dip N dollop

I'm a smart girl folks!  I've got a college degree and everything.  Yet these evil little strips, which many in the blogging world seem to adore, apparently bring out the stupid in me.

Case Study #1:  They remove with no damage!  Christmas of 2011, I used Command hooks to hang our Christmas stockings on the wall (yes, the dogs have Christmas stockings!).  January 1 rolls around, and I go to gently pull down on the little tab to remove the strip from the wall, and proceed to take a half-dollar coin sized piece of paint and wall texture with me (that I still haven't repainted to this day, I might add.)  Fail #1.

Case Study #2:  As we saw in my pantry, I hang reusable shopping bags on the back of the pantry door.  They are hung using the Command hooks.  Not 100% paying attention, when I went to hang the back piece of the hook, I accidentally stuck it to the door upside down.  Obviously my fault, I can't blame the strips for that.  When I went to pull down on the tab to pull the plastic piece off, the tab ripped off!  So now there is a plastic backing for an upside down Command hook perma-stuck to the back of my pantry door.  Which will come in handy if I ever decide to hang a wreath on that door...  Fail #2.

So, that brings us to the current date, and my current dilemma, which is this:

This is the view under my work desk in my home office.  I work from home in a customer service job, so I have the computer plugged in, along with my phone and amplifier, my lamp, and I also had my Silhouette plugged in over there at the time.  I like to stretch my legs out all the way under my desk which was causing me to kick the cords and unplug stuff from time to time.  While at my local Menard's, I happened to be in front of a display that had a pack of Command strips while thinking about the cord issue and I figured they would be a good solution to my dilemma.

So I picked them up, and my nemesis and I were face-to-face again.  My plan was to use the Command strips to stick the power strip to the underside of my desk, thus removing any cord clutter from around my feet.  Genius, no?  I was pretty proud of myself. 

I cut the strips in half since the power strip I use for my work stuff isn't that large or heavy.  Really, I just wanted to include this picture because I was really darn proud of myself for getting the scissors to balance like that all on their own while I snapped this photo.

I read the directions super carefully, and cleaned the power strip and the bottom of my desk and waited for them to dry before adhering the Command strips to the power strip, then attached everything to the bottom of my desk.  I laid under my desk and held it up there pretty tight for about 15 minutes.  When I let go, everything stuck - so I walked away feeling pretty proud of myself.  (I did unplug everything from the strip as well, so there was no excess weight pulling it down.)  Success, right?!?!

WRONG!!!

When I walked in the next morning, the power strip was back on the ground, where it started.  I may have possibly overreacted at this point, since my solution was to cut four more Command strips in half and stick them on to the back of the power strip then secure the whole thing on to the underside of my desk with clamps.  I then left the clamps there for about a week.

But...this all happened about 6 weeks ago, and this is what I've had ever since.

Success tastes so sweet.  And now I can stretch my feet out without worrying about hanging up on people or disconnecting my entire computer system, which is always a good thing.

So, that's my saga with the Command strips.  Any one have any good tips for me so I can get along better with these foamy sticky strips?  Or is there a product that you constantly have to do battle with?  Am I all alone in that respect??