I have enough wine to want to have a wine rack, but I live in an earthquake-prone area. It only took one bottle of wine falling off my previous wine rack and smashing on the floor to make it pretty clear that I wanted to have an earthquake-proof wine rack which would be cheap, simple to use and reliable.

I found a nice cedar wooden rack for cheap on eBay from a guy in Oregon called HowardHaroldHelm. They're well-priced and well-made.

But the racks are still not earthquake proof. So, I looked around for existing solutions. Well.. you could spend $2.50 per bottle of wine on a QuakeGuardian (trademarked and patented, thank you), which seems a bit much to me, and besides, takes a significant amount of time to install. This one was pretty inspirational - but it requires zip-typing each o-ring to the wood, which is fiddly, and I felt it would look pretty ugly. I think we can do better. And news articles on the topic aren't much help either.

Here's my solution: it's quick, it's easy, it looks fine, and it's cheap.

Step 1: First, You'll Need Some Large O-rings.

The size doesn't matter so much - which is completely in your interest, since you can just jump on whatever's cheap. Just search for "O-rings" on eBay and find something reasonably cheap or check your local plumbing supply. You don't want anything smaller than about 2" or larger than about 3.5". Your aim is something large enough to slip the neck of wine bottles in without difficulty, but small enough that the body of the bottle won't fall through it. I found 50 2.75" o-rings for $8 shipped.

Step 2: Second, Staple Gun.

And now staple your o-ring in place with a staple gun. Easy, huh? Angling the staple gun is probably the hardest thing here. Having the ring at an slight angle to the rack makes it easier to staple and easier to get bottles in and out.

Step 3: And Now Put Your Wine Bottles In.

You can easily slip the necks of wine bottles inside the O-rings when you put them on the shelf, and they come off as easily.

I was still short 4 o-rings at the top - but I think I can live with that. Just in case... I keep the cheap wine on the top.

Step 4: PS - Make Sure Your Rack Is Fastened to the Wall.

PS. Don't forget to fasten the wine rack itself to the wall with an earthquake strap -- or just a left over piece of nylon webbing from an old bag. Because if the whole rack fell over? That would be a little too ironic.

Remember, cheap wine on the top. Just in case.