What The Heck Is An Office Chair Mat?
When you think of office furniture, many things do spring to mind. Desks, chairs, phones, coffee machines - but office chair mats are way down the list and often forgotten about. When getting a new business or a home business together, you will be sorely tempted to cut corners wherever you can, so office chair mats will not be high up on your shopping list. But these are great, especially for home offices.
What's So Great About Them?
When you sit for hours in front of a computer, it's important to get a good, comfy office chair. They usually always have wheels. It's a lot more comfortable having a wheeled chair than one where you have to use both your hands to scoot forwards and back. The rollers on these comfy chairs, however, are not so great on your floors.
If you have smooth floors - either wooden or tile - then the wheels will put deep scratches in them. If you have carpeting - even thin carpeting - the wheels can unpredictably become stuck. It is rather unproductive in a home business to be suddenly propelled backwards to the floor because the chair wheels got stuck on a carpet snag.
You avoid all of these problems with office chair mats. For under $100 (US), you not only preserve the life of your floors, but the life of your frightfully expensive office chairs and your spine from any damage from unexpected floor-dives. Just being able to smoothly wheel from the filing cabinet to the computer and back can also save a lot of business time.
What Are They Made Out Of?
Like almost anything you can buy, there are high end office chair mats and economy class office chair mats. Quite frankly, the only difference in them is the price. You might prefer the natural earth tones of a bamboo office chair mat, but you will have to pay up to four times more for the privilege.
The least expensive office chair mats are of a clear plastic like poly carbonate in either a round or rectangular shape. You can also get office chair mats of the same material, but with different colors and patterns on them. Sometimes, they look like incredibly big mousepads. Getting colors or pictures on them will cost extra.
This writer is incredibly pleased with her office chair mat, which has lasted for over five years and is still going strong. In contrast, the printer has had to be replaced in the same span of time. And the computer is showing signs of age. At least I won't need to worry about upgrading my office chair mat.
