How to Organize Wires and Cables

If your home or office electrical system or cable delivery setup was put together over a period of time, it may be a mix of professional and amateur efforts, or the result of mixed technology. Whatever the case, if you are looking to uncomplicate your system, it makes sense to take a few steps to organize your wires or cables into something a professional can work with for additional renovations.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Know what you need. If you have years (or decades) of ancient cable running through your home, you could benefit from getting rid of the obsolete stuff. This can be hard, and you may need the advice of an electrical expert. Old knob-in-tube or cloth-covered wiring can sometimes be spliced into newer stuff, so be careful while you whittle away at useless bits of your wiring system.

2. Consider drilling for cables. When new cable gets put into a house by amateurs, they take the easy way, running cables through rooms, across ceilings, and up or down walls. If you're trying to clean up the resulting snake pit, try drilling small holes through walls, window sills, or cabinets and thread the cable through, taking the most direct route to your destination.

3. Try bundling cables and wires together. Tying multiple wiring systems into each other can simplify your home system. Of course, you'll need to be specific about where each one goes. You can wrap the cable "bundles" together with tape or get more sophisticated housing that looks better, like silver tubing, or even bamboo.

4. Color code your wires. To make it easy for you and others to identify multiple cable systems, tag each one with a specific color of tape. Then, when these wires are snaking everywhere, workers or other users can clearly see the destination and purpose of the cable by looking at the color tag. It may be helpful to actually print out a map of these systems to make identification even easier.

5. Maximize space. A problem of jumbled wires often occurs when space has not been planned for a particular system. Plan space for new cable systems like Internet, TV or phone. And, if there is no space, consider uninstalling a system and living simpler. Use baskets and other accessories to organize modems, wireless towers and all the other electronics in your home.

Resources

• Home cable management from Crutchfield.

[JanieWrites]

on 1/9/2009 I agree with the velcro straps - I use them a lot!

[jonfleck88]

on 11/28/2008 One of the best ways I've found to organize wires is by using Velcro straps. More information on organizing cables with Velcro straps can be found at http://www.jonfleck.com/2008/10/11/cheap-do-it-yourself-cable-organization/