Low-tech solutions

When my wife first became pregnant, a much older colleague from Fuel Marketing said to me with a wry smile on his face: “I suggest you invest in yellow and red plastic”. I thought he was demented, but he wasn’t of course. It turns out he was talking about the way small plastic toys seem to breed in your house once you have kids.

So over the holidays, we had our annual tidy up in the kids’ rooms, throwing our vast number of unrecognisable pieces of yellow and red plastic. Unfortunately. my wife also directed that my study had to been cleaned up. She didn’t feel that some of my filing solutions, specifically the towers of paper, were much chop and were in fact devaluing our property. My 101 gadgets were good though.

Being a technologist most of my life, I’ve had to develop a number of low tech solutions for managing all my stuff because I don’t have infinite amounts of storage space and I don’t like to chuck things out. So here are my three top low tech solutions for managing your technology at home or in the office:

Zip Lock Plastic Bags

Many mums purchase zip lock plastic bags for putting sandwiches in. However, what you probably haven’t noticed is that these bags come in sizes up to around A4. They are fantastic items for storing things in. They are clear, so its easy to find things. They collapse, so you can pack more of them into a cupboard or shelf. They are waterproof, which is handy when things go bad with your coffee cup. I have tonnes of them. Also note that you will never have to untangle a knotted ball of cables again if you have each cable in its own bag!

Generally when I get some new gadget, I rip off a flat panel from the box with relevant codes and stuff and then stick any bits I am not using in a ziplock plastic bag.

Labeller

I have one of those little Dymo strip labellers at home that I regularly use.  The most common use is to name the plugs of the powercords of each device.  Under my desk I have powercords for the computer, monitor, printer, fax, modem, ipad charger, ipod charger and some speakers.  When your under the desk in the dark, it is somewhat reassuring to know you are pulling out the right plug.

I used to put the label down on the plug, but now I put the label wrapped around the cord a bit higher up as it makes it easier to see when there are lots of plugs jammed into a powerboard together.

Cable Ties

Many computer shops sell fancy cladding to wrap aound the cables coming out of the back of the computer and make them look neat.  The problem with this is that it’s a hideously expensive solution for what it is. I much prefer cable ties. They are cheap as chips, I have a pack of 100 I bought at a fete somewhere, and can be easily cut off and discarded when you want to make a change, rather than unravelling things.

So my study is all squeaky clean again, ready to be turned into a bomb site over the course of 2011. 

Thinking about it, I should have probably invested in black and dark grey plastic before choosing a career in technology.

Brendan Lewis is a serial technology entrepreneur having founded: Ideas Lighting, Carradale Media, Edion, Verve IT, The Churchill Club and Flinders Pacific. He has set up businesses for others in Romania, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Vietnam and is the sole Australian representative of the City of London for Foreign Direct Investment. Qualified in IT and Accounting, he has also spent time running an Advertising agency and as a Cavalry Officer with the Australian Army Reserve.