Keeping all of your cables and cords in order, particularly if you’ve got your television, gaming tools, and other screen products all in one location, can get bulky. Whether you open the wall or not, a flat-screen television will need multiple lines to keep it powered and supplied with internet.
How do I organize my cable clutter?
Start with your power source. From the outlet, add a surge suppressor or power brick that will sit flat and close to the wall. A simple way to manage cables is to create a chase inside the wall, but if you don’t know where the studs are and what’s inside the wall, this can be both dangerous and messy. Additionally, even with home improvement knowledge, cables inside the wall can cling to another and create undue weight and wear on connectors.
Getting your cables under control is a simple home improvement that can save a lot of work and worry. If you have a bookcase under your television to disguise your cables and need to set your charging station, it only takes one power cable to make the unhappy slide to the floor so you have to unload and move the bookcase. With the sleeve in place, you don’t have to worry about it.
How can I hide my TV wires without cutting the wall?
Once you have the power strip in place, mount your television hangers to a wall stud, cable the television and mount the screen. Place the cables in a cable organizer, such as a neoprene sleeve zippered cable sleeve that you can customize once everything is wrapped. Once wrapped, you can cover this in a piece of paintable Wiremold channel.
The fact that this cable holder is neoprene is critical. Cords in a channel can create weight, and while some connectors can tolerate the weight, such as a screw-in cable connector, others cannot. The neoprene will compress and hold separate cables in one bundle, protecting more fragile connections.
How do you hide multiple cords?
If you need a bamboo charging station in the same area as your television, a second cable holder can be helpful. Because a neoprene cable holder is not a woven product, you can make small cuts in the sleeve to allow chargers for
- phones
- tablets
- laptops
- eReaders
to hang out at the right length for plugging in. When you’re ready to have a disconnected meal and see your family members eye to eye, make it a habit to charge up all the devices at the same time.
How do you organize your cords yourself?
To start, measure you cable organizer from the bottom of the television to the power outlet or the surge protector. You want your cables bundled, but not so tightly that each doesn’t have a bit of give where it feeds into the sleeve. Use a temporary Velcro or zip tie to bind them here, then wrap them in the sleeve and zip it up.
If you’re creating a device charging area to create an “unplug” family moment, plug in all the devices and lay the cables flat next to the device holder. Again, create a temporary tie so all the lengths are precisely where they need to be for convenient access, but not so tight that they have to turn a tight corner once they’re in the sleeve. Wrap up the cables and zip the sleeve. If anything is too tight, make a small cut in the sleeve to create a little give.
If your gaming tools are also in the same area, it’s critical that you get power cords and other connections wrapped up and tucked away. It only takes one controller joystick, set of headphones or other hooked tool to unplug vital connections. A vigorous gamer might even cause damage. With a cable organizer, game tools and power tools don’t have to mix.
Conclusion
Getting cable clutter in order is one of the simplest ways to make the move from homework to games easy and painless. If you’re going from dinner to family movie night, knowing that everything is plugged in and ready to roll is also helpful. Set the lengths you need and wrap up your power, cable and charging cables to avoid a tangled mess.
December 2, 2020