Project: Technology Tamer

Happy Tuesday! Today I have a practical little project for you.

I love technology....iPods, phones, tablets. But the thing that I don't like about it is all those ugly charging cords that come with it. At various times I've pinned different ideas about handling this unsightly mess, but never really did anything about it.

Until I found these decorative paper mache books at TJMaxx. Then a lightbulb came on.

When I saw these two pretty boxes ($4.99 for the small one and $5.99 for the large) the wheels started turning in my head and I decided to kind of combine the two above projects into what we needed.

Here's what I did, step by step.

I knew I wanted a longer slot so that if I wanted I could put more than one charging cord through. So I used one of the cords to eyeball how long I wanted it to be and marked it with a pencil.

I was going to use a power drill to start my opening. I picked a drill bit that was roughly the same width as the end of my cord.

Next, I drilled holes in a line between my two pencil marks. It was a little trickly because the binder part of my box was concave and the drill kept slipping. Thus, the crooked line. But that's okay.

Then, I used a utility knife to finish out my hole and clean it up a little bit.

It was tough to make the slot look neat because of the multiple layers of paper mache. So I decided to cover the edges of the hole with tape. Unfortunately, I didn't have any clear packing tape on hand so I used duct tape. Not a big deal though because, as you will see, it doesn't show anyway. In hindsight, I probably should've taped the box before I drilled to help the layers not peel away and tear. Lesson learned.

All done. I know it doesn't look pretty on this side, but see how nicely the cord fits through?

And here it looks all nice on our bedside table. Ta-daaa....no extra cords or iPod sitting out!

I haven't done anything with the large box yet, but if the Hubster's tablet fits in there, I may be getting the drill out again.