Do the cables behind your television or under your desk resemble Spaghetti Junction?
Nowadays, as the number of devices we own grows, so does the number of cables, and for most of the time you may not care too much about how your cables look. However, wait until you need to unplug something and the full horror of the tangled mess will be revealed! Our useful guide will help you to organise the chaos and get your cables under control, without having to reconfigure your entire set-up.
The first thing to do is unplug everything, and we mean everything. Remove plugs from extension cables and then unplug the extension cables too – the only way to do this thoroughly is to start from scratch.
Once this has been done, you can turn your attention to the extension cable itself. We all have at least one and it usually sits on the floor where it spends all day attracting every dust particle in the room. If your desk or home entertainment station allows, the extension cable can be can be raised off the floor and attached, perhaps to the underside of the desk. With glass furniture, strategic placing of the extension cable may be required with cable clips helping to arrange cables out of view. If the floor really is the best option, consider tucking the extension away between the desk and wall or behind something else, such as a sound bar. Don’t despair if you really cannot place the extension cable completely out of sight – there are some great cable management boxes on the market.
So now the extension cable has a home out of full sight, it’s time to look at the cables and plugs themselves. Labelling individual cables is a really great tip, especially if there are certain items that you plug and unplug constantly. Marker cable ties are a great way to identify what each plug is, or why not use a coloured cable tie to colour code the cables for each of your devices?
Shortening cables wherever possible will prevent them from dangling down in a mess and the most effective way to do this is with a simple cable tie. Gather up the excess cabling and secure with a cable tie; if you are likely to need access on a regular basis, consider a releaseable tie. Cable ties are great to use where cables connect to your PC and/or monitor and where there are several cables grouped together, and of course it doesn’t matter how thick your cables are as the ties are available in a variety of lengths.
Where you have multiple cables coming from your TV or computer, perhaps to your printer, monitor or router, which can’t be hidden completely out of sight, bundle them together with a cable tie and then envelop the bundle into a flexible conduit to keep them neat and tidy.
If you really aren’t phased by the jumble of wires behind the TV being seen by everyone, there are other reasons to organise your cables that are much more than aesthetic. Well organised cables will remain in good working order for longer, minimising downtime and safety issues and may enhance system performance by avoiding signal interference. Maintenance and upgrades will be much easier to carry out and effective cable management will reduce the risk of overheating by keeping cables cooler.
For all your cable management requirements, we can help. Simply call us on 01623 706 241 or use our contact form here to get in touch.
