{"id":79322,"date":"2020-10-01T00:25:14","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T21:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/desk-shortages-have-folks-getting-creative-with-boxes-ironing-boards\/"},"modified":"2020-10-01T00:25:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T21:25:14","slug":"desk-shortages-have-folks-getting-creative-with-boxes-ironing-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/desk-shortages-have-folks-getting-creative-with-boxes-ironing-boards\/","title":{"rendered":"#Desk shortages have folks getting creative with boxes, ironing boards"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Desk shortages have folks getting creative with boxes, ironing boards<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Living in the college town of Columbia, Missouri, Ashton Stratman knew there would be a rush for school supplies, including desks, at the beginning of the academic year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even try looking,\u201d said the 19-year-old, who studies English remotely at a local community college. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a lot worse this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic \u2014 with all the supply-related challenges it\u2019s created since March, from toilet paper to flour \u2014 has also made for a national shortage on desks. As millions of students attend school virtually and many office professionals remain under work-from-home mandates, desks have become a hot commodity for long-term practical solutions, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. And data from Rakuten Intelligence, which tracks online shopper behavior, shows e-commerce sales of desks and related accessories soared 283% year-over-year in August\u00a0 \u2014 leading to low inventory and sky-high prices.<\/p>\n

That reality has made folks like Stratman find their own hacks to make functional workspaces.<\/p>\n

After moving into an apartment with three roommates this summer, Stratman improvised by stacking leftover cardboard boxes from the move on top of a clothing trunk and a dresser drawer standing upright for a \u201cdesk\u201d for her computer, which she uses for school and video-gaming. Off to the side, another upright-positioned dresser drawer served as an armrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of like, you look at that and thought, \u2018Wow, I made that,\u2019 \u201d she said of the creation, which she called the Box Desk. \u201cIt\u2019s a boost of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, however, she spends her days at a desk that\u2019s another Frankenstein creation. Stratman placed a piece of plywood across the top of an old desk which had a glass top that shattered. She placed about 12 books on a shelf underneath to provide stability.<\/p>\n

\"Ashton
Ashton Stratman\u2019s hack<\/span>Ashton Stratman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] kind of sad, because some of those books I was reading, but you gotta sacrifice sometimes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Since March, others have taken their quirky at-home desks to social media<\/a>. One Twitter user shared an image that month of a laptop, a keyboard and a mouse set atop an ironing board<\/a>. More recently, a school teacher showed off her basement ping-pong table<\/a> that she\u2019s using for virtual instruction \u2014 while another showed a worker seated at a bathroom vanity<\/a> with two monitors and a laptop.<\/p>\n

Despite the national shortage of desks, others find shortcomings in the ones they already have \u2014 and they, too, are coming up with smart solutions.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Fricker, a 34-year-old Richmond, Virginia resident who works on internal investigations in a bank, said her standing desk aggravated her upper-back problems. So she took her keyboard and placed it on her treadmill with her laptop perched on the treadmill\u2019s screen \u2014 where she can work and walk for about 30 minutes at a time at roughly 2 miles per hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018This could work, I\u2019m not sitting for a little bit,\u2019 \u201d she said of this setup, which she can use a couple times a day, depending on her schedule. \u201cIt\u2019s a good way for me to be doing something and not just sitting around.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n