"You plug your iPod into the side," says Stacy Genovese, Engineering Director, Good Housekeeping Institute. "There are wires that run up through the inside of the chair, and the music comes out speakers that are in the headrests. So you can have the music right near your ears when you need to hear it and not disturb anyone else who is around you."

If you need a notebook computer, the Good Housekeeping Institute suggests the new thin HP Pavillion dv6000z. "It has a 15-inch widescreen display, a built in webcam for video conferencing, or really anything you want to do with video. And it has touch-sensitive buttons along the top. You just put your fingers over it, and it quickly plays DVDs or CDs, and they all respond to the presence of your finger," says Genovese.

And the Dymo LabelWriter is a dual purpose printer that fills a real home office need. "It’s a label maker so you can print return address labels or labels for around your house," Genovese explains. "It’s also a little stamp machine. You go to an online account, feed it with money so you can buy your stamps, download your stamps and print them. Once you pull the stamp off the pape, you put it on your package and ship it off. No more standing in lines at the post office."

Finally, if you find yourself tangled up in cords, Good Housekeeping says the Belkin Concealed Surge Protector does a great job of hiding the clutter.

A final note: If you’re interested in that Staples iPod chair, keep in mind that you’ll need to assemble it yourself. And Good Housekeeping’s engineers say the audio quality from the speakers is similar to what you’d hear from a small TV set.

To learn more, check out the February issue of Good Housekeeping or visit www.goodhousekeeping.com.