Does your fridge have an ice maker? If not, could you use a portable ice machine? We have one with filtered water as well, but it's an industrial beast.

A number of years ago I was asked to redecorate the staff lounge at my children's grade school. Besides the obvious painting of walls, we provided a new microwave, a huge set of flatware, 2 new desks with computers (the lounge already had tables and chairs), decorative but practical storage containers, and more. But, the thing I got the most raves from was the artwork I’d hung on the walls. They were large poster-size. photos of paths through woods, and a field and by a stream. Because this staff room was quite large but had no windows, I had the the photos mounted behind actual old paned windows with rustic frames. Hung on different walls, they gave the staff the “windows” they’d originally asked for. Many told me that it helped them relax because they could lose themselves in those photos for a while. Anyhoo, perhaps some similar artwork for your own staffroom.

Our boss bought us a small concession stand popcorn popper a few years ago. We love it! Nothing like the smell of fresh popcorn on a crazy day to boost everyone's morale. For us, one of the docs has lunch of popcorn and a diet Coke a few days a week so he keeps us in popcorn for it (25 or 50# bag at a time)

What RNMom said. Our boss bought our group one where I worked a long time ago. We had a popcorn day once a week and everyone loved it. We had the small popcorn bags, a scoop, bought popcorn in large buckets or bags, everyone kept it clean and took turns making popcorn.

These are great ideas (really wish we could go with the margarita machine). I think I will make a chart with 3 ideas and send it out for a vote. I'm thinking

1. decor items like posters, etc.,

2. possibly popcorn machine (but I'm on the fence about this as we have trouble keeping micro and sink clean, so it might be a problem),

3. ???

Ice maker would be a good idea, but we have a cafeteria for the students down the hall with industrial ice maker.

Another thought is to just stock the cupboard and fridge a few times over the year and say help yourself. MIght be a problem as cleaning and maintenance staff have been known to help themselves and they didn't contribute to this particular pot of money.

Regarding cleaning the popcorn popper, ours is like a concession stand one. The hopper where the oil and corn goes doesn't get cleaned in those and the bottom area just gets wiped out occasionally. I will say a fair amount of popcorn does hit the floor which makes a little bit of a mess. Makes us run the sweeper more often in the lounge!