We've been delayed a bit in updating regarding the move because we got the flu during the move, and we didn't have a memory card reader for our digital camera. We solved the digital camera card reader issue, and we've been getting settled.
I have something I need your help with, because it's a problem I don't understand, except to commiserate with Dooce and fans who also confessed to the same issue when we featured Dooce's Behind the Blog....she wrote:
I share this workspace with my very tall, lumbering husband, and he has this mysterious disease that causes a cloud of cables and random phone chargers to hover around him at all times. But the office is big enough that only occasionally does one of those cables wander over and wrap itself around my ankle.
However, it's not confined to an office (we don't have one): it ends up all over our living room. Putting things away neatly and applying the very cord solutions we've discussed here only lasts a few days, and then they're a mess. The picture above isn't posed, it's an organic picture I just paused to take. J claims the situation is hereditary because his sister also doesn't care about cords, just throws them behind the media stand. However, our TV bench is an open design, and therefore, nothing is being hidden behind it--at least not much.
Is there anything I can do to help rectify this situation? Can any of you reformed cord mongers tell us how you changed your ways for the sake of sanity in the living room? (Do any reformed cord mongers exist??)
Part of it is the shear volume of cords. It took a large rolling suit case and multiple "organizing" boxes to move the cords--and only cords--from the old apartment to the new one. Some are super-long extension cords because of the lack of grounded outlets our old place had, but that wasn't ever the issue. I'm going to attempt to weed out the useless ones once we're a little more settled, but J loves to have options in case he ever needs a certain type.
Another part of it is because our media setup is both semi-portable (using the laptop hooked up to the TV/amplifier to watch shows and movies), expandable (karaoke, anyone?), and home grown (3 pairs of speakers around the apartment that came from three different sources, for example).
Can anyone help me??
There's no substitute for quality time spent under your desk or behind the table...
First, the cords must be untangled
Second, discover what equipment they are associated with
Third, be ruthless. How often is this item used.? If only occasionally, put it in an attractive container along w/its cord, label and store
Forth be ruthless, how I often is this used? Really? Discard.
Fifth, decide what cabling system to use and start rolling or folding those cables
Sixth, find a surge protector that also hides cords
Seventh, if there are still large power bricks and cords (albeit now labeled and rolled see if there's another way to store them (I use a magazine stand for some really large one).
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I'll set up a flickr set this evening so you can see what I mean.
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OOOOPS! No need to post pictures as you have far more than I could provide.
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[warning: long, but hopefully helpful comment ahead!]
I share your husband's affliction, but since I'm a personal tech geek by trade, it's far worse than you can imagine. I have mounds of cables that follow me everywhere. My backpack is filled with them, our apartment is overflowing with them and my office/shop is consumed by them. Firewire cables, USB cables, video cables, power cords, extension cords, audio cables, network cables, chargers for iPods, Blackberries, cell phones... you get the picture.
I'll share my secret for maintaining a modicum of cable sanity at home and at the office. First, I literally spent an entire day in each space with every cable I could find piled in the middle of each respective room and then I methodically untangled them all and grouped them by kind. For the short cables (anything under 3 feet), I coiled them and placed them - like with like - into canvas storage boxes from The Container Store. I used my P-touch to make labels for the fronts and tops of each box and then stashed the boxes wherever I could find space. I took 2 of each cable and put them together into another box all mixed up - so that I could keep that one box conveniently located for easy access on the shelf near my desk in both spaces.
For the longer cables I was at a loss. I didn't want to coil them and bend them into boxes because I'd have needed like 30 more boxes to even come close to containing them all and it really wasn't all that convenient to do it that way, not to mention I really didn't have the space for any more boxes or bins! The rest of the cables stayed in piles in the middle of the room all weekend until I went back to The Container Store for inspiration. Nothing there jumped out as the ideal answer, so I walked across the street to Bed, Bath and Beyond and finally found the perfect solution: Friction Hangers and Belt Loops. I got several of each color and hung all of my cables in convenient spots. At home I actually stash most of them in the coat closet and in the office I have them hanging off my Metro shelving units and from a few over-the-door hooks.
If you have just a teeny bit of hanging space somewhere you can store a massive number of all kinds of cables in a surprisingly small space and they are super-easy to grab one when you need one and they don't get all tangled together.
I still haven't found the perfect solution for keeping all my cords and cables organized, but accessible in my backpack, but that's a project for another time :)
view Laurie 11201's profile
Ok, so i posted that long comment and then realized that you were looking more for a way to control the cables that are already actively in use!
Fear not, I have a tip for those too :) Neoprene zip-up cord covers rock. I just Googled for them here: http://www.stacksandstacks.com/html/90356_wire-organizer-zip-up.htm but I bought a bunch of them somewhere else (don't recall where, but the price was a little cheaper - might have been from Gracious Home) a few years ago, in a variety of colors and I use them all over the apartment. They work especially well behind the media stand where we previously had an unmanageable rat's nest.
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