Home office

Forget all the hype people, working from home can be heck. Demonic refrigerators and Antarctic-like isolation can turn the experience into a Stephen King novel.

Some think flexible work arrangements make life easy. They imagine glasses of chardonnay for lunch and cushy 3-hour siestas. But, in reality there are the wee hour catch-up sessions because you needed to get those picture albums in tip-top shape. Or the midday wanderings through empty supermarket aisles pathetically looking for contact; pimply adolescent stock clerks will do. And don't get me started on Oprah or my possessed refrigerator that summons me hourly.

The infernal sins are simple: a lack of structure and discipline. Redemption is found in organization. Read More »

Paper shredders are the kind of thing that everyone could and should use but no one ever really wants to buy, largely because they're usually blah-looking and take up way too much space. A friend just asked me for a recommendation, though, and I remembered the ones by Royal that I saw earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show and which were actually one of my favorite discoveries while I was there. The technology is hardly groundbreaking, but this is—by leaps and bounds—the best-looking shredder I've ever come across. With its compact size and slick minimalist design, I'd even go so far as to call it cute. It can shred CDs, DVDs, credit cards, staples, and a bundle of paper at a time, and it starts and stops automatically, so you don't have to worry about remembering to power it on and off every time you use it. This would be so handy for dealing with the mountain of junk mail that shows up on my doorstep every day, and it's only $49.99. I'm placing an order today. Read More »