Office hacks

I have a collection of office hacks that crossed my desk all within a few days, so have finally grouped them all together! 

While most of these are to get rid of smells - those hacks which put right oversights such as someone having left their Thai curry doggy bag in the fridge over Christmas, or the persistent rancid mayo stink from the hors d'oeuvres dropped on the carpet in front of that really sunny window in the boardroom and WILL NOT go - other hacks help us in different ways at work.

• Removing marker pen. If we have got marker pen - aka Vivid, Sharpie, meths marker - on a surface it shouldn't be on, write over it with marker pen again, and wipe off immediately. Whiteboard marker, hand sanitiser, or brake cleaner will also do the same job (Furze, 2023)
• Cleaning whiteboards. "Brake cleaner works great for cleaning whiteboards", as well as removing marker pen (Furze, 2023)
• Marking a straight line down a cardboard tube. When we "need to draw a straight line on a tube use your door frame [as a straight edge]. Just hold the tube up against the inside of your door frame", and mark where you want the line (Furze, 2023)
• Finding a circle's centre. No compass, or only a small compass? All we need to do is to find the centre of our circle is to "draw a line that's easily divided by two let's say 28. [Draw a tangent] line and of course the middle of that is 14. get yourself a square straight edge put that along and against it at your mark at 14. Draw a line [there and] repeat a few times around the perimeter there's the center of your circle" where the lines intersect (Furze, 2023, 4:37)
• Emergency shelving. Buy two bathroom caddies and intersect at the desired height - or heights -  with a lightweight plank or two (Nixon, 2023; see image illustrating this post). Be judicious about weight of items on the shelf, though
• Clean a computer screen. Swipe an old "damp teabag" out of the bin in the tearoom "to clean a smudged or dusty computer screen. Dip the bag in a cup of cold water (or redip a used one from your morning brew), rub it all over the screen and then polish with a clean, dry cloth or paper towel" (Seal, 2023)
• Stinky microwave. Bring in some lemons from home for cleaning the work microwave. Just "Squeeze a lemon into a microwave-safe bowl", add some hot water to the bowl, along with the outer halves of the lemon, and place in the microwave. "Zap for five minutes, leave to stand, door closed, for 10 minutes, and then open and wipe down" (Seal, 2023)
• Stinky carpet. Baking soda, or "Bicarbonate of soda is an excellent neutraliser", which can be sprinkled "generously all over whatever needs refreshing, leave for four hours or overnight, and then vacuum off" (Seal, 2023)
• Stinky fridges or bins. Clean a smelly work fridge with a mix of "distilled white vinegar 50:50 with water. Add a few drops of essential oil or vanilla extract if the smell of vinegar offends you (it fades quickly), and spritz then wipe everywhere inside the fridge [or in smelly] food-waste bins" (Seal, 2023)
• Hack the hand cleaner. Grimy hands from ink cartridge changing? Add a teaspoon of sugar to the normal hand-soap to remove printer ink, grease, or any other stubborn muck (Furze, 2023)
• Plant watering. Keep the office plants alive when staff are off on leave, by "Tak[ing] a discarded plastic bottle, pierce the cap with the tip of a sharp knife and stick a cotton bud through the hole. Fill the bottle with water, replace the lid, tape a skewer or small bamboo cane [stake] to the side of the bottle so it extends about 20cm beyond the lid, and turn the whole thing upside down (a hole in the base of the bottle will help the water flow). Poke the skewer [or stake] into the soil at the base of a potted plant and the water will slowly drip down the cotton bud, keeping your plant babies going until you get back" (Seal, 2023).

These are quite fun!

Sam

References:

Furze, C. (2023, August 18). 18 GENIUS Workshop TIPS (that actually work) [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/kxmmE-y-S-A

Nixon, K. K. (2023, August 17). Renter's hack creates clever kitchen storage. The Tasman Leader. p. 8

Seal, R. (2023, August 18). The microwave lemon trick – and 10 other household hacks that actually work. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/aug/18/experts-share-household-hacks-that-actually-work