Help me organize laptops/electronics on my counter

[Okapi]

I have been working really hard to keep our worst hotspot, a large counter between our kitchen and living/dining area, free of clutter, and for the most part it has been going pretty well. The one problem I can't figure out how to solve, though, is my laptops (one personal, one for work) and electronics. Unfortunately, we don't have room for more then one desk, and that already holds several desktops, 2 monitors and 3 keyboards & mice. I currently have my laptops stacked on the counter in the corner and then we also use the power strip they are plugged into for our cell & mp3 player cords. I also have a small (well, I try to keep it small!) stack of papers that I need quick access to, mostly things I am waiting to read when I have a free minute or two, or in the process of dealing with. Any ideas for how to make this a little more manageable?

[laohaire]

Well, this is probably obvious and thus there must be a good reason why this isn't possible - but the first question is: do you NEED all these devices?

If I had a work laptop that I could take home, I would use that as my own laptop as well. Perhaps your work has a strict policy about use, though (my company is small and my imagination is limited to my experience, here). You could also consider getting an external hard drive to house all your personal items and use the work laptop to access the personal stuff. Or you could use a cloud service like dropbox to store your personal files, which means you can access them anywhere, any device.

Well, anyway, that's just my first thought - ask yourself carefully what you really need. You don't even have to actually get rid of extraneous devices if you don't want, but putting them away in a closet or storage space would declutter your living space at least.

[homemademom]

We have a similar problem.  We'll eventually move the electronics off the counter to a desk in the dining room, but we haven't found one we like yet.  I bought one of those cord keepers to contain the cords. It's like this. It works okay, but it's still not the neatest solution.

We use a stainless steal breadbox to store all the small devices and cords that we don't use everyday (like chargers for the camera).

[Okapi]

Thanks for the ideas! Yes, I do need both. I doubt that the people I'm working for would mind if I used the work laptop for personal things, but I just am not comfortable with it. I like the idea of something to keep the cords in when we aren't using them. Currently that's just a large decorative bowl that keeps them semi-contained (which definitely helps), but something I could close would be even better (duh - that's what I need other people for - to point out the obvious!). And if I find something the laptops will fit on top of, that'll be even better. Now to find just the right thing...