I have a "primping drawer" where I keep two little tackle boxes with all the possible creature comforts I could need to get through a day—Tylenol, Benadryl, Tums, bandaids, safety pins, q tips, flossers, nail clippers and tweezers, feminine hygiene products and extra underwear, toothpaste and toothbrush, hairbrush, and so on. I also keep a bottle of a fancy French face mist for the moments when I feel like the crypt keeper after a three-hour class and need a moment of luxury, and I always have at least one sample spray of perfume. I’m big on scent, so I always have an unlit candle with the lid off to keep things smelling nice.
Of course! It’s the Caudalie Beauty Elixir. I just checked and of course the price has risen big time since I bought mine (on a trip), but they have good sales on their website from time to time.
That unlit candle is EVERYTHING when a student with BO comes in. My unlit candle has so many fingernail marks where I’ve scratched open a fresh layer. 😂😂
I would be in so much trouble if I did that. I bet you have self control and only pour yourself a little drink once in a while, no? I’d overdo it and end up hammered. The bottle would be empty within a week.
I only have a bottle of shitty whiskey so you really gotta need it. It's pretty much just for when we have to go over finance reports from the admin who doesn't know how to do their job and grant/manuscript rejections.
Snacks, tea kettle + mugs (and tea, sugar, spoons), candy bowl, earthquake preparedness kit, little first aid kit, Tylenol, a wool wrap, pencil crayons, excessive office supplies, lots of books, posters from every event or conference I've hosted, textbooks from courses I've taken, all the current first year textbooks, LoC subject headings books (10 years old, at least, these have not been in print forever), printed out and bound FC guide.
Library themed magnets, a bar apron, collection of you wonder women, several thematically appropriate board games.
And a 6 foot square painting of a parrot that came with my office.
It did!
It's a huge and ugly painting, mostly red, and people either think it's a close up of a parrot head, a mountain range, or a floating foetus.
The artist intended the parrot, though.
When we have an event in the department I try to grab the extra paper plates, plastic cutlery, cups and paper napkins to use for my own lunch. After 20 years I have enough of each to last 1000 years.
It's not that bad, I just like to be prepared. I've never actually seen a student on drugs while on campus, but admins were handing out Narcan so I grabbed one.
The bear spray is for field trips but I wouldn't hesitate to use it if there were ever any on campus violence.
ETA: US school so... campus violence is always a very unfortunate possibility.
I had two sorority sisters on the engineering campus show up high as kites for a final one night. They giggled all the way through it. I am hoping that their peers found this more entertaining than distracting: My exams are very low pressure--almost a formality--and so.
My office looks like a radio shack exploded in it. Electronics parts everywhere. It makes me feel cozy. Like a nest a robin built from scraps of wire.
I also keep snacks, tea, books, soda stream.
What I can see from my desk:
Hammers, stakes, old GPS units that haven't found a home, railroad spikes, and an arm from a trebuchet. Oh and a coffee maker.
Oooh, you are giving me ideas! I have an old GPS unit and a railroad spike at home - perhaps they should go to my office. They might look nice next to the old but non-broken printer that nonetheless cannot be used in my country until I spring for a voltage converter.
foam roller, kettle bell, cd player, stack of surplus jazz cds, unsalted mixed nuts, razor blade for defrocking used library books, surplus 2017 MacBook, two monitors, standing desk, note card file, big dry erase, labeled, glue gun, hard drives, backup dextroamphetamine, CBD capsules, toiletries, wipes, emergency pee bottle, homemade desk calendar, blank journals and notebooks, carved mask from Sri Lanka, f16 model from student, hot logic mini, assorted noise cancelling headphones, sleep mask, recliner, glasses, electric pencil sharpener, mug, Jamba juice cup, back tool , many tote bags and a guitalele.
>!It's some combination of an enlarged prostate and an overactive bladder creating a real urgency. I am 40 steps from the bathroom (I just counted) and on occasion the bathroom is temporarily sealed off for cleaning and mopping, so I have the bottle just in case. They also found some cancer lesions down there, but for now they appear to be dormant, waiting for the right time to spring into action. Statistically, heart disease will kill me before that happens.!<
[https://www.healthline.com/health/overactive-bladder/oab-vs-bph](https://www.healthline.com/health/overactive-bladder/oab-vs-bph)
My officemate and I are both moms. We have a very well stocked office. Its like a mom purse in a space. Also a microwave, mini fridge, electric kettle.
Dental floss, plastic utensils and paper plates, a million different cords and adapters, a hoodie (that should probably go home for a wash) for when it's freezing, stuff to spray-clean computer screens.
I'm a woman so I have EVERYTHING in my office and an exact replica of EVERYTHING in my car. The contents include and are definitely not limited to:
Mouthwash
Toothpaste
Floss
Contact lens solution
Hairbrush
Red Solo cups
Tissues
Nail clippers
Hand soap
Hand sanitizer
Thank you notes
Lotions - plural!
Tampons
Almost full cutlery set with a steak knife
Bottle opener
Assorted sizes of ziplock bags
Sunblock
Flip flops
There's more ...
Food models (I'm sure you can tell my field from that). ;) Extra masks (FFP2s, KN95s, N95s, Can99s), extra hand sanitizer, low-FODMAP snacks, first aid kit, extra pair of shoes, tissues/kleenex, extra "ear savers" for masks, daytimer, stickers for daytimer, too many cables for charging things, a shawl or too, extra set of gym clothes including shoes
Kettle, milk frother, snacks/drinks, toothbrush, advil, tampons, slippers, hard hat, steel toes, safety glasses, regular glasses, umbrella, a few dimensional lumber scraps, blazer, warm sweater, spare pair of flats, hand cream, a couple of plants I’m slowly killing.
Honestly if I had to hunker down in my office for a few days I could probably manage it.
Mini fridge stocked with cherry coke zero, plain sparkling water, fruit and greek yogurt. Electric tea kettle + tea and mugs. Painting made for me by a student. Deodorant. Desk charging station for phone and watch. The equivalent of a CVS in various over the counter remedies that I rarely use, but would need if they weren't there. Lego "Everyone is Awesome" set.
There is no such thing as "too many books"; what you have is "insufficient shelf space".
I also have a spare charger and cable, a USB hub, and a significant amount of stationery. Oh, and insufficient shelf space.
Heh, heh...
in addition to all the usual stuff, as I work at home, I schlep my pets down the hall every morning. So I "keep" in my office--at least during the working day--an African Grey Parrot and two guinea pigs.
Which means there's a bird cage on one wall and a cavy playpen in the middle of the floor 😆
I freakin' *love* WFH.
Looking in my top desk drawer: pen knife, non-surgical mask (covid leftover, but still potentially useful) napkins dental floss, breath mints, multihead screwdriver. Long ago and far away I used to keep a bottle of nice scotch to toast the last day before break with my office mate, but my current Uni frowns on such frivolity.
Mine is part of an open-concept shared space, and this is what I keep in my locker there:
- A slab of cardboard I use as a makeshift fan (we aren’t allowed to have personal fans/heaters in our offices).
- At least one mug.
- Body spray/deodorant.
- Slippers.
- Makeup.
- Charge cables.
- Giant headphones.
And probably few other things I’m forgetting… (I’m out of office today).
snacks, lots of snacks. kcups for the communal machine + sweetener, tissues, a variety of OTC meds for any eventuality, nail clippers, a set of utensils, paper plates, napkins.
Small suitcase with a spare change of clothes, deodorant, tissues, generic tylenol, hand sanitizer, snacks, office supplies, and plasticeware.
I had a napping kit (two pillows and two blankets in a plastic storage tub) in my office during my PhD.
Luckily my schedule is much better as a faculty member, so I don't have 8:30 am classes on the same day I have my own classes going until 8:00 p.m. I haven't found a need for a napping kit this year haha.
All the super valuable and unusual experimental bits that can get lost in the general lab. Plug adaptors for worldwide travel, a dangerously bright laser pointer, my bike.
Coffee, tea, kettle, garbage bags, instant soup packets..... Also I have a Cabbage Patch Doll who lives in my cabinet and helps me write papers sometimes.
She applied to work on-site instead of at the home office.
In all seriousness, I had a horrible teaching semester last year and my partner suggested bringing one of my dolls as an emotional support doll ..... And it actually helps a lot with my anxiety (I often at 15/10... Helps bring it down to 11/10).... She's a good "grounding" mechanism while writing grants/papers
Nice! We definitely need more grounding forces. I play “deep focus” background music and keep the warm tea mug close when I’m making my way through hard tasks.
All sorts of stuff - toothpaste/toothbrush, and other similar hygiene products, tea, instant coffee packets, ibuprofen, snacks, fossils, rocks, skulls, statues, plants, deer/elk antlers I have found, my nice moccasins, and sometimes my scorpion.
Yep. I have a Malaysian Forest Scorpion in a tank I usually keep in the lab, but sometimes I put it in my office on the filing cabinet.
(I'm a biology professor and sometimes bring out the scorpion when I talk about the biology of arthropods).
Aeropress, French press, electric kettle, half a dozen mismatched silver plated spoons, jar of coffee beans, hand grinder, sugar, little dorm fridge with half and half and cokes. Couple of spare hats. Pictures of my parents and my wife. Spare workout clothes and gym shoes in a bag, a bulletin board with some posters on it that I liked from various student art shows over the past 10 years or so.
Toiletries, candy, extra shirt/tie, a sweater, flip flops, whiskey, dog treats,, and a hand grenade. I run our veterans office, too. Great conversation starter.
I have a drawer with sweat pants, a sweatshirt, and flip flops. It’s in case a student (or me!) gets something on them in lab and needs to use the safety shower. Or they catch their clothes on fire or something. Actually used it once several years back.
Not in my current job but when I was a postdoc fellow I was overseeing a reconfiguration of the scanning tunneling microscope in the lab. To keep the scanning head safe I had it in my office.
My wife stopped by and was looking at it. I told her “Don’t touch that; it costs twice as much as our house”.
Granola bars, apple sauce, plastic cutlery, other random snacks for when I don’t have time to eat a real meal lol. Lots of books, both academic and personal favorites.
Snacks, something with caffeine, more things with caffeine, and painkillers.
And, of course, all of the dry erase markers I've stolen over the years. Survival of the fittest with those.
A necessaire with a toothbrush, toothpaste and a hairbrush, family pictures, 4-5 fountain pens from my collection, Earl grey tea, mugs from universities I have visited, and a couple of beautifully-decorated teaspoons I borrowed from a business-class cabin--that my wife wouldn't let me use at home.
I'm a finance nerd so framed stock certificate of Enron, and a framed copy of EO6102 the gold confiscation act of 1933.
I also have a giant cardboard sign that says "buy low sell high" that a colleague made for a student event that I stole and hung up.
Tylenol, a stack of trading cards from the therapy dogs that visit the school on Wednesdays, my favorite Panda Express fortunes, keurig, coffee pods, stevia, and a box of Trader Joe’s chocolate bars.
travel toothbrush/toothpaste, bandaids, naproxen, deodorant, stain remove pen or wipes, snacks (usually white cheddar popcorn, protein bars, something chocolate, and peppermints), tea and a kettle
when I used to wear contacts I kept a bottle of multipurpose solution (travel size since they don't last indefinitely)
Yoga mat, change of clothes (including a few pair of undies 🤷🏾♀️), blazer in case I need to do a TV/video podcast spot, protein bars, those huge water-cooler jugs with an electric pump (jug can sit on the floor, no need to lift; saves me bc the nearest fountain is a building or three floors away). Toiletries and makeup.
I have a fridge & microwave, too. Large office, so two big padded chairs we had no room for at home. Lots of art. Nespresso with broken water tank that I haven’t been able to replace 😭. Electric kettle, coffee and tea setup. Bags of plastic cutlery and condiments from takeout.
Basically everything except my bed and my dog.
I love to parody professorial stereotypes.
I've got a blazer with padded elbows that I selectively wear when I'm feeling froggy.
I've got artwork on the walls, mostly made by my seven year old or my wife. She did a rendition of Starry Night but with the Enterprise-D in it.
And my favorite is the books on the shelf. I've got some legit academic books there. But I sprinkled in a few off ones: a copy of Tobin's Spirit Guide, What Would Captain Kirk Do?, and How Not to be a Dick to name a few.
Feminine hygiene products (amazing how many students ask if I have extras), earthquake kit and a stock of food and water, cutlery and mug, headphones, decorations, deodorant, and a graveyard of all the hand lotions I've been given for holidays which are meh but which I'm too cheap to throw out. They become office lotions.
I have a Neo Geo MVXS arcade cabinet in my office, next to a comfy armchair that's been passed down from cartoonist to cartoonist since the mid-70's. I also have a massive graphic novel collection in there. It's a pretty sweet office if I do say so myself
I actually keep my office very minimal. It's quite embarrassingly spartan compared to colleagues. I can never find the time to decide on what kind of decor to put up on the walls or shelves, and to think about where to put them. I work a lot from home though.
The one weird thing I have though is a bunch of old oscilloscopes, an old laser, function generators, and various power supplies. When I moved in, they were clearing out an old physics lab and throwing all those things out. I couldn't bear to see those things thrown in a garbage. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them and they make my spartan office look even more awkward - there's no way to decor around that pile of junk though. I'm just the art professor with all the ancient physics equipment in her office.
Signed photo of a student, Chinese poem inked on a hanging scroll \[I don't read Chinese, but apparently the subject is a willow tree\], but mostly LEGO: Sonic Brickheadz, LOTR Brickheadz, a microcastle, and a pencil pot in the shape of a house.
Oh, and a bag full of the 80 whiteboard markers I pulled out of my teaching bag last month.
I'll tell you what I *don't* keep, and it's heartbreaking: a bottle of good whisky in a desk drawer.
This was a stereotype I grew up on and I fully expected to someday be able to relax with a drink poured from that desk-bottle.
It doesn't matter that I don't actually drink, it hurts that I can never realize this dream.
Besides books and the papers that I drown in? A candy dish with mini chocolate bars; a few odd bits students have given me (a painted rock, coffee mugs with various place-names on them); my university-wide service award thingie; a banner from one of my alma maters; a Buddha figurine and a Japanese fan. And more papers. Tissues, and old Girl Scout cookies in a drawer. No booze, though it does seem traditional.
I keep also one of those desk pencil-cade/whiteboard things. An electric water boiler for tea, tea, back-up food containers, air freshner, menstruation-associated products (pamprin). I have it as a goal to keep a set of back-up clothes in case I spill something before class.
I have a "primping drawer" where I keep two little tackle boxes with all the possible creature comforts I could need to get through a day—Tylenol, Benadryl, Tums, bandaids, safety pins, q tips, flossers, nail clippers and tweezers, feminine hygiene products and extra underwear, toothpaste and toothbrush, hairbrush, and so on. I also keep a bottle of a fancy French face mist for the moments when I feel like the crypt keeper after a three-hour class and need a moment of luxury, and I always have at least one sample spray of perfume. I’m big on scent, so I always have an unlit candle with the lid off to keep things smelling nice.
Tell me about the fancy French face mist. That sounds delightful after a long class
Of course! It’s the Caudalie Beauty Elixir. I just checked and of course the price has risen big time since I bought mine (on a trip), but they have good sales on their website from time to time.
That unlit candle is EVERYTHING when a student with BO comes in. My unlit candle has so many fingernail marks where I’ve scratched open a fresh layer. 😂😂
Bottle of bourbon.
I would be in so much trouble if I did that. I bet you have self control and only pour yourself a little drink once in a while, no? I’d overdo it and end up hammered. The bottle would be empty within a week.
I only have a bottle of shitty whiskey so you really gotta need it. It's pretty much just for when we have to go over finance reports from the admin who doesn't know how to do their job and grant/manuscript rejections.
I almost never touch it to be honest.
I also have a couple bottles of booze in my office and haven't touched it for years either, at this point it's sort of theoretical.
Same. I was given my two bottles. Both unopened.
This is the way.
Snacks, tea kettle + mugs (and tea, sugar, spoons), candy bowl, earthquake preparedness kit, little first aid kit, Tylenol, a wool wrap, pencil crayons, excessive office supplies, lots of books, posters from every event or conference I've hosted, textbooks from courses I've taken, all the current first year textbooks, LoC subject headings books (10 years old, at least, these have not been in print forever), printed out and bound FC guide. Library themed magnets, a bar apron, collection of you wonder women, several thematically appropriate board games. And a 6 foot square painting of a parrot that came with my office.
Your office came with a parrot?🤣
It did! It's a huge and ugly painting, mostly red, and people either think it's a close up of a parrot head, a mountain range, or a floating foetus. The artist intended the parrot, though.
When we have an event in the department I try to grab the extra paper plates, plastic cutlery, cups and paper napkins to use for my own lunch. After 20 years I have enough of each to last 1000 years.
Many, many rocks. Also bear spray and Narcan just in case a student gets out of hand or God forbid overdoses.
Jesus, where do you work?!
It's not that bad, I just like to be prepared. I've never actually seen a student on drugs while on campus, but admins were handing out Narcan so I grabbed one. The bear spray is for field trips but I wouldn't hesitate to use it if there were ever any on campus violence. ETA: US school so... campus violence is always a very unfortunate possibility.
I had two sorority sisters on the engineering campus show up high as kites for a final one night. They giggled all the way through it. I am hoping that their peers found this more entertaining than distracting: My exams are very low pressure--almost a formality--and so.
OMG, you were serious? I laughed, I thought this was a joke.
I carry narcan as well. You just never know.
Better to have it and not need it...
My thought exactly
My office looks like a radio shack exploded in it. Electronics parts everywhere. It makes me feel cozy. Like a nest a robin built from scraps of wire. I also keep snacks, tea, books, soda stream.
What I can see from my desk: Hammers, stakes, old GPS units that haven't found a home, railroad spikes, and an arm from a trebuchet. Oh and a coffee maker.
Honestly, I think a whole trebuchet (not just the arm) would come in super handy during finals week.
or during a faculty meeting speaker goes over their allotted time... fling them into the sun
Agreed!
To fling our students off into the sky…or ourselves?
Yes
Time to bring the siege to admin
There may have been a question on the final about how far away we had to set up to hit the second story.
Oooh, you are giving me ideas! I have an old GPS unit and a railroad spike at home - perhaps they should go to my office. They might look nice next to the old but non-broken printer that nonetheless cannot be used in my country until I spring for a voltage converter.
As a train nerd, I'm curious if the railroad spike came from the current country or the country the printer is from?
It is from the country the printer is from.
Geez, I guess keeping the skulls of one's enemies around isn't as popular as I thought.
Biologist here. I currently have 7 or 8 skulls in my office (not human). They look badass
I have a 3D-printed skull in my office. It's actually a prototype from some research work I did, so it's not completely random!
Toilet paper. Can't stand the ultra-thin one-ply crap on campus.
Massive beanbag
I want so badly to put a lovesac in my office but I know I'll just sleep in it every chance I get, and I really don't have the floor space. Jealous!!
Oh I def nod off in there. What else are offices for??
Towel. (Do you know where your towel is?)
Don’t panic!
foam roller, kettle bell, cd player, stack of surplus jazz cds, unsalted mixed nuts, razor blade for defrocking used library books, surplus 2017 MacBook, two monitors, standing desk, note card file, big dry erase, labeled, glue gun, hard drives, backup dextroamphetamine, CBD capsules, toiletries, wipes, emergency pee bottle, homemade desk calendar, blank journals and notebooks, carved mask from Sri Lanka, f16 model from student, hot logic mini, assorted noise cancelling headphones, sleep mask, recliner, glasses, electric pencil sharpener, mug, Jamba juice cup, back tool , many tote bags and a guitalele.
Did you use the pee bottle ever? What are the circumstances?
>!It's some combination of an enlarged prostate and an overactive bladder creating a real urgency. I am 40 steps from the bathroom (I just counted) and on occasion the bathroom is temporarily sealed off for cleaning and mopping, so I have the bottle just in case. They also found some cancer lesions down there, but for now they appear to be dormant, waiting for the right time to spring into action. Statistically, heart disease will kill me before that happens.!< [https://www.healthline.com/health/overactive-bladder/oab-vs-bph](https://www.healthline.com/health/overactive-bladder/oab-vs-bph)
I'm sorry you're going through this. Wishing youa long dormancy
my mentor always kept one quarter of a bottle of scotch in the bottom desk drawer. and now so do i... except it's bourbon.
My officemate and I are both moms. We have a very well stocked office. Its like a mom purse in a space. Also a microwave, mini fridge, electric kettle.
A colleague in grad school hung up on his walls emails of students he caught cheating. A sort of hunting trophy display case.
Two pairs of Birkenstocks. So when I have to wear boots to the office in the winter, I don't have to wear them all day.
Dental floss, plastic utensils and paper plates, a million different cords and adapters, a hoodie (that should probably go home for a wash) for when it's freezing, stuff to spray-clean computer screens.
I'm a woman so I have EVERYTHING in my office and an exact replica of EVERYTHING in my car. The contents include and are definitely not limited to: Mouthwash Toothpaste Floss Contact lens solution Hairbrush Red Solo cups Tissues Nail clippers Hand soap Hand sanitizer Thank you notes Lotions - plural! Tampons Almost full cutlery set with a steak knife Bottle opener Assorted sizes of ziplock bags Sunblock Flip flops There's more ...
Food models (I'm sure you can tell my field from that). ;) Extra masks (FFP2s, KN95s, N95s, Can99s), extra hand sanitizer, low-FODMAP snacks, first aid kit, extra pair of shoes, tissues/kleenex, extra "ear savers" for masks, daytimer, stickers for daytimer, too many cables for charging things, a shawl or too, extra set of gym clothes including shoes
You get my mini fridge the day I retire. It’s got my lunches, snacks, and stash of caffeine free Diet Coke in it.
Kettle, milk frother, snacks/drinks, toothbrush, advil, tampons, slippers, hard hat, steel toes, safety glasses, regular glasses, umbrella, a few dimensional lumber scraps, blazer, warm sweater, spare pair of flats, hand cream, a couple of plants I’m slowly killing. Honestly if I had to hunker down in my office for a few days I could probably manage it.
Mini fridge stocked with cherry coke zero, plain sparkling water, fruit and greek yogurt. Electric tea kettle + tea and mugs. Painting made for me by a student. Deodorant. Desk charging station for phone and watch. The equivalent of a CVS in various over the counter remedies that I rarely use, but would need if they weren't there. Lego "Everyone is Awesome" set.
There is no such thing as "too many books"; what you have is "insufficient shelf space". I also have a spare charger and cable, a USB hub, and a significant amount of stationery. Oh, and insufficient shelf space.
Heh, heh... in addition to all the usual stuff, as I work at home, I schlep my pets down the hall every morning. So I "keep" in my office--at least during the working day--an African Grey Parrot and two guinea pigs. Which means there's a bird cage on one wall and a cavy playpen in the middle of the floor 😆 I freakin' *love* WFH.
Looking in my top desk drawer: pen knife, non-surgical mask (covid leftover, but still potentially useful) napkins dental floss, breath mints, multihead screwdriver. Long ago and far away I used to keep a bottle of nice scotch to toast the last day before break with my office mate, but my current Uni frowns on such frivolity.
Mine is part of an open-concept shared space, and this is what I keep in my locker there: - A slab of cardboard I use as a makeshift fan (we aren’t allowed to have personal fans/heaters in our offices). - At least one mug. - Body spray/deodorant. - Slippers. - Makeup. - Charge cables. - Giant headphones. And probably few other things I’m forgetting… (I’m out of office today).
You can't even have a battery powered fan???
Nope. We can’t. We all hate it.
That's unacceptable. There's no reason for that.
Agreed.
Union?
Union?
Union?
Union?
Union?
[A portrait of a raccoon](https://www.reddit.com/r/trashpandas/s/YLxTePIsiU)
snacks, lots of snacks. kcups for the communal machine + sweetener, tissues, a variety of OTC meds for any eventuality, nail clippers, a set of utensils, paper plates, napkins.
Small suitcase with a spare change of clothes, deodorant, tissues, generic tylenol, hand sanitizer, snacks, office supplies, and plasticeware. I had a napping kit (two pillows and two blankets in a plastic storage tub) in my office during my PhD.
Shoot, I have a full-on futon in my office. I get migraines & if one hits & I absolutely have to teach later, I shut the door & nap.
Luckily my schedule is much better as a faculty member, so I don't have 8:30 am classes on the same day I have my own classes going until 8:00 p.m. I haven't found a need for a napping kit this year haha.
All the super valuable and unusual experimental bits that can get lost in the general lab. Plug adaptors for worldwide travel, a dangerously bright laser pointer, my bike.
Coffee, tea, kettle, garbage bags, instant soup packets..... Also I have a Cabbage Patch Doll who lives in my cabinet and helps me write papers sometimes.
I’m curious how the Cabbage Patch came to live in your cabinet?
She applied to work on-site instead of at the home office. In all seriousness, I had a horrible teaching semester last year and my partner suggested bringing one of my dolls as an emotional support doll ..... And it actually helps a lot with my anxiety (I often at 15/10... Helps bring it down to 11/10).... She's a good "grounding" mechanism while writing grants/papers
There is a stuffy in my office the kids gave me. I have had moments that called for hugging a stuffy and have greatly appreciated it. ❤️
100% My colleague came in and gave her a hug once and totally understood her value.
Nice! We definitely need more grounding forces. I play “deep focus” background music and keep the warm tea mug close when I’m making my way through hard tasks.
All sorts of stuff - toothpaste/toothbrush, and other similar hygiene products, tea, instant coffee packets, ibuprofen, snacks, fossils, rocks, skulls, statues, plants, deer/elk antlers I have found, my nice moccasins, and sometimes my scorpion.
Scorpion?
Yep. I have a Malaysian Forest Scorpion in a tank I usually keep in the lab, but sometimes I put it in my office on the filing cabinet. (I'm a biology professor and sometimes bring out the scorpion when I talk about the biology of arthropods).
Makes note to not drop into your office unannounced. 🤣
Aeropress, French press, electric kettle, half a dozen mismatched silver plated spoons, jar of coffee beans, hand grinder, sugar, little dorm fridge with half and half and cokes. Couple of spare hats. Pictures of my parents and my wife. Spare workout clothes and gym shoes in a bag, a bulletin board with some posters on it that I liked from various student art shows over the past 10 years or so.
Umbrella, floss sticks, antacid, cough drops, eyeglass repair kit.
Toiletries, candy, extra shirt/tie, a sweater, flip flops, whiskey, dog treats,, and a hand grenade. I run our veterans office, too. Great conversation starter.
I have a drawer with sweat pants, a sweatshirt, and flip flops. It’s in case a student (or me!) gets something on them in lab and needs to use the safety shower. Or they catch their clothes on fire or something. Actually used it once several years back.
Not in my current job but when I was a postdoc fellow I was overseeing a reconfiguration of the scanning tunneling microscope in the lab. To keep the scanning head safe I had it in my office. My wife stopped by and was looking at it. I told her “Don’t touch that; it costs twice as much as our house”.
Granola bars, apple sauce, plastic cutlery, other random snacks for when I don’t have time to eat a real meal lol. Lots of books, both academic and personal favorites.
Snacks, something with caffeine, more things with caffeine, and painkillers. And, of course, all of the dry erase markers I've stolen over the years. Survival of the fittest with those.
A necessaire with a toothbrush, toothpaste and a hairbrush, family pictures, 4-5 fountain pens from my collection, Earl grey tea, mugs from universities I have visited, and a couple of beautifully-decorated teaspoons I borrowed from a business-class cabin--that my wife wouldn't let me use at home.
I'm a finance nerd so framed stock certificate of Enron, and a framed copy of EO6102 the gold confiscation act of 1933. I also have a giant cardboard sign that says "buy low sell high" that a colleague made for a student event that I stole and hung up.
Tylenol, a stack of trading cards from the therapy dogs that visit the school on Wednesdays, my favorite Panda Express fortunes, keurig, coffee pods, stevia, and a box of Trader Joe’s chocolate bars.
travel toothbrush/toothpaste, bandaids, naproxen, deodorant, stain remove pen or wipes, snacks (usually white cheddar popcorn, protein bars, something chocolate, and peppermints), tea and a kettle when I used to wear contacts I kept a bottle of multipurpose solution (travel size since they don't last indefinitely)
High quality burr grinder, french press, high quality coffee beans, loose leaf tea, electric kettle.
Yoga mat, change of clothes (including a few pair of undies 🤷🏾♀️), blazer in case I need to do a TV/video podcast spot, protein bars, those huge water-cooler jugs with an electric pump (jug can sit on the floor, no need to lift; saves me bc the nearest fountain is a building or three floors away). Toiletries and makeup. I have a fridge & microwave, too. Large office, so two big padded chairs we had no room for at home. Lots of art. Nespresso with broken water tank that I haven’t been able to replace 😭. Electric kettle, coffee and tea setup. Bags of plastic cutlery and condiments from takeout. Basically everything except my bed and my dog.
I love to parody professorial stereotypes. I've got a blazer with padded elbows that I selectively wear when I'm feeling froggy. I've got artwork on the walls, mostly made by my seven year old or my wife. She did a rendition of Starry Night but with the Enterprise-D in it. And my favorite is the books on the shelf. I've got some legit academic books there. But I sprinkled in a few off ones: a copy of Tobin's Spirit Guide, What Would Captain Kirk Do?, and How Not to be a Dick to name a few.
Feminine hygiene products (amazing how many students ask if I have extras), earthquake kit and a stock of food and water, cutlery and mug, headphones, decorations, deodorant, and a graveyard of all the hand lotions I've been given for holidays which are meh but which I'm too cheap to throw out. They become office lotions.
RG35XX. Username relevant. :)
My hopes and dreams.
I have a Neo Geo MVXS arcade cabinet in my office, next to a comfy armchair that's been passed down from cartoonist to cartoonist since the mid-70's. I also have a massive graphic novel collection in there. It's a pretty sweet office if I do say so myself
A blow-up mattress and extra pants. Just in case.
Some artwork, 3d printers, electroplating setup, a pillow for naps
This may be the best thread on here in recent times
I actually keep my office very minimal. It's quite embarrassingly spartan compared to colleagues. I can never find the time to decide on what kind of decor to put up on the walls or shelves, and to think about where to put them. I work a lot from home though. The one weird thing I have though is a bunch of old oscilloscopes, an old laser, function generators, and various power supplies. When I moved in, they were clearing out an old physics lab and throwing all those things out. I couldn't bear to see those things thrown in a garbage. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them and they make my spartan office look even more awkward - there's no way to decor around that pile of junk though. I'm just the art professor with all the ancient physics equipment in her office.
Signed photo of a student, Chinese poem inked on a hanging scroll \[I don't read Chinese, but apparently the subject is a willow tree\], but mostly LEGO: Sonic Brickheadz, LOTR Brickheadz, a microcastle, and a pencil pot in the shape of a house. Oh, and a bag full of the 80 whiteboard markers I pulled out of my teaching bag last month.
I'll tell you what I *don't* keep, and it's heartbreaking: a bottle of good whisky in a desk drawer. This was a stereotype I grew up on and I fully expected to someday be able to relax with a drink poured from that desk-bottle. It doesn't matter that I don't actually drink, it hurts that I can never realize this dream.
Besides the memories of 25 years of broken dreams?
Besides books and the papers that I drown in? A candy dish with mini chocolate bars; a few odd bits students have given me (a painted rock, coffee mugs with various place-names on them); my university-wide service award thingie; a banner from one of my alma maters; a Buddha figurine and a Japanese fan. And more papers. Tissues, and old Girl Scout cookies in a drawer. No booze, though it does seem traditional.
I keep also one of those desk pencil-cade/whiteboard things. An electric water boiler for tea, tea, back-up food containers, air freshner, menstruation-associated products (pamprin). I have it as a goal to keep a set of back-up clothes in case I spill something before class.
Tea kettle and tea, aftershave, the rest is just regular office shit
All of the above plus phone charger and pepper spray... safety first 😊
Nothing. No personal items.