Every cubicle dweller knows the dangers of leaving your chair and walking to the water fountain. People will try to chitchat, your boss may see you and ask you to come into her office for a second, or you might miss an important phone call.

The solution is simple: a mini-water dispenser, perfectly desktop sized. The one getting lots of attention these days is available at multiple online retailers. We found it at ThinkGeek. It dispenses your minimum daily requirement of eight cups of water a day. It isn’t a cooler, but you can freeze the water (or whatever you want to fill it with) and let it thaw during the day. It’s only about 20 inches tall and is $15.

There are a couple of other tiny water dispensers on the market that might interest you: The Hello Kitty pink one is about the same size (although it features Hello Kitty saying “Please Drink 8 Glasses of Water” on it) and is $17 at Toys ‘r’ Us. A “cute” desktop dispenser features a funny pig face where the water is dispensed. It also holds eight glasses of water, but is a little more expensive at $25 from DealExtreme.

Is there anything more fun than trying to wake up a teenager at the beginning of the school year? A teenager who has spent the last three months sleeping until noon? The only thing that is likely more fun is watching what happens when Clocky the alarm clock goes off. Clocky is cute and has big wheels (pictured), and after your teen hits the snooze button once, Clocky rolls off the bedside table and rolls around the room, continuing to buzz loudly: under the bed, against the door, in the bathroom, until said teen has to get out of bed to find him. Beautiful! He’s $50 at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Another fun one is the flying alarm clock. It has a cute little propeller on its top, and when it goes off, the propeller spins and flies away, carrying the key that makes the alarm clock stop its incredibly loud screeching. Fabulous, and $11.48 at Amazon. It would probably be entertaining to watch (more…)

It starts simply enough. The kids are going back to school, and you know they’re going to lose their pencils and lunchbags and backpacks, so you put labels on the stuff. Personalized labels look slick, and Web sites like Identikid and Identity Direct offer all kinds: vinyl, iron-on, labels for shoes, pencils, backpacks, markers. You can buy a Colour My World Pack with more than 100 personalized labels, or branch out into the house with a lap desk or bathroom mirror with your child’s name. Land’s End has lots of backpacks and lunch bags that can be personalized, and TeamLogo can make a bicycle plate with your child’s name for $4. Now that you’ve got the kids organized, you are probably feeling the urge to label more things. Get the LetraTag home labelmaker (the video on the site gives you lots of ideas about things to label) for $30 (pictured) or the nice-looking one on Amazon. Now you’re really starting to see clutter everywhere: the kitchen, the closets, the garage. This is where the Chronos personal organizer 4.5 software on Amazon for $95.15 could really help. But is that enough? Do you feel the need to be with others of your own kind? Read organizer blogs, like Virtually Organized (which shows you places to label you never thought of) or Unclutterer, which offers lots of wisdom, like clearing out all those pesky perfume bottles, a picture of the perfect workspace and guidance on uncluttering your brain! Has this search for organization nirvana made you nervous? Call in professionals. The folks from In Pefect Order will fly to your home, stay for a week and make everything in your life totally perfect for $5,500 (not including airfare, lodging and food).

After one too many frustrating visits to the dentist, I decided 21st-century standards of oral hygiene might be beyond my reach as an unassisted mortal. Would technology help? Early trials suggest that it can. The most important part of the equation is a floss substitute like this jet cleaner ($60) by WaterPik. I had worried that a little blast of water couldn’t match the physical contact of floss, but I was wrong: Even on the next-to-lowest pressure setting (the WP-100 model can go from 5 to an astonishing 90 pounds per square inch) it was reaching where it needed to with ease. Using the thing takes some getting used to — be prepared to splash all over your countertop and mirror the first few times — but mastering a couple of common sense precautions, like turning off the water before removing the jet from your mouth, doesn’t take long, and the device is available as a self-contained cordless model ($50) that makes things even simpler. Flossing may be far more intimidating than brushing, but I went for the full Robo-smile by trying a “sonic toothbrush” ($80) as well — and, despite my doubts, must  report that it leaves my teeth somewhat closer to that “just back from a cleaning” smoothness than my trusty manual brush. Of course, since WaterPik started marketing pulsating jet products in the ’60s (under the name Aqua Tec), plenty of companies have put their spin on things: Today, you can get Oral B toothbrushes with wireless monitors ($150) or spiral streams of microbubbles ($120); you can even get a spinning-head Spiderman brush for seven bucks. All well and good, but do yourself a favor: If you’re at all vulnerable to obsessive-compulsive disorder, don’t even look at advertisements for Sonicare’s $50 UV Sanitizer.

Has a weekend of watching amazing athletes inspired you to leap off the couch and get into shape? Don’t be hasty. Gather some gadgets to get started with, or just to make you look cool in the trials. Impressed by the way the Olympic gymnasts fling their bodies around the pommel horse? Your variation on the rings competition could be the Perfect Pushup ($99), with rotating handles and adjustable swing arms to give you the feel for holding your body suspended in mid-air. Uhmm, yea. Ready to run? Don’t leave without a Sportline HydraCoach “intelligent” water bottle (pictured) that tracks your hydration level based on your weight, exercise level and your personal hydration goal.” It even factors in heat and altitude, for $27.95. You want to wear earphones while you sprint, but when in unfamiliar territory (like a running path), ambient awareness earphones ($80) will let you jog along with Lil Wayne and still hear sounds around you, such as screeching brakes and screaming. Now you’re starting to get serious, and this is a seriously odd device: a “core body temperature monitoring system” that consists of a data recorder you wear, which gets its information from a pill-shaped sensor that you swallow. We can’t find a price, but you may want to discuss that one with others before purchasing, anyway.  You’ll want a new scale to measure your progress, and a Tanita Inner-Scan scale will track not only your weight but body fat and body water percentage, muscle mass, physique rating, amount of visceral fat and, well, enough said. It’s $110. Is all this talk of exercise too exhausting? Then you probably just need to strengthen your remote-control muscles with an Xtensor hand exerciser ($40 from ThinkGeek).  It’s made for video gamers, but you wouldn’t want to get a thumb cramp and miss the synchronized swimming.

One of the most important purchases new parents make is their baby’s car seat. For newborns, the best bet is an infant car seat, not a convertible (infant-to-toddler) car seat. Infant carseats are specially designed for babies weighing 22 pounds or less; they are rear-facing and come with handles. The seat attaches to a base that is anchored to your car, usually via the LATCH system (LATCH stands for “Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children”), required of all cars made in the United States after 2002. Best of all, the seats also double as baby carriers, feeding seats and a place for Baby to nap. Baby Trend Silverado Flex-Loc infant car seat has a five-point adjustable harness and an adjustable head support and comes in various color combinations ($89 at Walmart). The seat fits into the Flex-Loc base, which is purchased separately ($37). The Britax companion infant car seat goes the extra mile in protection, with deep side walls and head support designed to protect your infant in side-impact collisions ($210).The Graco SafeSeat is a rear-facing car seat designed to hold a child up to 30 pounds and comes with a stay-in-the-car base (on sale for $99). In the baby products world, Peg Perego is the equivalent of the Mercedes-Benz. Thus, if you can afford it, the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio infant car seat with side-impact protection and a “comfort-dry” pad for those times when the diaper happens to leak is an excellent choice ($250). It works in cars, airplanes and fastens into Peg Perego strollers. For more advice on how to select an infant car seat, read this informative article from BabyCenter. Also, Car-Safety.org contains comprehensive tips on how to keep your children secure in the car.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave … with all of our tech gear and corresponding chargers. Get a handle on all those cords and manage your family’s cell phones, MP3 players and digital cameras with a handy charging station. Pottery Barn’s lacquer Smart Photo caddy and recharger has a back cubby for portable electronics and a six-socket power strip concealed behind. Cubbies in the front stow desk accessories and three photo openings create a desktop gallery ($99). Plug and play your iPod while charging other electronics all in one spot. The lacquer Smart all-in-one (pictured) includes built-in speakers and a six-socket power strip ($169). Kids these days often have more gadgets than their parents, which means they could probably fill their own charging station. The kids docking station comes in a rainbow of colors and features cutouts like hearts and stars ($79). Bed Bath and Beyond sells a more basic model. The black 600 Denier charging station provides a home for up to four devices ($15; power strip sold separately). Brookstone’s mini charging valet is the perfect addition to your workspace, whether it’s at the office or at home ($30).

Did you know you can watch plenty of films instantly through your high-speed Internet connection without leaving your sofa? With a set-top box (as in TV set) similar to your cable box, you can choose from thousands of films with the click of a remote. The Roku Netflix Player ($100; pictured) is a one-time purchase for Netflix subscribers. Hook it up to any TV — whether it’s the newest HD model or one you’ve had for years — and you can select movies and TV episodes from your Netflix Instant Queue to watch right away in the comfort of your bedroom or living room or wherever there’s a TV and an internet connection. (You’ll still receive DVDs via post from Netflix, in accordance with your monthly subscription.) Vudu is a competing service for those with fast Internet connections (2.2 Mbps for instant viewing). The box costs $299, with a wireless kit for $50, and even though you do not have to have a subscription, you do have to pay rental or purchase fees for each program. With Apple TV (40 GB for $229, 160GB for $329), you can rent movies from the iTunes store and watch them instantly on your computer, iPod, iPhone, or television, but you must own a widescreen enhanced-definition or high-definition television with an HDMI, DVI, or component video input port. You also must have an iTunes Store account and a broadband Internet connection. Just think: No more driving to the rental store or dealing with heavily scratched movies that freeze up during the film’s high point.