Taking your work with you wherever you go may sound stressful, but if you work from home, a portable workstation is brilliant. Personally, I have a dedicated work area at home, but I still end up in the living room a lot.
This easy hack from Kostas Syrtariotis sure would make relocating my office area a whole lot simpler. For Kostas, it was a matter of keeping all of their multimedia equipment organized and pesky cables out of the way.
They made it portable to make cleaning around the desk easier, but I love the idea of being able to take it anywhere you need it in the home. Plus, using IKEA’s NISSAFORS cart keeps the project super affordable, and the hacker only needed to make a few changes.
What You’ll Need
- 1 IKEA NISSAFORS utility cart
- Perforated aluminum sheet (20cm x 36cm)
- 4 rivets
- Power strip
- Cable ties
- Tin snips (optional, if you need to cut the aluminum)
Creating a Multimedia Center on Wheels
1. Assemble the Cart With Some Tweaks
Put the cart together, but attach the top and upper shelf upside down. This step not only gives you a more practical flat surface to hold equipment but also comes into play later for cable management. The bottom shelf stays as-is, perfect for holding supplies.
2. Create Invisible Cable Storage
This step turns the upside-down shelf into a compartment for storing cables, power adapters, and other cords.
If necessary, cut the aluminum sheet to size. Since it’s a thin piece of perforated aluminum, tin snips should do the trick. Or you may be able to have the sheet cut wherever you purchase it.
Kostas cut their piece roughly 20cm wide and bent the ends to create two 25mm flanges. Attach the aluminum sheet to the bottom of the second shelf using the four rivets.
3. Add the Power Strip
Use cable ties to attach the power strip to one of the vertical cart supports. Now, everything can plug into the strip from the hidden compartment you created in step two. All you need to do is position the cart near a power source and use a single plug to power all your devices.
So Many Ways to Recreate This Workstation Hack!
This hack is super simple, effective, and relatively quick to do. It’s great as a portable workstation for holding office equipment. But I started thinking about all the other things you could do with a similar concept.
- Make a portable appliance garage in the kitchen that keeps everything you use most often accessible without the hassle of a bunch of cords.
- Turn it into a gaming station that can move to any room in the house, with built-in controller chargers and more.
- Set up a mini craft station on the go, complete with an easy place to plug in your hot glue gun, soldering tool, or vinyl cutter.
- Are you a teacher who has to move from classroom to classroom? Wouldn’t a cart like this make it easier to relocate without having to set up your laptop and other devices every time you move?
- Create a portable workbench to tackle small builds and repairs.
- How about a mobile bar cart complete with a blender for making tasty frozen cocktails?
These were just a few ideas that popped into my head when I was checking out this hack. What about you? How would you use something like this to make your life easier?
Tell us your ideas! Or, if you have a hack to share, make sure you send it our way for a chance to be featured on the site!