1 post tagged “project”
So after being inspired by this guy, I decided to embark on my own project to deIclutter my desk. This meant not only removing things from the top, but also cleaning up the rats nest of wires and such that existed underneath my desk.
So I went out and got a pegboard, some wire, and a few other things (like a USB2.0/Firewire hub, something I'd been meaning to get for a while anyway). One of the first things I realized was that the structure of my desk meant that I would have a little less room to work with than some of the other examples I'd seen
Anyway, I spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to get everything placed such that everything and their cords (good
lord there were a lot of cords!) would fit. One of the first things I realized was that the wire I had bought was a bit too thick and rigid to be terribly useful. The original project had used 18 gauge wire, I only found 16 gauge, and figured it'd be fine. It wasn't. I then decided I'd go with zip ties as so many on the internet has suggested. This was a very good idea. I also used twist ties (I knew I kept them for a reason!) to hold down the wires.
Anyway, so I got most of the stuff placed on Sunday, and just needed to buy a few more zip ties to finish the job on Monday. Well that night I had an idea about how to avoid any issues with heat from my two external hard drives.
Originally I had planned to use some wooden pegs twist-tied to the pegboard to give a little room for airflow above the hard drives. I still think that that probably would have been enough to avoid problems, but my new plan eliminated the problem entirely, and gave me some more room to work with on the pegboard.
I had previously had my hard drives on my desk, mounted vertically with these little stands the cases came with. It occurred to me that I could probably do the same thing, only hanging from the pegboard, rather than sitting on the desk.
Here you can see one of the hard drives mounted this way next to the pegs I was originally going to use. I used the plastic stands they came with the HDD eclosures to give a bit more stability to the hard drives, but looking at it afterwards, given the tension and placement of the zip ties, I'm not sure they were strictly necessary. But hey, better safe than sorry.
Eventually I got pretty much everything positioned and strapped down and ready to go. I then went upstairs and mounted it all under my desk. There I realized there were a few extra wires I hadn't really thought about that I had to deal with (such as the power cord for the computer, the USB and Firewire cords running from the hub to the computer, the speaker wire for my speakers, and the cord for my keyboard which was longer than I had remembered it. But eventually I got everything strapped, coiled and tucked away! Now my desk looks like this:
And from below...
It was a fun project, and I'd definitely encourage others to give it a try. It's very satisfying to put things together like this, and it's also nice to have everything out of the way, and reasonably well organized.
Oh and one last thing. While I was at it I decided I'd mount the controller for my speakers under the desk too. I just used some stick-on Velcro for this. Now it's in a pretty handy little spot, and it's out of the way when I don't need it.
One final note, as Conner pointed out on the LJ version of this entry, I unfortunately didn't think to take any "before" pictures. I'll say that the top of my desk wasn't TOO badly cluttered, but the floor underneath was a huge mess of cords, so if nothing else this is a good way to do some cord management. I'm considering trying to rig something up like this behind my home theater gear just to handle all the cords. (That is a real mess)
