piece uses the extra rainwater from your wet umbrella to nourish a small plant. Get it: kyouei-ltd.co.jp

5. KARTELL Umbrella Stand, $155 These rainbow-reminiscent containers designed by Gino Columbini back in 1966 are the perfect remedy for a wet, rainy day. Get it: Mod Livin’

Images linked to their sources within the numbered text

Unplggd: Cord Envy

“Messy wires are a definite pet peeve for most people. They look unorganized and can make managing your computer and electronics a hassle. We’ve put together some innovative solutions that will help sort out the mess. The best ones will keep the mess at bay for a long time, even though it might take an effort to convert your place.

1. Fork and Cream Sauce It’s one of the funniest and innovative cable management systems that we’ve seen. It will most definitely help you stay clear of any kind of cable mess.

2. Leaf Tie This is a really cool way to tie together your cables. We usually use binder clips or zip ties, but these Leaf Ties are fun to have around. Both of these ideas are by Lufdesign.

3. IKEA Signum It doesn’t look the greatest, but it sure gets the job done. It can be placed at the end of a table and neatly tuck away your cables.

4. X Marks The Spot We think that X Marks The Spot sounds a lot better than the ACD Variable Cable Organizer, but whatever you call it, this typographically-inspired mount will sort out some of your cable management woes.

5. The Coat Hanger Cable Management System This is more of a hack, but it shows how you can just hack your cables into being more organized.

Originally posted on Unplggd by Range.”