Ever-proliferating CD-ROMs can wash across your computer desk like so much technological flotsam and jetsam. Here are three ways to rein them in:
Tips
How can you set up a family computer area so it's right in
the thick of family activity when you need it but out of sight
the rest of the time? Quite a riddle, but Gale Goeman of
Waukesha, Wisconsin, wrote to us with one outside-the-box
solution: "We updated a large closet in our dining area into a
computer center. We inserted a small countertop for the computer
and a pull-out drawer for the keyboard. Above, four large shelves
filled with baskets house all the essentials that four kids and
two parents need. Since the computer is where the action is,
everybody loves it. The best part? I can close the folding doors
when no one's using it."
| Prep Time: Under 1 hour | |
| What you need: | |
|
CD Marquee
craft foam puffy paint low-temperature hot glue coated-wire plate holder Custom CD Rack marker ruler scissors store-bought CD rack puffy paints hot-glue gun Pan-o-rama A cat litter pan stickers | |
| Seasons: Year round | |
| Materials: hot glue gun, puffy paint | |
| Instructions: | |
| 1. |  CD Marquee. This cute little billboard announces your
child's game of the moment, and more importantly, it saves
hunting (or worse, not hunting) for the case when play is done.
We made the sign out of craft foam and puffy paint, then used
low-temperature hot glue to attach a thick craft foam support to
the back. We then glued the whole thing to a coated-wire plate
holder.
|
| 2. |  Custom CD Rack. Want to identify whose disks are whose in
the CD storage rack? These colorful labels will help. We like the
appropriateness of labeling disks with a disk, and it gives us
some way to recycle all those junk-mail CDs. Use a marker and
ruler to draw a line down the middle of a CD, then cut it in half
with scissors. Hot-glue the halves to make a right angle. Add a
name or a category (like "Games") and decorations with puffy
paints. Then glue the signs onto a store-bought CD rack.
|
| 3. |  Pan-o-rama. For kids who can't yet read, most disk racks
just don't work: the thin spines on CDs offer no visual cues
beyond words, and kids tend to scatter disks as they search. The
Keefe family of El Dorado Hills, California, discovered that
their youngest daughter, Allie, could never find the games she
was looking for. Their solution? A cat litter pan (brand new, of
course!). It keeps disks tidy but allows kids to flip through
them easily to scan their covers. Our 18- by 15- by 5-inch box is
adorned with sticker dots, and we think it's just the cat's
meow |
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