Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Maybe because I use it so often, my home office is the hardest room to keep clean and free of clutter (just ask these stacks of books, magazines, and clippings swamping my desk). That’s why I always keep an eye out for interesting storage solutions (I’m not a big fan of those functional but ugly plastic organizers). This printer caddy from Hammacher Schlemmer looks like a good idea.

The stand is designed to hold your printer, ink, cartridges, and has room for other odds and ends. It’s finished in dark cherry (much better looking than plastic) and has a black leather inlay at the top (where the printer sits). Built-in cable slots hide cords, wood shelves hold paper, and two glass inlay drawers offer storage for the rest of your printer-associated paraphernalia. The price is $70.

Clutter-Free Printer Caddy

Don’t you hate it when you get those checks in the mail from the credit card companies? You don’t want to use them (who needs more debt, right?), but you don’t want anyone else to use them either. If you’ve got a home office, you may have a dedicated paper shredder, but if you don’t it’s rip, rip, rip, or cut, cut, cut with the scissors.

In this day and age (read: times or rampant identity theft), you can’t be too careful about throwing away documents with personal information on them. But you may not shred enough items to justify buying an electric shredder. This hand-held shredder is a useful (and inexpensive) alternative.

Designed to work just like scissors, the tool comes with eight blades instead of just two. There’s no electricity or battery required; just snip a few times, and you’ll reduce those unwanted checks, and other documents with personal information, into shreds too fine for a would-be identity thief to use.

The hand shredders cost $15 through Amazon:

Hand Shredder

If you’ve been dreaming about adding a hot tub to your patio or deck, but just don’t have the room for a big bulky model, this corner unit from Keys might be an option.

The 3-person spa takes up half the space of square tubs, so you could conceivably place it in the backyard of your townhouse or even on a rooftop deck–in such outdoor living areas, space is often at a premium. Though it might not be a party destination, I’m sure this compact spa work well as a romantic spot for two.

You can order the corner hot tub from big name retailers like Home Depot and Costco, and prices run around $3,000 (which also makes it less expensive than those bigger models too).

Keys