How to hide cords on your desk, and how to organize them.
If you got fed up with the mess of cables under your desk, here is how to get them under control.
Most of the time, you don't care about the look of your cables.They are hidden under your desk, so no one will see them.When you need to take a break, you realize that there is a lot of chaos down there.All it takes is a little bit of attention and time.
If you want to start from scratch, you need to remove the power strip and separate the cables.
You can stop right there if you want to, but you can also remove the cables from the other end and throw them away for a clean slate.It makes things simpler, but it is not necessary.
Finding the best place to mount the power strip is the most important step.
Since I have a standing desk that can move up and down, the best place to mount the power strip is on the underside of the desk, which is mostly hidden.The cables stay static when I adjust the desk's height.
The desk surface is only about an inch thick.If yours is the same, you will want to make sure to use short screws that won't pierce through, as well as use a piece of tape on the drill bit so that you do not drill all the way through the desk surface.
If you have a regular desk, you could just put it on the wall.The goal here is to get the power strip off of the floor and into a more ideal location so that all of your cables aren't dangling all the way down to the ground.
Most units have holes on the back where you can slide screw heads into them to secure the power strip.
To mount it, you would simply measure the distance between the holes, copy that to the desk or wall surface, and drive in screws so that you can slide the power strip on.
Line up the power strip's holes with the screws and slide it in.If you can get a snug fit from your power strip, tighten the screws a bit.
You want to shorten the cables as much as possible so that they are not dangling and causing a mess.There are two ways to do this.
You can either use zip ties or velcro straps.Zip ties are more permanent and easier to work with.If you want to change things in the future, you have to cut them off.
To shorten cables, you can either bunch up the excess and wrap a tie around it, or carefully looping the cables and securing them, as shown above.
The goal is to hide the excess cable that is hanging down and consolidate it.
If you find yourself constantly plugging things into your power strip, it might be a good idea to label each cable so that you don't have to trace them all back.
To create a tag, I use masking tape and wrap it around the cable.Write on the tag what the cable goes to with your Sharpie.
Every desk setup is different and each person has their own definition of what is organized, so there is not a single system that works for everyone.
If you wanted to hide your cable mess, you could just get one of these cable management under-desk trays and throw everything on it.If you don't like tangled cords, you might want to take some extra time to separate everything and create clear paths for each cable.
Don't be shy to use this guide as a starting point and modify it to fit your own situation.What worked for me may not work for someone else.