Too many Wires....Help!!!

I have a problem that’s becoming acute. It’s the mess of wires under, behind, and around my desk. Here’s what I’m dealing with:
Two computers
Two Apple Displays (they have external power supplies with USB & firewire connections to each one.
Two sets of speakers, each with a sub-woofer.
Two large Uninterruptible Power Supplies/battery backups.
All this is connected to a wireless router and an ethernet switch.
Also on the network is an HP Laser printer, and a Brother all-in-on color laser printer. I also have a Canon i9900 inkjet printer connected to one of the computers.
I have a Brother label printer, 5 external hard drives, a flatbed scanner, a good-sized Wacom tablet, a couple card readers, and so forth. To complicate things, I also have a cable modem, a digital telephone modem, an analog phone connection to the fax machine, a postage meter which is also plugged into the analog phone line, and probably a few other bits and pieces that I’ve forgotten.

How do you guys handle all those wires? It seems I spend about half my time on the floor untangling wires and trying to figure out which power supply goes to what. When something stops working, it can run into hours of work trying to trace a loose connection or unplugged power line.

Do you have any tips or shortcuts to share to make a situation like this a little more manageable?

Thanks.

Tom

No solutions, but if you come up with anything outstanding, let me know.

I have pretty much the above, but multiplied by 2 because my other half and myself have side-by-side desks! 'Cept he only has one computer, but 2 screens.

Our solution atm is to drop everything down over the back of the desks and hope we don't get our feet tangled!

Just get those whatever thingys that you can tighten around the cords, and since they all go to the same place, you can bind them up pretty good. I also tend to (if you have a big desk, which you'd apparently have to) drive screws, hooks, nails, or what not into the back of the desk and "route" the wires along there so they're not lying on the ground.

Try color coding the wires or if at the very least...use the blue painters tape and write on the tape what each wire is and tape at both ends so that way all you have to do is look for the magic word. Example: HP Laser Printer written on both ends of the wire.

Helps keep track of all those chargers, usb cords, power supplies etc.
Hopefully thats what you had in mind.

Edit: oh yeah..and what Ron said about bundling them up to keep them from looking like spaghetti.

My wife and I have two side-by-side systems, with many accessories. I did the following:

I used our Brother labeler to mark each wire and plug with a number. There is no confusion as to what goes where.

I used plastic conduit brackets (those gray plasitic half-circle things from home depot) fastened to the back side and uderside of our desks to route the wires together. This keeps them off the floor and out of the way.

I also use twist ties for bundling. They're cheap, and easily removable when necessary. They're great for folding wire upon themselves to make them shorter.

There are, of course, split flex-tubes and other such things available, but I fine the cheap approach works just as well. Wander through the Home Depot electrical aisle where TV and other low-voltage wiring stuff is located. You'll get lots of ideas.

Just remember... If you make it all too neat, it will reveal your dementia.

As 20droger suggested I've also used the split flex tube option before, keeps everything nice and tidy.

They shouldn't be to difficult to find, if you can't seem to locate any just pop the hood on the ol' ladies car and pull them of her wires.

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We're building a new house and specifically asked them to put an outlet in the garage so our noisy computer and many of the wires will not be in the office. It's not only a major PITA, but it was getting to be quite the fire hazard. Someone needs to invent something for this.

20DNewbie wrote in post #4054639
As 20droger suggested I've also used the split flex tube option before, keeps everything nice and tidy.

They shouldn't be to difficult to find, if you can't seem to locate any just pop the hood on the ol' ladies car and pull them of her wires.

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Still married?

great advice here. I do a mix of all of these. I label each wire with painters tape, then i use those plastic pull ties to group all the wires for one specific item together and then i clamp them to the back of my desk.

belmondo wrote in post #4053869
I have a problem that’s becoming acute. It’s the mess of wires under, behind, and around my desk. Here’s what I’m dealing with:
Two computers
Two Apple Displays (they have external power supplies with USB & firewire connections to each one.
Two sets of speakers, each with a sub-woofer.
Two large Uninterruptible Power Supplies/battery backups.
All this is connected to a wireless router and an ethernet switch.
Also on the network is an HP Laser printer, and a Brother all-in-on color laser printer. I also have a Canon i9900 inkjet printer connected to one of the computers.
I have a Brother label printer, 5 external hard drives, a flatbed scanner, a good-sized Wacom tablet, a couple card readers, and so forth. To complicate things, I also have a cable modem, a digital telephone modem, an analog phone connection to the fax machine, a postage meter which is also plugged into the analog phone line, and probably a few other bits and pieces that I’ve forgotten.

How do you guys handle all those wires? It seems I spend about half my time on the floor untangling wires and trying to figure out which power supply goes to what. When something stops working, it can run into hours of work trying to trace a loose connection or unplugged power line.

Do you have any tips or shortcuts to share to make a situation like this a little more manageable?

Thanks.

Tom

Yup, you've got wiring problems alright. The only solution that I can think of, and for you this is free advice, is to go wireless! Tadaaaaa!

Short of that, ask Loise to braid the wires and tie them so they're nice and neat, keeping similar or related wires together in a bundle.

Wiremold products. They have cable raceways & systems for managing large quantities of wires.

Panduit is another company offering this type of product.

You might need a couple of these or these.

I just wrap the wires into bundles and leave them. I don't change the setup much...

Also where possible I separate the networking/communicati​ons stuff and try and lock it up in a cupboard/rack of its own. Then I just run one Ethernet line out to the computers. It doesn't reduce the amount of cables, but organizing them in two separate groups helps.

belmondo wrote in post #4053869
I have a problem that’s becoming acute. It’s the mess of wires under, behind, and around my desk. Here’s what I’m dealing with:
Two computers
Two Apple Displays (they have external power supplies with USB & firewire connections to each one.
Two sets of speakers, each with a sub-woofer.
Two large Uninterruptible Power Supplies/battery backups.
All this is connected to a wireless router and an ethernet switch.
Also on the network is an HP Laser printer, and a Brother all-in-on color laser printer. I also have a Canon i9900 inkjet printer connected to one of the computers.
I have a Brother label printer, 5 external hard drives, a flatbed scanner, a good-sized Wacom tablet, a couple card readers, and so forth. To complicate things, I also have a cable modem, a digital telephone modem, an analog phone connection to the fax machine, a postage meter which is also plugged into the analog phone line, and probably a few other bits and pieces that I’ve forgotten.

How do you guys handle all those wires? It seems I spend about half my time on the floor untangling wires and trying to figure out which power supply goes to what. When something stops working, it can run into hours of work trying to trace a loose connection or unplugged power line.

Do you have any tips or shortcuts to share to make a situation like this a little more manageable?

Thanks.

Tom

I suggest you send the 300 2.8 to me. That should help with some of the clutter.