If you’re anything like most people, then you probably have a ton of random cables all over your home or office. From a bunch of cell phone cable accessories, to a variety of USB cables, to cat5e cables laying all over the place, and then of course you probably have a cluster of tangled highspeed HDMI cables littered about. Sound familiar? Not only does all this digital clutter look pretty bad and can make a space look or feel a lot messier than it already is, but unorganized cables can make it exceedingly difficult to find the appropriate one when you need to.
At one time or another, everyone has experienced the frustration of trying to configure, connect, or set up some kind of new fangled device, only to become even more frustrated when they realize they can’t find the right cable. This is especially true when it comes to cat5e cables, which often get mistaken for another kind of cable, such as cat6 ethernet cables. Did you know you can avoid and perhaps even entirely eliminate this problem simply by properly organizing and storing things like computer and cell phone accessories? Did you know you can do this without having to spend a lot of time or money on it? Pretty sweet, huh?
Not sure how you can go about getting your stuff together when it comes to organizing and storing cat5e cables and other wires? Take a look at these helpful tips that allow you to organize your cables with stuff that you probably already have laying around your house.
Use labels to accurately identify your cat5e cables and plugs
Isn’t crawling around under your desk and trying to figure what all the plugs connected to your surge protector are? Well, you won’t ever have to do this again if you take the time label your cables and plugs. You can use a label maker to do this if you have one laying around the house, or even a piece of masking or electrical tape marked with a permanent marker. But if you really want to splurge, you can spend $6 on some fancy identification labels made specifically for electronics.
Make your own wrappers to shorten cords
If you ever wanted to be as crafty as MacGuyver, now’s your chance. Whether you’re looking to shorten your ear bud cables, cat5e cables, or any other kind of wiring, you can do so using stuff you probably already have, such as coin wrappers, old credit or store discount cards, or even an old spool that thread used to be on.
Use up all those old twisty ties
Nearly every home has a “junk” draw in the kitchen, filled with old pens, knicks, knacks, and twisty ties. Why not make use of these twisty ties to tie down or tie up all your cables and accessories? These things are great for securing and cleaning up a mess of tangled cables, resulting in a neater and tidier appearance.
Re-purpose foam pipe insulation
If you want to take it one step further and completely do away with having to even see cables, you can re-purpose some old pipe insulation to keep cables neatly organized while being out of sight and therefore out of mind. All you have to do is cut the insulation to the right size, cut down the length, insert your cables, and then pull the ends through the slit, and voila! The end result is cables that are neatly and safely stored, organized, and unseen.
Or just use old toilet paper rolls…
What do paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, and old pipe insulation have in common? They can all be used to organize and store a hot mess of cables. If you don’t have any pipe insulation handy and don’t feel like spending the time or money to get some, the next best thing would be to recycle old toilet paper or paper towel rolls and use them to keep cables neatly out of the way and out of your line of sight.