Managing Your Cables


If you are like me, you are likely to have a lot of electronic stuff at home, and most of these have something in common, they have cables. We all love electronics, but cables are that ugly truth we don’t want to see and we prefer to hide from our sight. Stray cables are not just an eyesore, they are also dangerous and easy to make people trip on them, and when from time to time we need to plug or unplug our electronics, we have to follow the cables to know which one is the one we want. This is pretty annoying as well.

So, there are several options to manage our cables and control them so that we have them tidy and well organized.

Using twisty ties is a very cheap option. These twisty ties will clean some of the clutter but will still let the cables to be seen easily. Twisty ties will just contain them together if you plan to do it with a lot of them or they are also good to coil up the longer ones. Very affordable option, but not the most beautiful at all.

Velcro ties are the next option. They are a bit better than twisty ties and they usually come in different colors so that you can differentiate your wires with them. Still have the same problem as the twisty ties, they let you see the cables, but they are way stronger and sturdier than the first ones and look much more beautiful.

Arranging your cables with duct or painter’s tape is a more elaborated option and way more beautiful if you do it well, but it has the problem that once you need to remove the cables for some reason, all the work will be wasted. All you need to do is to use duct tape or painter’s tape to attach them to the wall, but remember these tapes can damage paint so, depending on where you are doing it, this may not be a good option.

If you want a more professional approach to the problem, you can use a cable management box. They can be bought online or at electronics stores, and even in some home goods ones. These boxes are nice because you have just one clean container to keep all your cables and wires and they come in a wide range of prices. The simplest cable management boxes are around $10, but a more complex one may have a price tag of $100 or over, and may even need a professional installation service if you are not a handyman yourself or you aren’t interested in DIY (find and save on DIY blinds).

The best solution by far is to hide them behind a wall. This is what is called in-wall management. While this is a really clean and beautiful option, it is way more expensive and may need professional installation. If you change your electronics white often, this may not be a good option either, because depending on how it was done, it may require a lot of effort to take out the old ones and place the new ones instead.