Home Appliances Basics
How to put household and kitchen appliances to work in your business
While home appliances may seem at first glance to be small business accessories, even big business may find that using home appliances as employee and customer perks helps to keep everyone happy. The trick is finding the right way to turn home appliances for sale into business assets.Part of the lure of bringing home appliances into your business is the level of care for your employees it demonstrates. Whether you're providing a break room stocked with all the kitchen appliances your employees (or customers) may need, or placing air cleaners near exhaust vents, it's the fact that you care enough about employees and customers to cater to their needs that really makes home appliance installation in a business stand out. Here are just a few ways that home appliances can serve your business:
1. Keep business laundry rolling with the right household appliances.
2. Put home kitchen appliances, large and small, to work keeping employees comfortable in your break rooms.
3. Use air cleaners and other tools from major home appliance companies to promote employee and customer health.
Let big appliance companies do your business laundry
If you're looking for a reason to make a business asset out of a home appliance, basics like clean uniforms or well-pressed suits take priority. Clothes washers and dryers are useful to have around when impeccable employee uniforms are a priority, or for busy CEOs who practically live in the office.
Try: You can find household clothes washing and drying options--easily transformed into business uniform handling tools--at online vendors like Home Everything or FFEMax, or shop for lower shipping costs at local appliance stores. Regardless of where you get your appliances, you're going to need hot and cold water sources for a clothes washer, a venting system to evacuate condensation and hot air from your clothes dryer and electrical outlets for both machines. You also need enough sound-proofing or unoccupied space between your machines and work spaces to minimize disruptive noise.
Use the right home appliance stores to turn your break room into a kitchen
Bringing a little bit of kitchen convenience into the break room is a sure way to increase employee satisfaction and even employee health, as you encourage them to create their own healthy meals with the tools you make available. Most small appliances need little more than an electrical outlet and, sometimes, a certain amount of clear space to either side to satisfy safety standards.
Try: BuyHardwareSupplies.com is the unlikely home to deals on small kitchen appliances, like toasters, that offer relatively hazard-free cooking and heating options. Purchasing a dishwasher, like a Maytag from the Home Depot, requires a bigger investment and is more appropriate for large businesses with a high-traffic break room that's fully stocked with reusable dishes. Dishwashers require a water connection in addition to electrical access.
Turn home appliance distributors into allies for workplace health
Air cleaners are considered a small household appliance, appropriate for making the work environment safer and more comfortable for employees and customers alike. You'll find three types of household air cleaners: air cleaners with reusable filters that you typically rinse and reinsert; replaceable filters (such as HEPA units, for which you'll need to purchase and install new filters every so often) and chemical or allergen filters. Beyond the cost of filters, all you need to install one of these units is a little clear space and an electrical outlet.
Try: National Allergy sells the IQAir MultiGas GC air cleaner, designed for use by chemically sensitive individuals. A Honeywell air cleaner from MyAirCleaners is more suitable for small spaces and crowded work environments.
- Don't forget that even small home appliances can present fire and safety hazards if they're used incorrectly. Be sure to establish safety protocols for using appliances you install in your business, and make sure that all employees are fully trained.
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