Your Desk its own Desk

With all of our modern gadgetry, it is easy for our desks to get covered with wires, routers, cell phone charger cables, etc.  Here is a simple solution to help cut down on the amount of visual clutter you have to face when working.

Get a Desk for Your Desk

After all, shouldn’t your desk have a work area for itself?  There is no reason it needs to share with you all the time. :) By getting a small table, shelf or box and placing it under your desk in a place you don’t need for your feet, you can move all of your electronics down out of view where they can still perform their function, but not contribute to clutter on your desk.

Depending on how your desk is set up, you may even be able to put certain pieces of equipment where you can get to them easily.  For example, your printer or scanner might fit nicely on the front portion of this mini desk while the rest of your electronic equipment sits toward the back.

While getting the items off your desk is valuable, getting the wires out of sight is an even bigger accomplishment.  By using the desk for your desk, you can run only the wires necessary to the desktop which should reduce clutter and minimize the need for extension cables.

I use a small short bedside table under my desk.  It holds three shelves.  The top one holds my laptop where I can easily plug it into my desktop monitor, keyboard and mouse.  The bottom shelf holds some of my other electronic equipment.  The middle shelf holds some external hard drives and other items that I need to frequently plug into one of my computers.

Just keep in mind that some equipment needs air flow in order to cool properly.  Make sure you don’t accidentally cover up the vents and make things overheat.

Originally published April 2, 2007.