OK, serious nerd meets anal retentive territory here. This is underneath my desk. We moved house recently, and I finally sorted out all my electrical and other computer cables, once again. I had to do some relabeling as I gained some equipment and lost some devices I no longer use.
I learned a couple of years ago that the key to success with under desk cable management is labels. Tag your cables!
Yeah, I know. You just add one plug and figure you’ll know what it does. But then comes another — and another — and another. And then when you’ve got three monitors, that’s three cables to the computer, three power cables, three power blocks — and which one of those did you put into the UPS (hint — you only want one monitor running off your UPS, to stretch battery life).
Do yourself a favor. Get a labeler and start tagging.
Here’s a closer look, for the seriously nerdy. Notice the big fat UK electrical plugs? Pity the poor soul who steps on one of these monsters when they are out of the socket with prongs up. On the plus side, such large monstrosities allow plenty of room to stick on a label.
Cables from the switch. I find that you need a good wrap of Scotch tape to keep labels from falling off.
Now let’s see — what does this USB cable go to? I know — do you!
Remember, cable management isn’t for nerds. It’s for safety. Friends don’t let friends pull out USB cables without knowing what they run.
