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Since this is my blog and not yours, I can post about pet peeves that I have. One of which is cable clutter. For those of you that don't know it by this name, it is also known as "the pile of wires going in and out of my computer which are all tangled and stacked at the foot of my desk, collecting dust and looking like shit". I was inspired by this and other postings where people have come up with various solutions to this problem. I decided to take it on myself.

First let's review the number of wires most people have going to/from their computers. Mac users can ignore this, since their fancy iMac's don't have this issue, as I briefly mentioned in an earlier post.

1. Power cord for CPU
2. Power cord for monitor
3. Power cord for printer
4. Keyboard USB cable
5. Mouse USB cable
6. Monitor data cable
7. Speakers
   
8. Microphone
9. Ethernet
10. Cable Modem power cord
11. Wireless router power cord
12. Ethernet cable from modem to router
13. Webcam USB cable

It's perfect for piling up all of those annoying cables. The other thing I used was a set of nylon ties that you can find at any hardware store for a buck or so. The resulting mess (all semi-neatly piled) is now in the basket and out of sight and out of harms way.


I left just enough cable for each device to comfortably reach the CPU. Even the surge protector can be laid on top of all of the cables. And since everything is held together with the nylon ties, no tangling. You want to make sure you leave the mouse/keyboard wires on top, since they will tend to get pulled and maneuvered more often. The resulting workspace looks like this:

Yes, I know there are still cables visible... but they do need to reach the CPU somehow. More than anything it is 10 times better than the pile 'o' crap technique I used to employ.