I haven’t done an update since my last few purchases so I wanted to go over a few items that I decided to get tonight off of Amazon. I’m still in the process of expanding my desk/work area and to a lesser degree, my living room zone. For the immediate goal, I’m working on ensuring that my desk has more space. Since it was a pretty bare bones setup, the way extensions work is mostly through clamps.
Since this was an end of the month pay-the-bills session, I decided in paying down a few cards that I might as well get a few more upgrades. For this round, I bought an under-the-desk tray, another small shelf and a stand for my iPad. The under-the-desk tray’s purpose will be to house some of my more used items like my clippers or possibly put some loose wires. The shelf will go to the left (or maybe the right side) and take on stuff like my wipes or kleenex box and maybe even my backscratcher while the stand will probably face the patio door/window for my iPad. Right now, I don’t have any uses for my iPad but I’m hoping with the addition of the Bluetooth keyboard, I’ll find something for it.
Now, before this set of purchases, I had picked up that mouse support and the small end table that I situated next to my couch. The end table ended up being quite mediocre. The screws for the charging outlet requires a power drill. Although I have a power drill, I decided not to use it and just kept the charger piece loose. Putting the item together was a hassle as the wood was cheap and very hard to work with. While the end product managed to fit nicely behind my couch, I’m sure I could have found something better possibly at Target. The idea was good but the execution was bad. The mouse support actually works nicely though. It’s a simple thing but it prevents the mouse cable from getting caught so I think that was a good buy.
On the bright side, I was able to put my small desk light on the end table. While I don’t use it much, I know if I start reading again, it’ll come in very useful. Or when I need to look at something that requires more lighting. Also, the charger portion is nice in that I can pull out my Mac charger and just use that in a closer proximity. I just wish that the screws were easier to nail in or that they had pre-drilled the holes. Just really shoddy design.
Also, one other thing I wanted to talk about was this food tray thing I bought. It’s another not so great items. The problem is that the tray has this bar that attaches and makes the tray adjustable. However, it doesn’t lock in and there’s a tilt so that the tray isn’t exactly level with the ground. That makes the tray unreliable for what I really wanted which was a laptop stand. So I might have to look around again for something better. This thing might be useful for a guest or maybe something light. But I’m scared that the bar will slip and anything on the tray will crash and possibly get damaged.
Instead, what I might end up doing is finding a cart. I have one already but it’s overloaded. I might try to find something with shelves like a mini portable desk. I’ve seen a few online that I might consider. I don’t want something too wide or unwieldy as I want something that’ll compliment my couch space. Then I would be able to do things like keep my iPad on the mount I’m buying or perhaps use this cart to put a mobile display on.
Speaking of the mobile display, my next three major electronic gadgets will be a better sound system, a mobile display or another 27″ monitor to replace my Acer. In all likelihood, the mobile display unit will probably be handier than the other two items. I am running into space issues with the current setup so I don’t know if another 27″ will fit easily in replacing the 19″ Acer. My coworker showed me this triple mounting thing he uses for his work station and I regret not knowing about it originally. That would’ve been far better for my setup but I had piecemeal’d most of my setup as I kept upgrading. In turn, I’m at the point where I’m replacing the replacements like the two shelf extension. I can’t complain too much because my setup is a million times better than what I had before.
The sound system part would be nice down the line though. I still have my soundbar which is okay but the quality is meh. Because it’s a bluetooth device, I’m thinking I could use it elsewhere like my bedroom where I could just program my iPad or another device to hook into the soundbar and play my music or podcast from any spot in my apartment. But once I get a new sound system, I’ll probably use it in conjunction with the two shelves. Not sure where I’ll put the subwoofer though.
The other piece I’m thinking about getting is an organization long cabinet that’ll live under the back of the kitchen counter. I’ve got some boxes there now as well my laundry basket and some old books. But I’d love to eventually move most of that and replace it with a better organizational unit. My counter has a bunch of loose things that just take up space and look sloppy. So if I can move all that into a cabinet, it should make more room on the counter top for various bulky cooking devices like my Air Fryer.
Of course, having all this just will make moving that much harder. But at the same time, I’m still living in this spot and want to at least keep it somewhat livable and have some motivation for keeping this place as clean as I can.