Keep your Workplace Safe from Unruly Cords
January 11, 2016
Blog
Creating a functional yet sleek and stylish charging station for your electronic devices is as much about strategy as it is about design.
You probably own a few more devices than you might like to admit (or ever dreamed you would possibly have) and I’m willing to bet that the thought of a messy entanglement of cords all over your desk isn’t so much a far-off idea but a stark and harsh reality. Attempting to organize these accessories can feel like a nearly impossible task as they snake around desk legs, get caught under the wheels of your chair, and somehow—no matter how hard you try—never seem to stay in one place.
In an effort to avoid these future mishaps and general annoyances, I’ve come up with a couple ideas to keep your unruly cords organized and out of the way. This is because your space should work for you and not the other way around.
You probably already know this, but a smartphone charger simply isn’t the same size as the charger for your laptop. So why would you want the two to have to fight for space on your desk? In the name of organization and peace between electronics everywhere, creating a charging station for different sized devices is the easiest way to maintain complete and total cord-nation. You can do this by grouping the smaller chargers and wires together and then collecting the large chargers in another area. This will keep things looking clean and organized despite the fact that there are still just as many chargers as when you started.
A cord clip like the one shown, or even binder clips that are big enough to clamp onto a desk or some other object can hold your cords neatly in place and out of the way. Simply arrange them on different ends of your desk and you’ll have a clean and sleek-looking charging station for all your different sized cords.
For a handmade charging station that’s simple and still sleek-looking, you can easily create your own with a just a few materials. Using a countertop mail organizer (or if you’re really crafty, build your own!) drill a few holes in the back wall of the organizer so that you can simply slip the wires from each charger through to connect. Place a power cord strip behind the charging station or out of sight somewhere to power all of your devices at the same time. Be sure to choose an organizer that can fit different sized handheld devices like smartphones and tablets so that you can charge them all in one place. Give your organizer a fresh coat of white or black paint and enjoy your homemade, sleek-looking charging station.
Katherine Oakes, based in New Jersey, is a freelance writer, occasionally writing for Modernize.