Advice Needed Tidying up cables

[Captain Jack]

How does everyone go about tidying up cables behind TV units, computers etc.? No matter how "tidy" I make it in the first place, it turns into spaghetti within seemingly a few weeks. An additional requirement is to have enough slack for every unit to be pulled out without straining the cables...

Any ideas? Maybe some curly-wurly type conduit for cables? I am asking because......

 

[sonnetpete]

Couldn't tidy up here, there'd be no place for the mice to hide.....

 

[Lazarus]

I just group similar cables together

eg Mains, Coax, Audio

and strap them together with cable ties.

Looks neat, but the downside is if you re-arrange, a fair few need snipping off and replacing.

But they are cheap, quick and easy to use.

 

[PaulR]

Heck that looks good enough to me. Unless you're OCD tidy I'd leave 'em alone.

 

[hairybadger]

I just group similar cables together
eg Mains, Coax, Audio
and strap them together with cable ties.
Looks neat, but the downside is if you re-arrange, a fair few need snipping off and replacing.
But they are cheap, quick and easy to use.

You can get velcro ties

 

[timo_w2s]

Out of sight, out of mind as far as I'm concerned. If the wires are hidden behind a unit I don't care what they are like. ;)

I do sometimes worry when running everything together neatly that it might increase the likelihood of crosstalk. At least that's my excuse for not worrying about sorting them out and I'm sticking with it.

But what I do every few years is take everything apart and rewire it again, clearing out the dust bunnies and removing old cables that seem to have been left down there unused but where caught up in something last time I removed or added something...

 

[pontiend]

Every now and then I have a go at tidying the back of my computer desk,It dos'nt look much better when I do.

 

[william-1]

Extruded Rubber Cable Tidy,

I opened up the side channels with a knife so that it now takes 5 cables

 

[Lazarus]

You can get velcro ties

Yes, but I get 200 ties for £1.20 from our local hardware emporium, plus I have them in stock anyway. And I'm a Yorkshireman.

 

[sonnetpete]

You can get velcro ties

Are they like the clip on ones the police wear?

 

[Lazarus]

Actually, I've just had a shufti at those Velcro jobbies and they aren't that expensive.

Will bear them in mind for the future. Thanks for the info

 

[Captain Jack]

I like the rubber cable tidy thing but it seems to only be for wires running across the floor.

Hmm... will consider various options mentioned here.

 

[Analoguesat]

Last count I had at least 25 cables behind the tv (!)

The current idea is to get some rigid plastic trunking which will be screwed to the wall, and and using a hole saw attachment on the power drill cut some access holes in the top surface to lead cables out.

And shorten any cabled that are excessively long & just coiled up....

 

[pontiend]

Before my last tidy up a couple of weeks ago.Most of the cables were coiled, fastend with ties.All but one were shortend.The lan cables are one meter long.It still looks a mess though.Because I have only Two power cables to the desk.I can contain the mess behind the computer table, which backs up to the wall.One long standing idea is to box the lot in with a sheet of hardboard.It will probable never get done though.