Anyone use any kind of cable tidies? (external to case)

Given the number of PCs, monitors & peripherals dotted around my desk, the cables tend to be in a right state round the back are are a bit of a pain to manipulate when it comes to moving/upgrading anything.

My work area itself is not cluttered with cables, they are all routed round the back of the desk and only visible as they dangle in certain places.

Originally I was thinking of some metre-long covers with velcro tabs the full length to encase cables, but I'd need a few of these due to the monitor, power, audio, USB, etc. cables that tend to go in different directions.

So now I'm thinking of just getting a decent length of hook & loop material and cutting it into strips long enough to wrap around collected cables at, say, 30cm intervals - then just have the issue of attaching the collected cables to points on the back of the desk.

At £2/m for the strips (here) it seems a very easy quick win solution - unless anyone else has any cool ideas or solutions they have used?

Oh, and I hate those plastic ones that have to be cut after use, which is why I'm looking at velcro ;)

I went to maplins and picked up some velcro strip cable ties (£2 for 20 I think) as well as a bag of standard cable ties.

Use the velcro ones as a temporary thing whilst organising cables, then once in place, Normal cable ties to hold them together.

Maplins also do decent diameter Spiral tubing which is also usefull.

(and I know you can probably get the same stuff cheaper elsewhere, but maplins is on the doorstep and open on a sunday when you suddenly get the urge to tidy up the rats nest of cables under your desk! ;) )

I've also toyed with the idea of buying some of those foam things that girlies use to seperate their toes whilst painting their toenails, then stapling it to the back of the desk to act as a cable routing/holding device.

I wonder if anyone here has used trunking?

Looking something like this or this, and then there's premade coloured hook & loop cable loops too, here (truly the microwave meal of the cable tidy world!).

Good idea on the girly-painted-toe-separator-type-thing - the Cisco Catalyst 6500 has flexible plastic arms on either side to do this kind of thing too.

I use solder :) yeap cheap and nasty solder from your local DIY store and I spiral this round the cables - plus I know where it all is if I need to use any of it ;)

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Originally Posted by WildmonkeyUK

I use solder :) yeap cheap and nasty solder from your local DIY store and I spiral this round the cables - plus I know where it all is if I need to use any of it ;)

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Jebus!
For a few seconds I had a mental image of you actually soldering the cables together!
A quick re-read fixed that, but coffee came out of my nose.

Kinda use trunking.....

The cat 5 cable and rear speaker cables from the TV cabinet run through a trunking section along the skirting board.

The Velcro ties are the same sort i got from maplin :) Work a treat!

I was going to tidy them up, but a small bird decided to nest in the cabling so i've put it on hold for the time being.

Seriously, i use some home made velcro ones, like the ones that come with laptop power supplies for all my cables, very useful when gonig to LANs to keep all your stuff tidy.

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Originally Posted by Paul Adams

Jebus!
For a few seconds I had a mental image of you actually soldering the cables together!
A quick re-read fixed that, but coffee came out of my nose.

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LMAO - cheers for cheering me up mate :) I was at work when I read your comment and everyone thinks I'm madder than mad as I was laughing at the mental image of your coffee stream all over the keyboard :)

I don't really route cables, most just go straight down the back of my desk and into my machine and because I got a corner desk then there is a large wasted space where spare cable can sit. I do use cable ties (those wirey-plastic things) to route my speaker and modem (st00pid dial up!) cables around my room. My dad uses trunking in his office for all his printer and network cables, not really attracted by the whiteness of it though :D

Go to IKEA and get those plastic spirally cable tidies.....

No. The state of the cables under this desk is attrocious. But stuff gets moved so often it's not practical