Under-Desk Wire Tray: Hidden Organization for Computer Cables and Power Strips
Over the years, we’ve added quite a few under-desk wire organizers, and they’ve all been great in one way or another, whether they’ve been designed to keep cables neat as they travel between your desktop and floor, or handle all of the cable slack that’s known to entangle your feet as you sit at your computer. They’ve looked like boxes, raceways, baskets, even spines (that one’s actually not as weird or gross as it sounds). And now I have another excellent addition to the lineup, which happens to hinge, quite simply, on the power of the hook.
I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure that the Under-Desk Wire Tray was designed around the the concept of cable hooks, which have long been used to support certain types of aerial and wall mounted cable runs. Cable hooks are generally lined up at short intervals, after which small cable bundles can be run through them, with the hooks conveying and providing support for the cables as they travel from Point A to Point B.
The Under-Desk Wire Tray, being made up of a row of 15 slightly-spaced hooks, is more or less set up to work the same way, but just on a smaller scale. That, and it hides under your desktop as opposed to being suspended from the ceiling or mounted on a wall. I don’t know about you, but this really appeals to me, because I prefer my cable management to be invisible, if at all possible.
So why would someone go and miniaturize cable hooks and stick them under a desk? Probably because that row of little hooks gives you the freedom to add or remove cables at any point along the way, and works as a nice place to stash power strips and bulky power adapters out of range of your feet (this sounds really good to me, because I’m always accidentally kicking my surge protector). Another benefit of having cables and power strips up off the floor is that they’re less likely to become dust bunny traps when they’re kept elevated, so that makes it a lot easier for you to keep your workstation clean, and gives you a lot less to sneeze about. And that, my friends, is nothing to sneeze at.
Cable Caddy
It seems to be one of the Laws of the Universe that if you leave a disconnected cable lying on your desktop, it will pretty much stay put until you reach for it. At that point, it will start to slip away, eluding your outstretched hand by only an inch or so. That is, until it reaches the very edge of your desk, at which point it will plunge into oblivion just a fraction of a second before your fingers can grab it. Sigh.
Then comes retrieval. Crawling beneath your workstation isn’t at the top of most people’s “to-do” lists in the first place, but it becomes even more of a chore if the area under your desk has the typical pile of computer and peripheral cords mixed with the occasional dustball. Now, you get to sort through the mess and find the right cable, maneuver it back up to your desktop, and then plug it in fast before you risk having to go through the whole ridiculous slapstick routine all over again.
If you can think of better ways to use your time than chasing after loose cable ends, then you may want to make friends with the Cable Caddy, a cool little desktop cord organizer that hides behind your computer to neatly route USB and other peripheral cables while they’re plugged in, and holds them securely in place when they’re unplugged.
The Cable Caddy comes with adhesive strips and a desk clamp, which let you affix it to your desk so it doesn’t jump overboard with your cables. Wondering how it keeps a grip on cords? The Cable Caddy has 5 narrow channels that are big enough to let cables move freely through them, but still narrow enough to catch onto connectors and keep them from sliding away. You’ll never have to grope around for MP3, cell phone charger or printer cables ever again.
