Cable Management for $15 (or A Day at Ikea)

My workstation area can be an eyesore at times, and not because of the clutter on my desk. Besides the slew of hardware (tablet, external drives, camera, speakers) that occupy a place on my tabletop are the inevitable cornucopia of cables and wires. Today I decided to do something about it, so I took a trip to Sweden (okay, Ikea). While I didn’t have to travel across the pond and put up with being in coach, it took me just as long to drive to the store, shop around, and return home. (The upside? No TSA search.)

And while Ikea is literally the valhalla of household stuff (you can find everything you need to furnish your home), I have a certain hate for it at the same time. Every single time I enter an Ikea store, I feel like spending more money than I want to. I find myself trying to rationalize purchases for things I don’t quite need, but seemingly can’t live without. The place is laid out like a beautiful, but enormous, lab rat maze (complete with a snack bar stationed at the end). Clearly, Swedish people are onto something good with this place. (or maybe we Americans are just part of a Swedish experiment?)

But I digress…

I have no latent skill in building things. Or, to clarify, I have no handyman skills whatsoever. (Computers and tech are a different story.) Thankfully, the people at Ikea are great at reading my mind, because building or assembling any Ikea product comes in at just a tad more complicated than stacking a successive set of LEGO Duplo blocks.

The Signum cable management kit I purchased ran me $15. Included with the parts was a comic book. Well, maybe that’s being a bit generous. There were elements of comics to be found in the illustrated guide, and I’ll leave it at that:

Here are some photos of the cable management process as it was coming together. In the first two photos, I’d just completed the install. The installation itself was simple, but the toughest part of it was screwing the wood screws upside down into the desk. I have a primitive manual screwdriver, so I had to channel my chi at numerous times to work the wood screws into the wooden surface.

The remaining photos show the cable management kit in “action”, with various cables and surge protectors tucked in it for good measure.

No more unsightly wires on the floor. Mission accomplished. Oh, and I almost forgot. I also picked up a 6-port power adapter. It takes any 2 channel power plug and converts it into 6 channels. Total cost: only $1.99. This was an impulse buy (gotta live a little…)

The Signum cable management unit gets a whopping 5/5 Bob Weiners!

Are Swedish people awesome, or what?

-Krishna

Krishna September 29, 2010