Getting organized… setting up your geek space.  These are things that some of us find very scary propositions.  My physical life has always been something of an organized mess.  Recently I made (or was suggested to make) a drastic change in the way that my office was laid out (read: it was time to clean it up).

First, the before.  Click through to get a full view of the disaster that was my office.

In taking the opportunity to do the cleanup, I decided it was time to replace the small Ikea computer desk which had served me faithfully for about five years, but is just too small to accomodate all the gear that I use on a regular basis (podcasting setup, flat-panel, printer, server, etc. etc.).

To set up the new desk, I decided pretty early on that it wasn’t going to be another $149 Ikea special.  Though the products work well for me in most cases (judging by the amount of Ikea stuff in the house) it just isn’t rugged enough to go into my daily-abuse-cycle in my office.  No, I decided that I needed something stronger and more durable.

I also decided that I wanted to have a hand in designing and building my desk but at the same time put as little effort into it as possible.  I finally decided on a DIY geek project involving only three main components.

I picked up a couple of basic filing cabinets from a local office-supply store to make-up the legs of my desk.  The cabinets are two drawer letter-size (A4) filing cabinets which are about 29 inches in height, and 26 inches deep.  Long deep file drawers were a must, because I found a very special desk top.

The top of the desk came from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  The ReStore sells donated building supplies to contractors and DIY-ers with all proceeds going to support the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.  The unit itself didn’t start out life as a desk, but as a door.  That’s right a door.  I picked up an eight foot by three foot door that sits proudly atop the two filing cabinets, and gives me a huge open expanse of desk top to store all my gear.

Surprisingly enough, within days of me devising this particular desk strategy, Knightwise did an episode of the Knightcast entitled “KC0013: A Geek’s Palace” in which he described an almost identical desk setup.  Nice to know I’m in good company.

So anyway, the office is much tidier, and my new workspace is working out brilliantly.  I now have sufficient room to spread out all my gear, and not have to sit a secondary keyboard on my lap if I need to access another computer.

The image above shows all the stuff in “the nerve centre”.  From left-to-right:

• Ubuntu Server (with my wife’s photo, box-o-batteries and 500GB WD MyBook)
• Keyboard and Mouse for the server (I don’t have a USB KVM yet…)
• Coasters from the Grasshopper
• Behringer XENYX-802 mixer (for podcasting)
• Behringer C-1 Condenser mic (also for podcasting)
• Labtec speakers (I’m too lazy to crawl down and look up the model number on the sub)
• Samsung SyncMaster 2253LW flat screen
• MS Natural Keyboard Pro
• RSA authentication fob for VPN at work
• Apple Bluetooth Mighty Mouse
• 13″ MacBook
• HP PSC (P.o.S?) All-in-one printer
• Obligatory tin of Altoids

So be good and organize your gear.  Get yourself a nice flat surface and get your geek on.