If you're like me, you deal with a lot of cables at work and home: power cords, mice, keyboards, monitor, plugs, cables KVM, switches, etc. For those of us who have a test environment at home, that ball of black spaghetti is a blight. Thankfully, virtual machines have greatly reduced the number of cables running behind my desk, though not entirely. Typical wire management solutions require mounting brackets to your desk or binding the wires clamps, which works until you want to rearrange the room or need to replace something. If you've set up an off-the-shelf solution, you have to factor all that in when you move equipment. Here's is a low-cost solution that is extensible, portable and aesthetic – well, as aesthetic as wire management can be. Hide all that wire, surge suppressors and everything else in a wicker basket. For under $10, a basket with a hinged lid and holes for handles can replace that ravel of black spaghetti at your feet.

This little trick works in any area where wire multiplies. When TVs were CRTs, we could hide everything behind the entertainment center. Now that it's mounted to the wall, the TV, Roku Box, Xbox, Wii and DVR each have two or more cords. Just get a basket big enough to hide it all. Now if someone can tell me how to handle remote control management...