Home Office Clean-up

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I ordered two of the Twelve South BackPack’s so that I could hide my Mac Mini and the two 1TB drives I have hooked to it. While I was getting everything situated, I zip tied some cables together and took some shots of the rest of the work bench.

As you can see, my battery backup is still a rats nest that I haven’t really figured out what to do with. I tucked the Verizon Fios router in the bottom drawer of my little shelf under my desk, on top of which is an Airport Extreme that is setup so I get great signal on the patio (if the precipitation ever stops.) I think the end result is better than what I had before, but could use additional cable organization. Would love to hear suggestions on how to hide the giant battery backup and organize the power cables.

For anyone that’s curious, most essential software is sync’ed to the MacBook Air either via MobileMe or DropBox, so things like Skype, Colloquy, keychains, and non-sensitive local development files are always in sync between the two computers.


Comments

6 responses to “Home Office Clean-up”

  1. And by precipitation you mean snow? 😉

    Looks cool!

  2. The battery backup is tough, not much that can be done about that. But I use some plastic conduit from Home Depot (and I think Ikea sells it too) to keep the cables in order.

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  4. I use plastic conduit purchased from Ikea–really makes the cables look so much better!

    Also, if you can find a nice-looking wicker /basket with a lid you can use it to hide some of the rat’s nest of wires. You’ll need a hot melt glue gun. Cut cable holes in the bottom of the wicker box/basket for cable in/out. Use the hot melt glue to glue the wicker on the INSIDE of the box/basket to seal around the holes you make so the wicker doesn’t unravel. Use the conduit for the cable running outside of the box/basket, and stuff all the excess into the inside of the box/basket, along with the surge protector or whatever they’re plugging into. A nice thing about using a woven box/basket is that you get air ventilation for the hot cables. The box/basket can sit where you need it, hide the cables and look decorative.

    I’ve also had luck with using one of those rectangular baskets that are supposed to be used as storage on bookcases to cover a wall outlet to keep my pooch from chewing on the cables. The basket snugs up to the wall, hides the plug, and looks like it’s supposed to be there.

    woof!

    1. The wicker basket idea is very clever. I have some large wire-loom that I’m using to group cables together, which has helped contain the rats nest up to the battery back-up.

      I may get a small fan to help with ventilation, but that’s a great suggestion Bev! 😀

  5. As a follow-up, I’m still using these and they work great for this kind of application. I added a third terabyte drive, and think I’ve maxed out the available space behind the display while still keeping everything hidden.