2018 is here, so it’s time to upgrade your setup and make it a much productive, clutter-free workspace. We compiled a list of 10 little things that can add up to clean up your setup and make things more organized and tidy.
1- Cable holder/organizer
We deal with cables everyday, 80% of the clutter on the desk is caused by cables going everywhere. This little holder is fantastic to organize your charging cables that you keep exposed in your setup. Besides the natural wood look it comes with string magnetic holder to keep the cables stuck to it in vertical or horizontal position. It comes with a wide and a single holder, the wide one can take all 3 if you don’t want to mount 2 holders.
2- USB Grommet Charger
If you didn’t like the previous item and want a quick access USB charging port without having to cable manage a thing, then at least make it a bit pretty with this product. This a USB charging station, that fits in a standard desk grommet hole.
3- Phone stand
A phone stand is mandatory in any setup, your phone can show you notification without distracting you from you doing your actual work. So you can decide whether it worth checking or not, therefor your phone needs to be up, easy to look at and to access. Most stands are either plasticy, feel cheap and lack rigidity or metallic, well built but not really functional. We found this one which is really great. Made in aluminum but have a pad to prevent slippering, and also comes with flat mounting which is way better than the other ones which add height and make the phone falls often.
4- Headset hanger
This minimalistic headset hanger is fantastic, very strong and well built, mounts to your desk easily and does the job of keeping your headset from your work area. In our opinion this is much superior to Omega shaped holders and similar on desk holders because it saves space. Unless you have a huge desk and want the other types, this is a great product. It’s the same we use on our setup, we have the branded version Brainwavz Hengja but seems like the original factory is sourcing it unbranded for a few dollars less.
5- DIY Switches
We use 2 power distribution strips, one to power the setup and the other for the charging station. The power strips are mounted under the desk to hide the wiring but every time we need to switch on or off any of 2 we need to reach under the desk and sense the right strip then toggle the button. It’s not that tedious but we want something more convenience. If you have the same problem you can get this socket and switch, do the wiring and you have easy front access to your power sources.
6- Magnetic cable
Back to charging, one of the best things about the Macbook is the magnetic charging cable Magsafe, it’s so convenient. We wanted something similar for our other devices so we picked 2 of the awesome magnetic USB cable Wsken Mini2. Magnetic cables are a bit hard to manufacture apparently which make them fail a lot and most of them don’t support data. This one worked every time, it’s well made, braided, nicely packaged and the magnet is very strong, also it supports data as well as fast charging. Now we have one cable for both phone and mouse charging, the 2 USB mini ports are attached permanently to the phone and the mouse, once cable is permanently attached to desk power, the other one is in the car so I can charge easily in car too.
7- Desk lamp
Time for spicing up your setup a bit, nowadays lighting is more used for aesthetics than function. We picked this lamp, very simple, retro looking and amazingly flexible. It has 2 mounting options, a stand and a clamp, if you know us you know that we like to keep things out of the work space, so thumbs up for the clamp. This a great value for the price and it will blend well with any earthy or minimalist setup.
8- Edison bulb
What’s better than an Edison bulb to go with that lamp. Edison bulbs are so popular because of the vintage look and the warm yellow lighting. They come is a variety of forms, you just need to pay attention to the light source, cheap ones use Tungsten wire which isn’t efficient, look for LED based filament.
9- Macro pedal
Yeah it’s a pedal, this a pedal that connects to your computer via USB and works as a keyboard. You can program it to do a sequence of keystrokes, works well for repetitive things like your email address or your bitcoin wallet address etc. You can program it as an arrow down and scroll through 9gag with hands in your pocket, program it as an arrow right and enjoy reading manga.
10- Organizers
It’s hard to keep everything tidy and stored, many things we have are meant to be in some drawer but we need it quite often that it must stay close. The solution is to put it in these, they can fit bunch of cables and small gadgets for easy access and keep the work are clean, this isn’t a permanent storage solution, when something spends too much time there probably it needs to go in a drawer.
