We’ve talked before about the health benefits of drying your hands with paper towels vs. air dryers. The friction from rubbing your hands with paper towels is essential to removing illness-causing germs. Now Kimberly Clark Professional provides some eye-popping numbers.

Turns out, air dryers aren’t just less efficient at removing germs, they actually increase the amount left on your hands. That’s right, after you’ve gone through the trouble of properly washing your hands — humming two verses of Happy Birthday and everything– air dryers turn right around and blow a bunch of germs on your hands.  Air dryers increased the number of germs on user hands by up to 194%. Furthermore, unlike paper towel dispensers, air dryers are covered with bacteria. So you’re doomed germy hands the moment you touch one.

Beyond all that, it just takes longer to dry your hands with an air dryers than a paper towel. Info that provides us the opportunity to re-post the best TED Talk ever:

Source

 

Working on an older laptop or keyboard. Office Ink found three great tips for preventing computer keys from fading.

Use a keyboard cover to stop keys from fading. Custom keyboard covers provide the most key protection and the most professional appearance. With a custom keyboard cover, you get protection for dust and spills, as well and key fading. Use clear nail polish to stop computer keyboard keys from fading. You can use clear nail polish as a low key varnish to protect your keyboard keys as well. Use a keyboard cover to protect your keyboard keys Prevent computer keyboard keys from fading with packing tape. You can also DIY your own custom keyboard cover with packing tape. All you have to do is position the tape over the keys, then use a razor blade to cut the excess from around the keys. You don’t even have to cover all the keys. You can just stick to the most commonly used letters: E,T,A,O,I,N.

Not everything is streaming online or stored on the cloud. Sometimes, you can’t get around storing and accessing data and media on DVDs. Keeping those fragile discs clean and scratch free has always been  a challenge. Today we show you how to clean a DVD without scratching the surface. We’ve also got some tips on repairing DVD and CD scratches.

How to clean a DVD without scratching the disc.

The first trick to successfully cleaning a DVD without scratching the surface is to use the right cleaning cloth. The hem of your shirt is not going to cut it. You need a very soft cotton cloth. Microfiber works great.  Microfiber cloths are reusable, and are also perfect for cleaning your smartphone, LCD laptop and tablet screens, your eyeglasses, etc.

Recommended Microfiber Cloths:

Innovera® Microfiber Cleaning Cloths	3M Microfiber Electronics Cleaning Cloth

You can also clean a DVD with 100% cotton swabs and balls. Just on’t use any sort of paper product. Even the softest facial tissues are made from abrasive wood fibers that will scratch your DVD. Once you’ve got you’re cloth, you can choose a cleaning solution. A mix of dish soap and water will suffice in most circumstances. If that doesn’t do the trick, try cleaning your DVD with 99% Isopropyl Alchohol. This is most readily available in the form of specialty DVD cleaning solutions.

Recommended DVD Cleaners:

Scotch CD/DVD Disc Cleaner & Repair Kit	Read Right® CD/DVD Kleen™ Cleaner	Innovera® Computer Cleaning Kit

How to repair CD / DVD scratches.

Repairing CD and DVD scratches is tricky. Success depends on the depth and location of the gouges. However, there are a few well documented fixes that gently buff and fill in DVD scratches:

• Toothpaste
• Furniture Polish
• Car wax
• Metal polish

Be gentle when repairing and cleaning DVDs. The old advice to lightly wipe in straight lines from the center hole to the outer edge is sound. Stubborn stains and scratches should be handled with a light hand and a ton of patience.  Good luck! Got some advice on how to clean a DVD without scratching the surface, or on repairing a scratched DVD? Share your tips in the comments.

Sources: The DIY Video Editor, Wikihow, How Stuff Works

Who hasn’t reached for a pen only to find that it’s all dried out and doesn’t work anymore. Did you know most pens can draw a line nearly two miles long before running out of ink? Yeah, we’ve never gotten nearly that amount of use from a pen before it dried out either. Luckily, you can revive dried out pens. Easily. So before you toss your scratchy pen, try our 5 tips on how to revive dried out pens. Continue reading →

We got an interesting question at On Time Supplies recently: can you use plastic DYMO label tape as plant tags? Seemed like a good idea to us! But we called our DYMO rep just to confirm that a strip of plastic label tape makes a great plant tag. While DYMO LetraTag Plastic Label Tape is not absolutely waterproof, it is durable enough to weather a season outdoors in your garden.

Don’t own a DYMO Label Maker? Well first of all, now is a great time to buy one! Or you can use another brand of laminated label tape, such as Brother TZe Series Labels, or even weatherproof shipping labels, to DIY plant tags. Weatherproof labels are tough enough to remain intact and legible through inclement weather.  Just slap your shipping labels on a pot, or fold them over a stake.

Recommended Weatherproof Shipping Labels for your DIY Plant Tags:

3M Weatherproof Address Labels	Universal® Weatherproof Adhesive Labels	Avery® WeatherProof™ Durable Labels

I think all you teachers will be especially interested in this cleaning tip.  Got a dry erase marker stain on your shirt? Before you’d have to add the shirt to the rag bin, or hope it was discreet enough not to notice. No more! Here’s how to clean dry erase marker stains from your clothes:

1. Place a towel inside the garment to catch any ink bleed off.
2. Put a little Murphy Oil Soap on the dry erase marker stain.
3. Blot the stain until it’s gone.

That’s it! Just launder your shirt as you normally would and that dry erase marker stain is gone forever. Is there anything Murphy Oil Soap can’t clean?

Source: HowToCleanStuff.net

Do your file cabinets runneth over? Can’t see your desk for all the paperwork clutter? We’ve discussed some methods of file organization before — Smead’s color coding system changed my life! — but we haven’t talked about the #1 culprit in messy: too much stuff.

Reluctant to trash files and documents? That reluctance is standing between you and an organized office. I just came across this great LifeHacker tip on reducing paper clutter in your office: regularly scheduled one on one time with your paper shredder. Daily, monthly and quarterly paper shredding will clear some serious clutter and free up file cabinet space. Go through your mail and inbox daily, your files monthly and quarterly, and run the documents you don’t need through the paper shredder Mail, bills, pay stubs, credit card statements — all candidates for the paper shredder. And be sure to shred old document, not just toss them in the trash. Neglecting to shred your documents is like the #1 way to become a victim of identity theft.

Source: LifeHacker