Mastering Cable Management: Simple Tips for Tech Novices to Tidy Up Your Workspace
I get really excited when I have a new piece of tech gear. Even when I got my the equipment for my work-from-home office, I seriously enjoyed getting it set up. It’s probably pretty common, we want to play with our new toys and we often don’t give much thought to something important until it becomes a problem. In this case, it’s cable management.
Over the course of just a few additions to your tech setup, the collection of cables, cords, and connectors turns into a spider web of a mess. All that is fine until you need to either disconnect something to move it or troubleshoot it. It doesn’t help if you have to work in a place that wasn’t set up for that kind of work, like I do. The room itself is fine, but my desk wasn’t designed for the kind of computer setup I have. To further complicate matters, the desk is extremely heavy (even heavier once I got it populated with everything I need in it) and the best power outlet for my work lives behind the desk with no access to it from underneath the desk. Because my power has to come from two other sources, I need to be really good with my cable management.
Cable management is exactly what it sounds like – managing the cables of your devices. It’s important to get pretty good at this as early in your Tech Acquisition Cycle (TAC), because it really is only a matter of time before something needs attention and you’re digging through that spider web of cables to find out which one you need. I’m going to talk about the most common problems, some of the tools that will help you, and we’ll go through a step-by-step process to get started.
Common Cable Management Problems
The first time you have to go chasing down the right cable, you’re going to get quite familiar with the most common problems. You’ll immediately find a tangle mass of cables, many of which look an awful lot alike. That makes it even more difficult to hunt down the one you’re looking for.
You’re also likely to experience overcrowding or overuse in your power strips, or you may find that you’ve daisy-chained several together. You can usually get away with one power strip plugged into another if you’re not running too much electricity to a whole bunch of units in each strip, but it’s not a good practice, and you really don’t want to chain more than one to one other at all, ever.
You might also end up with cables hanging or cluttering the floor or workspace. That can make the workspace look chaotic, and that’s something that will make it hard for me to work. The more important consideration is that it may create a tripping hazard, or it may put an unnatural pulling action on the power port of the device, which can cause damage over time.
Essential Tools for Cable Management
You don’t need to buy a bunch of stuff to start your cable management. The things you might need to buy don’t have to cost a lot, either. Except for the surge protector/power strip, you really can get by with the cheapest available. Here’s a basic list:
- Something to tie cables together. Zip ties will work, but you can get velcro strips with a slot at one end for very little money. Keep this in mind: Zip ties are single-use. If you change your mind, you have to cut them to start over. They’re cheap, though, and very easy to use. The velcro is a little harder to deal with till you get the hang of it, but not much, and infinitely reusable.
- Cable sleeves or tubing. Some people like a flexible conduit-type of tube, and I’ve seen stuff that wraps around groups of cable in a spiral. This is not mandatory, but it does keep things grouped together nicely, so I recommend you use something if it’s practical to do so. I only have a group of cables from one side of the desk to the other, so I skipped this step, but if I had a six foot span or longer from my desk to the power source, I’d use something to hold them together.
- Cable clips or mounts. Another option, but they can be an alternative to the sleeving or tubing to hold groups of cables together and keep them off floors or from snaking under desks and tables in a separated mess.
- Labeling tools – tags, tape, or pre-made labels. I don’t recommend skipping this one, but you don’t need to get fancy. I have a labelmaker because I use it every week for something, but simple tape will do, as long as you can write on it with something.
- Surge Protectors or power strips with enough outlets. I have several power strips that have USB charging ports, I keep one in my travel kit because hotels and Air BnB’s never have outlets where I need them. I have a charging tower with standard outlets and USB ports on my desk as a charging station for smaller things that need power. Remember this, though: If you have a laser printer, that shouldn’t be plugged into a surge protector. A power strip is fine, but there’s something about how laser printers work that they shouldn’t go through a surge protector. That may be a topic for another post.
Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Cables
Step 1: Sort and Identify Your Cables. Label each cable to identify its purpose. You don’t need details, just a word or two. You might consider using a different color of label or print for different types of devices, like monitors, printers, etc.
Step 2: Group and Route Cables. Gather similar cables together, like power cables, USB cables, etc. Route them behind desks or along walls.
Step 3: Secure Cables. Use cable ties, clips, or sleeves to hold cables in place. Don’t tighten the cable ties too much, or you might cause damage to cables, which will introduce problems in data transfer.
Step 4: Organize Power Strips. Mount strips under the desk or in hidden places. Keep power-hungry devices close to outlets to avoid having to use extension cords.
Step 5: Regular Maintenance. Unfortunately, it’s not one-and-done. You’ll need to check and re-tidy cables every few months to prevent new tangles. You can set a recurring calendar appointment for every three months for a couple of rounds, and adjust as necessary.
Your Turn
Cable Management is kind of like laundry. You can do it all up, but it’s only a matter of time before you need to do it again. But you don’t have to do it all at once. You can map out a plan and do a little at a time. As you add devices to your environment, one of the considerations should be the cable management.
I have to admit that this is not my strongest area of technology in practice, and, although I’d like to say that with a more suitable desk arrangement, I’d handle it better. I’d like to say it, but I can’t say it with a straight face.
How about you? What’s your pain point on cable management? If you’re fortunate enough to use mobile-only devices, it may not be much of a problem, but you still have to charge everything. Tell me about that! Drop a comment down below.
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