Here's a concept design showcased over at Quirky.com which we think has some commendable ideas for wrangling and organizing power cables that often snake down from our desks. The Plug Hub is an under the desk powerstrip housing which not only conceals most everything away, but also offers three cord anchors to wrap around excess cabling.
Plug Hub features:
- Three openings on the top of the unit direct your cords neatly to your power strip.
- Three integrated cord anchors let you wrap up and hide longer cords.
- Sit Plug Hub on its rubber bottom or on its back, or mount it to a wall or the bottom of a desk. Holes on the bottom of the unit also let you attach your power strip directly to the unit.
- 3.5" x 10.5" x 9.5"
- Made from rigid plastic with a rubber “foot” on the bottom.
- Charcoal, with a light blue base.
We currently use the affordable IKEA SIGNUM cable box to hide away our cables and powerstrip, but we like the Plug Hub for the additional cable wrapping feature (if you looked inside our SIGNUM, it looks somewhat like the snake pit in Indiana Jones), alongside it's tidy underneath-the-desk option. But we do hope if the Plug Hub sees production, there are additional colours offered besides charcoal (white or off-white seems prudent considering most people's walls). Currently the Plug Hub is being offered for pre-sale with the arrangement if enough people show interest, it will go into production for $23.95.
Other cable hideaway options from our archives:
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Marisa and Peter's Playfully Eclectic Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
this is fantastic but I would like the ability to close it all the way. I have the belkin conceal or whatever it is called. it is nice, but they put a freakin 6foot cord on it, and my outlet is right above where I put the conceal. so then i am tryign to conceal the cord to the actual concealer, which seems ridiculous. Plus it is a thick stiff cord so it is hard to do anything with it.
Hey AT folks: I think you mean "discreet," not "discrete."
That said, I absolutely need one of these plug hubs behind my TV stand. I use my Mac Mini as a media center, so between that, the TV, the PS2 (yeah retro console!), the speakers, the external hard drive, and everything else, it is a disaster back there!
That little fork thing is cute, but would probably piss me off after about two weeks. :D
Bender's dating service is discrete and discreet!
I'd like to see the cords from the actual "messy" photo utilize that thing. It's easy to make a bunch of plain white cords without huge boxes on them look good.
i love my belkin concealed power surge protector
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-BZ111234-10-Concealed-Surge-Protector/dp/B000HPX4AQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296067078&sr=8-1
i screwed it to the underside of my desk, and it can hide excess cables too.
i run the main power wire along the edge of the desk, down a leg to the wall socket. very clean look and you cant see it unless youre sitting on the ground and looking under the desk.
I haven't found the perfect solution, but Cable Turtles http://cableorganizer.com/cable-turtle/ help - if you get the right size, they'll neaten up the mess and give you circles of color. I plan to investigate this for network cables http://www.flatwireready.com/index.html The Belkin helps, but...
I'm thinking of having an outlet put close to desk height, with some type of shelf, so the desk hides whatever I can't disguise.
PLEASE, designers, keep working on this - and give us fully closed options in white.
Does anyone know what desk is in the above photo?
My concern is the fire risk of looped power cables. Also there is the issue of electro magnetic interference with some computer devices . They look good though
Desk looks like IKEA pieces (top + legs of choice)....