Taming the Cable Monster – for Alana

This one’s for Alana. For anyone else interested, it is in relation to this problem with cables.

Alana – I hope you don’t mind if I dispense with all the “if I were you” or “perhaps you could” and just dive straight in with instructions. I know it will sound bossy but it will keep the writing clear. My intention is not to boss, just to offer a possible solution.

OK… So there are two objectives here:
1. To stop cables bonking you on the head as move around your basement
2. To make all the cables look a little bit neater and less chaotic

You will need:
1. A roll of Velcro (not self-adhesive)
2. Scissors
3. A stapler
4. Some short nails with flat, smooth heads (maybe upholstery tacks or drawing pins?)
5. A hammer

Step One
If possible, remove any cables that are not in use (that bedroom phone cable?) and store them away.

Step Two
If they are not already there, relocate things like the fax machine, etc so that they are next to a vertical upright or wall. The aim of this is to eliminate these cables dropping “out of nowhere” and get them in position to be neatly secured.

Step Three
Label all the plugs for fax machine, lights, etc, so you can see what they are at a glance.

Step Four
Make some cable ties. Take your roll of Velcro and cut two pieces: one that will be big enough to wrap around groups of cables and another a couple of inch or so in length. Separate the Velcro so you have two sets of pieces. Match the long piece of ‘fluffy’ Velcro with the short piece of ‘grabby’ Velcro and vice versa:

Step 5
Look upwards. Identify your first cable, or group of cables, to be secured. Take one of the longer bits of Velcro and attach it to a rafter with a nail (I’ve done it in miniature, here). The ‘working’ side of the Velcro (i.e. fluffy or grabby) should be against the rafter:

Step Six
At this point you may want to trim the velcro a bit if it looks like it is too long to hug the cable(s) satisfactorily. Take your stapler and attach the corresponding smaller length of Velcro to one end of the longer length, so the smooth sides are together. Make sure the sharp ends of the staples are not on the side which will have contact with the cables:

Step Seven
Wrap the Velcro cable tie around the cable(s) and stick the ends together.

Repeat until you have secured as many cables as possible – both horizontally and vertically. If you make longer Velcro ties, these are also good for securing loops of longer cables to keep them out of the way – you wouldn’t need to attach the ties for these ones to a rafter or wall. I made some of these yesterday to manage all the cables in my study and I think they’re great – really strong, but still easy to remove if you need to work with the cables.

So, that’s my idea. I hope it a) makes sense and b) is helpful. Let me know what you think!