13 Home Office Gadgets from the ’90s That Are Completely Useless Now

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There was something magical about the ’90s and tech, it was the time of chunky gadgets, blinking lights, and sounds that promised to make lives easier (or at least more interesting). Back then, home offices had a lineup of devices that made people feel like they were living in the future, even though they seem hilariously outdated now.

These gadgets were the peak of efficiency: from machines meant to simplify our workflows to weirdly specific tools that were just the thing at the time. However, they’ve mostly faded into tech history, replaced by slimmer, sleeker and frankly better options.

Palm Pilots

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For the busy professional, the Palm Pilot was the holy grail, a handheld device in which you could schedule, take notes, and even store phone numbers. The device has been resigned to the tech relic pile because all the functions of a Palm Pilot are now in a smartphone as well as much more. Back then, people thought these tiny screens were the future of handheld organization.

Desktop Calculators

Every accountant’s desk had desktop calculators, particularly huge buttoned ones with endless printing tape. If you were serious about numbers, they seemed to be one of those must have gadgets. No longer do you need a clunky calculator on your desk — calculators are now built into computers and phones (even with advanced scientific capabilities), making them much more likely to be found at a yard sale.

Manual Pencil Sharpeners

A manual pencil sharpener was a classic school and office experience, and the satisfying crank left you with a perfectly pointed pencil (plus a tiny pile of wood shavings). Pens, styluses and keyboards have replaced the humble pencil, and now if you need one sharpened, an electric sharpener or a mechanical pencil is far quicker.

CD-ROM Drives

A computer without a CD ROM drive in the ’90s was almost unheard of. On the discs were software, games, and even research databases, which you put in and ran whatever you wanted. Everything is now available digitally or streamed online so you don’t need physical discs. These days, most laptops don’t even have CD drives – they’re a novelty, not a necessity.

The Trackball Mouse

The trackball mouse was a strange little thing with a ball on top that you’d roll with your thumb to move the cursor. Today’s optical and wireless mice are smoother, faster, and much easier to use, though at the time it felt futuristic. Anyone who hadn’t yet mastered the thumb-rolling technique found trackballs especially tricky, and they’re now a relic of amusing times.

Rolodexes

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It took a rolodex to find a contact. By now, the circular carousel of business cards had its moment, as we all have contact lists on our phones and computers, no need to spin through contacts on a Rolodex. People used to depend on such a physical, time consuming tool to keep track of everyone we knew, and it’s hard to believe.

Film Cameras

The film camera might be a ’90s gem but it’s nearly useless for a quick office snapshot these days. Instant sharing, no need for development – digital cameras and smartphones have taken over. Film has some nostalgia about it, but in the world of home office gadgets, it just doesn’t work anymore.

Fax Machines

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The fax machine was the ’90s workhorse for any one who needed to send a document in a hurry. The thing buzzed and beeped, painfully slow, trying to connect and print. Once, it bridged the gap between offices, but it is almost extinct now. It is completely unnecessary with email attachments and digital signatures. These days you’re probably only going to see a fax machine in a museum or in the back corner of an old office.

Answering Machines

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In the ’90s, if you didn’t answer a call, you had to wait until you got home to know who was calling. Enter the answering machine: It was a little box that recorded messages onto a cassette. If the tape ran out, you’d keep going until you rewound or erased messages. These machines are now completely obsolete nowadays with smartphones, voicemail and caller ID.

Dial-Up Modems

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There’s nothing more ’90s than the infamous dial up modem sound. It was a start of an online adventure, even if that meant five minutes to load a single page and a shrill beeping and whirring. Today, high speed internet has made modems obsolete. Think about how long it would take to wait for the internet to “dial in” if you wanted to check your email.

Floppy Disks

Floppy disks were the storage king of the ’90s, and stored everything from important documents to game files. As file sizes grew, however, these guys couldn’t keep up with a meager 1.44 MB of space. Flash drives, cloud storage, even external hard drives that can take in thousands of times more data in a fraction of the space have since replaced them.

Transcribers and Dictaphones

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A lifesaver for secretaries and managers alike was dictaphones and transcribers — for recording and playing back notes or meetings. Smartphones themselves have voice memos and transcription apps now, so the cumbersome and outdated transcribing machines of yore seem excruciatingly so. But they had their moment, and now they’re best forgotten.

Dot Matrix Printers

Dot matrix printers were a fixture of ’90s offices, with their loud clunky print style and the perforated edges of paper that had to be torn off. Their sound echoed out as they slowly spat out documents with that signature. Dot matrix printers became a thing of the past, fondly remembered, but rarely missed, as inkjets and lasers took over with faster, quieter, crisper prints.

Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.