Sometimes clutter is as much the mother of invention as necessity, and that led Coach Mike Sullivan at UC Irvine to dream up this Rowing Hack: The Bungee Bank.

Sullivan's solution--which really only needs a quick trip to a second-hand store to pick up an old wire shelf from a discarded refrigerator--frees him and his team from storing bungees as a soon-to-tangle clump in a toolbox or crate. You just wrap the bungees around the wire shelf, and they are ready, and sorted, when you need them next.

The Bungee Bank also neatly handles every different size of bungee in use in your program: from skinny, short seat bungees to the longest, fattest ones you might have in your collection for bungee rows or securing things in the bed of your trailer. That alone makes the "Bank" a nice upgrade to the seat-bungee-only Spirit Stick Hack.

You can even use these wire shelves to store the "ball-on-the-end" tarp ties that a lot of folks use these days to bundle up riggers for the road--if they haven't made the Hackers' switch to Rigger Straps, that is--and the Bungee Bank even lies flat when not not in use, which means you won't waste packing space on your next road trip by going with this hack.

So, whether your bungees are still in a heap from your last trip, or you are just looking ahead for ways to streamline your spring sorties with your squad, hack yourself up a Bungee Bank and get all your stretchy stuff sorted.

Do you have a Rowing Hack that creates slick storage when you travel? If so, share your tips--and hacks--in the comments below.

If you have a great rowing hack to suggest for future inclusion, then please send it to us and we will feature your idea in a future column.