Apartment Therapy Unplugged | Use Rain Gutters to Wrangle Under-Desk Wires

Use Rain Gutters to Wrangle Under-Desk Wires

BEFORE. Click here for the "after" shot.

Above is the "before" shot of Lifehacker reader Seandavid010's tangled mess of a desk. But he got a new desk and a new outlook on cord management when he decided to use desk-mounted vinyl rain gutters to wrangle his wires. Click through to see the after photos...

After picking up a new desk at Ikea, Seandavid010 sought out to solve he and his wife's messy cord problem. He vaguely remembered reading about some other troubled aesthetite's rain gutter win in the battle against desk wires and decided to try it himself. After a few home imporvment store purchases that total around $30, he crafted his own cord basin under his desk in around 2 hours.

So what's all tucked in the gutters? Some power strips, a wireless router, a cable modem, usb cables and the power cords for two Macbooks. And it's no longer unsightly and now completely out-of-sight. Check out the Flickr photo album for more shots or the Lifehacker post for a more detailed step-by-step on the project.

Via Lifehacker

Comments (13)

I like that... a lot

posted by 19day on June 23rd 2009 at 8:20am
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definitely a win.

posted by mlleErica on June 23rd 2009 at 11:09am
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greatly improved!

posted by kdkaboom on June 23rd 2009 at 12:20pm
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Awesome.

posted by Rolen the Great on June 23rd 2009 at 2:56pm
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That looks so much better!

posted by SJwashere on June 24th 2009 at 12:05am
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five words or ...fewer

posted by maximumHOTbottom on June 24th 2009 at 5:43pm
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This is exactly the DIY I needed. And I've added "troubled aesthete" to my lexicon.

posted by rosenatti on June 24th 2009 at 6:42pm
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Thats awesome. Been getting worried about my toddler and all the wires... and unlike the rain gutters outside my house, these I could actually keep clean.

posted by teeze on June 24th 2009 at 8:33pm
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I love how this is seems to one of those issues everyone deals with and something as simple as rain gutters fixes it! Thank you AT, I probably wouldn't have thought of this otherwise.

posted by ellearRVA on June 25th 2009 at 3:01pm
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Simple, functional and beautiful. Can you paint the gutter to match the wall color?

posted by quiltmaster on June 25th 2009 at 9:15pm
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you have just saved my life (and sanity!!)

posted by manu_pty on June 26th 2009 at 10:41am
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Given that the table is new, can we assume that the gutter is fasten not to the wall, but to the table? I would also assume that the gutter is plastic or vinyl and not aluminum? I'm asking only because moving the table and contents with the gutter attached to it would be much easier in that only a few wires would need disconnection and not all of them. I also think plastic or vinyl would be a bit easier to work with using simple tools and lessen the chance for burrs that could scrap hands or wires. Other than those observations, I think is a masterful application of readily available items for a new use.

posted by Kippen on October 14th 2009 at 11:37am
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Change the power cord to white and it would be perfect.

posted by jan1965 on October 15th 2009 at 10:48am
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