The idea for this post came to me while I was trying to tidy up all my loose wires down below my computer desk, my entertainment stand, and our other entertainment stand downstairs in the main living room. I even had to figure out what to do with all the extra cables that I didn’t need, because I hate just throwing them somewhere in plain sight just sitting there, it makes me feel cluttered, and after all that’s what we’re trying to prevent, right? After plugging in your computer, your monitor, (possibly your other monitor if you’ve read our Dual Monitor Setup Guide), speakers, your router, ethernet modem, keyboard, and mouse, your workspace is naturally going to be cluttered with cables on top of it, underneath it and all around it. The following tips are in no particular order and very easy to implement, though sometimes you just have to use your common sense to help you out with these things.
Cable-Clutter

Tip 1: Twisty ties, velcro, or zip ties

Use these to bundle your cables up together and prevent them from getting tangled up back behind your desk. They make everything more tidy, and it doesn’t look like a complete mess when you go back there to do some work. Also use it to help route your cables to and from their final destination. Attach the cables to your desk leg with a zip tie so that way you won’t accidentally kick out all your cables while your fidgeting at your desk. However, a disadvantage is if you often change up your cables it may not be so easy to unbundle them if you use zip ties, but generally if you’re doing lots of behind-the-pc work you don’t really care about cable management.

Tip 2: Rubber bands are tidy

When sorting out cables that you don’t use, a good way to keep them organized and not bundled up all over the place is to fold them up very neatly and secure the wrapped up cables with a rubber band. It’s not going to come off unless you want to use your cable so it’s very good for keeping things tidy, and you can get a billion rubber bands for cheap, so no need to worry about the cost.

Tip 3: Take up the cable slack

Another handy way of keeping those cords behind your desk in good shape is to make sure you take up the slack so that way they don’t hang all over the place, and it makes it easier to organize them when there’s some tension on the cords, but make sure it isn’t too tight or you could ruin the cables and the connections that they’re plugged into.

Tip 4: Rugs, carpets, beds, and furniture hide your cables well

If you’re like me and you have quite a bit of cable that you need to lay down on the floor, maybe to go from your entertainment center to your speakers, or to your pc from your HDTV, carpets, rugs, beds, and furniture are your best friends for hiding the cables, just route them under the carpet, or a rug, or maybe under your lazy boy, it’s more aesthetically pleasing and it makes sure nobody trips on them, because that could be disastrous.

Tip 5: Cable Drawers

I know this one might not be a genius tip, but it helps out, nonetheless. Grab a drawer, preferably empty, and throw all your unused cables in it. Whenever you need a cable, come to the drawer and see if you have what you need. It’s good, because it makes sure that all your unused cables are in a centralized location that you can always refer back to, rather than stashing a cable in the kitchen closet, another one in your dresser drawer, and the other one behind the trash can (who knows why you would throw it there). Combine this tip and tip 2 the ultimate spare cable drawer.

Tip 6: Tech Bins

If you have many spare components, extra screws, extra tools, or just anything computer related that you seem to have many of, get some bins, or maybe extra drawers, extra shelf space, or just any place where you can organize the like items together, and store them there. A good way to separate it would be: cables, hard drives, memory, the rest of the computer components, or maybe add in an extra category for PCI cards, but just putting them together will help you whenever you’re looking for that one special part, and it keeps things neat rather than just having a box or two full of your computer stuff.

Tip 7: Go Wireless

If you haven’t made the plunge yet, and you’re looking for a once-and-for-all solution to get rid of your cable clutter consider switching everything to wireless, sure there are just some wires that you won’t be able to get rid of, but it does get rid of them once-and-for-all. You can rid yourself of the keyboard, mouse, and ethernet wires, and developers have also started making wireless speaker setups.