10-Minute Projects: Hidden desktop cord holder

Yes, I’m back from hiding with another empty promise to blog more often. :)

This one is a pretty simple and “obvious” hack. Last week Cool Tools posted a link to a simple and very ingenous device for holding those extra cords behind your desk, the Keep-a-Cable cord organizer.

While I could have just bought a pack for $5 and be done with it (and I encourage you to do so if you’re so inclined rather than rather blatantly ripping off their idea like I did), I’m just not that kind of guy. I can’t look at a flat 5-cent piece of stamped plastic and not want to make my own.

Cable Organizer

So I did. Details below the fold.

I used a lid from a plastic Sterilite storage box I had repurposed for something else. In reality you could probably make it out of a discarded milk jug or any similar source of flat plastic, but I liked the thicker plastic of the lid.

Using a ruler and a circular lid from a spice jar, I sketched out a series of half-circles with a rectangular mounting strip about an inch wide. Then I cut it out.

Cut out strip

Then (rather crudely if you look at the pictures) I used a drill to hack out some wire-sized holes in the semi-circles and cut through to make a slot.

Holes

I used some inch-side double-stick tape to stick it to the underside of my desk. The final result turned out quite well. I hung a couple of MacBook power supply cables (yes I’ve had up to 3 Apple laptops on my desk at a time) and some Cat-6 Ethernet cables back there, and I still have a couple of spots left over. You can’t see the strip from the front side of the desk, and it hides the cables nicely.

Final Results

See, told you it was easy.

Update: As suggested by some commenters, I ended up securing it to the underside of my desk with three small half-inch screws. The tape really wasn’t holding up as well as I’d hoped.

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