So, this client – probably like a lot of you – has a million corded devices in her office area. She also has three of the most wonderful cats I have ever seen. While the cats are wonderful, the fact that they – if left to their own devices – like to play with the surge protectors and cords is not so wonderful. As you can imagine, between them they produce a lot of fur, which is also not so wonderful for the equipment.

In order to protect the cords from her cats, my client laid the top of a plastic box over them. An admirable though not particularly lovely attempt nor a good permanent solution, she wondered if I could come up with something better. At first, I suggested enclosing the whole area. It’s a little hard to tell from the picture, but it’s a contained space at the bottom of her bookcase that I thought we could put some doors on. Well, she LOVED that idea and said she would check out her local hardware store, Lowe’s or Home Depot for door possibilities. She’s a very resourceful and handy woman and I was confident that she could get the job done.

The next day I was in The Container Store looking for some items for another client and I saw an attractive storage stool that I thought would be PERFECT to contain all that cord clutter. Even better, it was on sale! I sent her an email with a picture giving her a heads up about what I had found, how it could work for her in this instance (put the surge protectors inside and slip the cords through the open stool handles) and the fact that it was on sale, but she responded that she would probably go with the door option. OK. No problem. I’m all for whatever the client prefers that will get the job done.

Imagine my surprise when I got an email from her with the Before & After photos below and her praising my out-of-the-box thinking (pun intended!) to control her cord clutter as “brilliant”. While I love the appreciation, I love just as much that the product I suggested took care of the problem so beautifully and neatly. In fact, she liked the storage stool so much that she bought two and is using the other one to store her copy paper and to put her feet up on when she’s hard at work on her computer.

Before:

After:

Ah, just another problem solving day in the life of a Professional Organizer!