Race through your work

Is your job the pits?

Does your workday feel like it's stuck in second gear?

Do you spend all day longing for a podium finish?*

Well, I have good news for you. I was just flipping through the Officeworks catalogue and noticed the following, hilariously named product: the Bathurst Racer Chair!



Yes, in this chair designed to superficially resemble the driver's seat of a V8 Supercar, you can brmm-brmm your way through your working day. Look at this baby. Swivels like it's on rails.

It comes in blue or red, but we all know that red goes faster. At the bargain price of $129.87, you can be assured they'll be gone in 60 seconds.

*This joke will only make sense once you realise that I used to work in the HWT Towers building in Southbank, where the ground floor reception lobby is known as the 'podium'.

Animal accessories

Round 2 of back-to-school catalogues has hit my letterbox, in case you missed it. Most of the same bargains are still there until the end of January. However, here are a couple more things that caught my eye:

Officeworks has novelty animal-shaped pencil sharpeners for 54c. A cute back-to-school gift, or just something silly to cheer yourself up on your own desk.

Kmart has rad kids' backpacks for $12 in the shape of either monkeys or owls, with googly eyes. I REPEAT, WITH GOOGLY EYES. I wish there was some excuse for me to carry such a backpack and still be respected by peers and employers, but there isn't, so I'll just move on.



And The Reject Shop has novelty animal-shaped paper clips in packs of 20 for $2. (Ignore the 'Gesture' variety.) Choose from crocodile, pig or rabbit, although the rabbit is my favourite because its haunch is incorporated into the curve of the paper clip.

Storage boxes for under $25

Some real talk, people. You probably have a lot of stuff. Why not invest in some giant plastic boxes to store it properly?

I've stored my towels and bedlinen in wheeled plastic boxes since I moved into a house that had no cupboard storage. I also have more that I use for socks and tights, sleepwear, stuff I'm putting away to see if I do well enough without it to donate it to charity, and stuff for craft projects.

My bed is high enough off the ground that I can store the boxes underneath and wheel them out when needed, but such boxes are also useful to keep if you have to store things in damp or dusty conditions such as roof lofts, garages and sheds – for instance if you're going away and giving up your house.

At the moment, Officeworks, The Reject Shop and Big Dubs are duking it out as to whose boxes are cheapest. It really depends what size you want.

Officeworks has 9L boxes with white lids in colours including yellow, tangerine (pictured), white, green and blue for $5.97. These are 33cm long, 27cm wide and 14cm high, making them a good size to store books, CDs, DVDs and documents. (Storing books in small boxes is important when it comes to moving them, I have discovered over the years.) You could use the various colours to code the contents.

But you'll pay $6 for a 15L clear roller box at The Reject Shop, and $8 for a 30L box. The Reject Shop also has a wider, flatter 38L underbed box for $12, designed to fit under low beds (not everyone has an old-fashioned high bedstead like me).

For a smallish but still quite roomy 55L box, Officeworks is your best bet – they have clear wheeled boxes that are 54cm long, 31cm wide and 39cm high and cost just $5.97. These are the sort where the handles snap closed against the lid – important when the box is full and you're struggling to get the lid on.

If you'd like coloured rather than clear plastic, Officeworks also has stackable periwinkle blue or red 52L boxes (56.5cm long, 40cm wide and 32.5cm high) for $7.97. Compare this to Big Dubs' 48L clear box for $7.47, and The Reject Shop's 60L clear box for $9.

But when you start to get into larger boxes still, Big Dubs becomes better value. They have an 81L clear(ish) box for $15.86 (compare to Officeworks' equivalent for $20), and a 100L box for $20 (compare to Officeworks' $24.98).

But at The Reject Shop, a 90L box is $15, an a whopping 140L box is $25.

Googly-eye crafts

How about some googly-eye crafts? Officeworks has a pack of 160 googly eyes of varying sizes, some red and blue as well as black, for $3.17. Here are some things you can do with googly eyes:

The globe's your oyster

Officeworks also has 20cm world globes on a classic pedestal stand for $9.91. They come in the classic blue as well as black and white, and the countries are highlighted in different colours. I'd like one just for decorating. I've seen some Pinterest stuff in which people make quite striking mobiles out of old globes.



If you want to be a dickhead whose obnoxiously over-styled home is featured on Fuck Your Noguchi Coffee Table, you could also make a massed display of globes in your house.

Everyone loves a laminator

Maybe you are not lucky enough to be related to a primary school teacher, and you wish you could get documents laminated at the drop of a hat. Well at Big Dubs you can! An A4 laminator is just $15.

Officeworks is running a Back to School promotion already (a depressing thought for parents and teachers). The Big Dubs laminator is still your best bet for laminators, but Officeworks has one for $15.94, which is also what you'll pay for 100 laminating pouches for said laminator.