There's a puddle on the counter every morning. It happens without fail and I'll tell you why.

The way I see it, there are two types of coffee slobs that visit our breakroom. The first, is the one who is just too darn busy to be bothered by housekeeping tasks. They tend to always spill a portion of their pour on the counter and floor and walk away. Sometimes we find traces of their mess on the face of the base cabinet. They open sugar packs and leave the empty packet on the counter, next to their used stir straw. They dribble creamer or miss their cup altogether. Unsurprisingly, it is the same two or three people who leave their unrinsed cup in the sink or on the counter at the end of the day, expecting an elf to wash it at night and have it waiting for them, good as new in the morning.

The second coffee slob is a little more well meaning. Without this person there might not be any coffee made. They take the initiative to actually replace the empty pot with a fresh pot when it needs to be done, but here's the catch;

When they pour the fresh water, they miss the reservoir of the coffee maker and spill all over the counter. We find the lake they leave behind every morning. They leave the scene, usually proud of themselves for stepping up to the plate and making the coffee.

So how do we deal with these two types of coffee slobs? Well as for the first, we invested in a four dollar waste container and a box of liners. We had our maintenance person cut a eight inch diameter hole in the counter right next to the coffee maker, rather than set a trash container eight feet away on the floor. The new container fits inside our base cabinet. Then we fold a rag or small towel and position it on the counter right where people stir.

Now as for the poor-pourer, it took a little more thought, but we managed to come up with a solution. For a capitol investment of a mere twenty dollars, we purchased a Coffee Maker Water Line Kit by UMJAVA ( www.umjava.com). It taps into the refrigerator water line and provides a direct water source, by way of a valve mounted on top of our coffee maker. It can be mounted on top or on the side. We chose the top.

Hooray, problem solved. No more spills.

So in the end, we improved our breakroom without having to resort to cameras, citations or slob monitors.