Ample Power in the Home Office

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

I spent a the better part of three days in South Florida’s new Ikea store recently, navigating their maze-like showroom, ogling the near-endless array of furnishings and housewares and “that’s just so frickin’ cool” products tucked into literally every available cranny. And when the night was done, I walked out with – a power strip. Two, actually. Because in the home office, you never have enough access to power outlets. And these Koppla five-inch, three-plug power strips were wicked in their austerity – and el cheapo in their $3.99 price tag (the $6.99 Ikea Tubba is pictured on the left).

No big find, you say? My home office is starved for convenient power. With PCs, accessories and the like, the outlets never seem to be enough – and they’re never where you need them. Sure, I have an APCC eight-plug electrical and cable/DSL surge suppressor on my desktop, and another six-plug suppressor underneath. But convenient power’s key.

Even when I travel, that measly plug in the desklamp is woefully insufficient. So something like the Koppla, or MonsterPower’s three- or six-plug Outlets To Go travel power strips ($14.95 and $29.95, respectively) are light, compact and convenient. Widely spaced outlets promise room for space-hogging transformers for camera, phones and other accessories. And Monster’s FlatProfile FlatWrap cord management solution means if the accessories in your laptop bag become a tangled mess, the Monster outlet won’t be part of the morass. So whether I’m at home, on the road – or back at the Ikea store, I’ve got ample convenient power.

Since the '80s, Jeff Zbar has been a writer, speaker and spokesman on all facets of working from home and entrepreneurship. His columns and blogs have appeared via Entrepreneur, Success Magazine, Home Office Computing and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and he has been a small business expert on national television and radio. Learn more at www.chiefhomeofficer.com.