Winning Kid Desk 2.0 Upgrade Solution: Elfa!
By Beth Blecherman (from Clever Girls Collective) on September 9, 2010
Beth Blecherman of TechMamas.com was trying to organize her 11 year-old son's room as he's starting middle school and she ran into a problem. His "kid desk" could not accommodate his laptop, accessories, projects and homework. She asked the My LifeScoop community for ideas on how to give her tween's desk a tech and organizational upgrade. She received many great suggestions for desks, charging options, cord clutter management and overall organization tips.
Grace Hester commented with the winning solution, solving TechMama's desk dilemma and winning the $250 gift card. She shared a link to the Container Store's College Study Zone that has a flexible desk system with shelving to utilize wall space, a good power strip and a charging/docking station.
Here is a summary of Grace Hester's comment:.
"I love the Elfa shelf series offered via The Container Store. My husband and I are looking at expanding our 5-yr-old's computer space to include a space for her younger sister and we love the fact that we can adjust the table height as they grow. The photo at this link serves as a good inspiration.
The flexibility of this system and the fact that it encourages use of wall space to (hopefully) maintain a clear desk space fulfills all of the key issues listed:
1) How to fit all his technology needs on one surface?
Don't! Make use of the wall space and designate a shelve to hold the charging station and another for the printer.
2) Large enough table surface:
The table top that comes with the series is 54" wide and 24" deep but depending on your space you can purchase two and place them side by side to form a 108" X 24" configuration or 54" X 48" configuration.
3) Cables, cables, and cables, oh my!
For cord clutter, I am not sure how "bad" the situation is but from my personal experience, you will probably need the following: a multi-USB hub, a good power strip and some cord clips. In terms of "hiding these cables", an option is to run them along the back side of the table top. Another option is to cable tie the USB hub or power strip to the far back of one of the mesh drawer options so either the top drawer or the bottom drawer becomes exclusively used for docking and all the cables can feed through the back of the drawer to the socket (using the mesh drawer is like having pre-drilled holes!). Leave just enough cord and wrap the rest so your son would open the drawer mid-way, plug in his devices, and close it so it is out of the way.
4) Charging/docking station:
Aside from the drawer idea listed above, here's another charging station that can be placed on the shelf that makes it all neat and tidy.
Hope this helps!
Grace Hester - The Productive Mom and GraceHesterDesigns.etsy.com.
Congratulations, Grace! You have convinced me to try your way and have won a $250 Visa gift card for your suggestion. I'm visiting the Container Store this week and will let you know how it goes next week!
But wait! There's more!
Over the past month, we've lined up bloggers from our Clever 1000 network to write about their back-to-school challenges. Each week, they presented a different problem and look to you to help solve it. If you offered up the winning solution, not only did the blogger try it out and let us all know how it went, but winner commenters won a $250 Visa gift card! Next Tuesday is our last back-to-school challenge post. Keep your eyes peeled for your last chance to win!
"Back-to-School Tech Wishes Come True" Grand Prize $500 Best Buy card:
In addition to getting your ideas to help the three bloggers, we also want to help you get a jump on the new school year, and make your back to school wishes come true.
Maybe a new phone, an iPad, or a color printer would get your year off to a great start? Tell us about your back-to-school technology wish list in the comments of this post, and on September 15, 2010, we'll pick one winner at random to receive a $500 Best Buy giftcard!
See more from Clever Girls Collective:
Back To School 2.0 Enter to Win!
Tips for Killing Time at Soccer Practice
Save Money With Back-to-School Apps
Lunchbox 2.0: Fun Finds for Cool Lunches
Online or Paper Calendar? Best Tip Wins $250
Winning Calendar Conundrum Solution: Cozi
Contest: Kid Desk 2.0 Upgrade
===========================================================================================
Clever Girls Collective is a social media marketing agency founded by women who wanted to use their deep marketing experience and broad social network relationships for good. We know that women who engage in social media are some of the most authentic, connected, trusted, and vocal influencers -- not only online, but "in real life." That's why we've developed The Clever 1000: an ever-growing, beautifully diverse network of professional, thoughtful social media-connected, natural networkers and influencers who want to engage with and enhance their favorite brands. Beth Blecherman blogs at TechMamas.com, twitters @TechMama and curates at http://www.pearltrees.com/techmama to discuss parenting, social media, technology and her obsession with consumer electronics.
Comments