3 fixes for your home office

You want your home office to be at its best for you to work in. Of course, like any room of the house, it's bound to have a few problems arise. Here's how to deal with a few common ones.

• You know those dark scuff marks off your computer case, fax machine or other piece of equipment in your home office? We all get them.
• Here's a trick: try using a pencil's rubber eraser on them. It will literally "rub out" most stains.

• Has your desktop computer or other piece of home-office equipment lost its "legs" — those four small rubber feet that invariably fall off from moving your equipment around?
• Put your gear back on an even footing, and minimize noise and vibrations that can affect the life of the equipment, by cutting small pieces from a bathtub appliqué and applying them to the corners of the case where the feet used to be.
• You may need to cut a few to the identical size and stack them to attain the right height.

• All your home-office equipment will work better if it's kept clean and dust-free.
• Before you start cleaning, however, check to see that all the devices have been unplugged. (If they're hooked up to a power strip, you can simply disconnect the power strip — after all the devices have been shut off.)
• First use a can of compressed air to blow off any loose dirt that's been waiting to get inside your gear.
• You may want to skip over the printer, though; a blast of air there may actually spread dust to the insides, which would be counterproductive.
• Next lightly dampen a clean cloth with some household cleaner, or with a solution of equal parts water and white vinegar and start wiping.
• Never use a spray bottle to spray the cleaner directly onto the equipment; you don't want to get the wires and circuit boards inside wet.
• You'll also want to keep a dozen or so cotton balls on hand for getting to the dirt buildups in tight spaces, like the grooves or indentations around power buttons and vents.