Creative Ways to Organize Wires and Cables

If you work in an office, chances are your daily view includes hundreds upon hundreds of cables and wires wrapped and tangled around each other. If you've had enough with these items, but prone-to-tangling objects around you, you can tidy up your space with these tips in a more creative way.

You Don’t Always Have to Reinvent the Wheel

The most obvious office items you should have at your workplace should include these classic wire and cable organizers. They’re easy to use and usually affordable as you can get a pack for under 15 dollars. You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, especially if you know there’s something you can run to for your basic wire management needs.

However, if you want your creativity to run, experiment with solutions that can be purchased or built personally, like cable management boxes. As the name suggests, cable management boxes are boxes where cables are kept, with one side serving as the cables’ exit points. Cable management boxes have often been the subject of many DIY office videos. Basically, a cable management box protects the entire wire structure, and only the part that is needed to connect with gadgets is exposed. It’s very inexpensive but creating it could be challenging, especially if you don’t have the time or if DIY projects are generally not your thing.

Identify and Label

Wire organization is not limited to wrapping wires together with twine. While you arrange and organize your wires, identify and label them at the same time. You can paint the wires over with nail polish to mark what they are and where they are used for, or you can up your organization game and print out small labels to wrap around the wire.

Another effective technique for identifying and labeling wires is to group them. For example, all wires which you would need for a printer could be organized into one cable organizer or wire management box. Meanwhile, all charging wires could be organized into their own cable organizer desk as well.

Checklist of Wire Organization

How can you tell if you’ve successfully organized the cluttered wires and cables in your office? Here’s a short, and easy checklist:

You’ve successfully hidden power strips and plugs from full view. The main goal of organizing is to clean up a certain area from unnecessary clutter and dirt. Like most things, the whole goal of organizing wires and cables in the first place is to make sure people don’t see them at first glance. Removing unnecessary wires and cables can make your office feel cleaner, wider, and more spacious. If you want to give your office the much needed “lift” it deserves, then you should start cleaning them up.

You’ve collected all wires and cables into one place. Once again, you want to make sure your wires and cables are where you expect them to be. Since wires can be bulky depending on the device, gadget, or appliance they are used for, clump them into one side or corner of your home or office.

You have shortened long cables (this may be done by rolling cables into circles and tying them). Extremely long cables or wires can be a pain to handle especially if they are often seen scattered onto the floor. Even if you don’t want to, you could easily trip over your cables.

You have successfully kept unused cables from falling into hard to reach places. Every office busybody’s worst nightmare is having to climb under a very heavy and bulky table in search of one end of the cable they need. When your cables accidentally fall into hard to rich nooks and crannies, it’s a pain having to crawl under a table to retrieve them. Save yourself from this unenjoyable game of limbo by keeping cables within reach and preferably above furniture.

You know what or where the cables are used. Ultimately, you want to organize your cables because you want to make sure that the cables that are used for a certain device are close by. Mapping is a reason why we need to organize our cables, and unless you’ve correctly placed all the cables and wires where they need to be, you haven’t really fully organized the wires scattered about.

Why Organize?

Offices are naturally busy places, and everything is used to seeing cluttered desks and workrooms, so why even bother with organizing?

Aside from making sure your wires and cables are within reach and are easy to find, another reason why you should organize your wires in the office is that, usually, tidy and clean offices tend to create a better working environment. Offices that are neat or clean will always feel wider. An environment that is managed well tends to be a better place to work in rather than messy or dim offices.