20 Tips To Get Rid Of Those Annoying Wires
Aside from knowing the types of electrical outlets that should be in your home, you may want to know how to properly manage these wires to prevent tripping and severe accidents. The Spruce also explained that an unsightly tangled bunch of cords makes your room lose its appeal, and it also complicates the process of home maintenance.
Similarly, when you leave those cords all over the floor and continue to step on them, they wear out, lose their insulation, and may cause electric shocks, especially to kids and pets. According to Autonomous, the aforementioned problems of wire entanglement are experienced in offices too. If you don't sort out those cords, your office can be uncomfortable to work in, which may stand in the way of productivity. To assist you in avoiding all of these problems, here is a roundup of 20 tips to put those annoying cables in check
Use cord clips
One way to keep these cables in check is to employ cord clips to attach them to your wall or desk, wrote Home Stratosphere. To do this, simply map out the path which the wires will run, then starting from the hub, clip the cable to the wall or desk till you simply run out of wires. However, if you are worried about ruining your walls, simply use adhesive cord clips because it will not spoil or ruin your walls with holes, said Hello Tech.
Wrap thick wires
Where you have rather big fat wires that may not be practical to clip on the walls, the spiral wrap technique is your best bet, as explained by Propakistani. As suggested by PC, use rubber ties to hold the rolled wire after forming a circle shape with it or after repeatedly placing them on each other. Finally, keep the rolled-up wire in your garage or hung on a wall somewhere till they are ready for use.
Arrange cables into concealer kit
Another easy way to keep those pesky wires out of sight is to contain them in a concealer kit, said Homely Ville. You can hide TV cables by putting all of them close to each other and placing them in a concealer kit. In detail, concealer kits come in different colors, and the decision should be based on the interior design so that it won't look odd. But if there are no suitable colors, you can also paint it to blend with your wall and look elegant.
Hide wires with lovely décor
The sight of pesky wires could also be an excuse to purchase yet another home decor item or two. Get a new vase or art piece and place them right in front of cable junctions. Not sure which interior decor to choose? Check out our guide to contemporary interior design. Don't go overboard with decor, however. Architectural Digest suggested keeping your home decor simple and classy.
Pass wire through baseboard
According to Bob Vila, passing the wires through a baseboard also works to keep your home mess-free. This is rather simple; all you have to do is create paths in which wires can pass. Afterward, use baseboard cable clips to hold the cable firm to the channel. Furthermore, you can paint the clipped cables to not be visible to your kids and pets, an essential prevention technique to keep pets from biting cords and children from plating with them
Hide cables behind books
A collection of books as a disguise is a creative way to keep cables and cords hidden, said Apartment Therapy. The instructions said to select 10 books you're not using or have been dumped for a while, gluing nine of them together vertically, and using the final book as the concealer for the cords. If destroying books isn't high on your list of things to do, you can go to a store and buy a ready-made piece as an option, stated The GreenHead.
Hide wires with cabinet or drawer
Matter Brothers Furniture explained that either at home or offices, furniture pieces like cabinets can serve the purpose of covering up messy wires. You can use furniture with a drawer to limit the number of cables on the floor by putting extension boxes in them. You can also cut a hole out at the back of the cabinet for cable passage. Charging ports connected to desks keeps them from lying on the floor disorganized, according to Country Living.
Use smartphone cable backpack
A sure way to have your home office looking like a madhouse is by leaving your phone or laptop charger lying around when it's not in use. For a nifty way to store your charger cables until you need them again and to have them when you're working remotely, BuzzFeed explained that you can use a backpack for organizing the USB cords, power cords, and other stuff you don't need all the time for your devices. The Gadgeteer stated that you can charge your device in the backpack, and cords will be out of sight.
Conceal wire behind the couch
If you're working from the living room or have lots of entertainment gadgets plugged into the walls out there, you can use your couch to cancel the unsightly wires after organizing them. Once the cords are organized, just place the couch over them, without sitting it directly on any wires, warned Porch. If you have a rug in your home, Home Decor Bliss also suggested that you put the wire under the rug before moving the couch.
Make designs with fancy wires
For the DIYers, one real nice trick you want to try with your wires is to improvise them as home decor. Rather than getting plain black or grey cables, get the colorful ones and then lay them out on the wall, designing them into wall art, and holding them in place with clips as recommended by Decoist. Although that makes them more pronounced, LIV Space wrote that they simply become a part of your home decor.
Use toilet paper rolls
Sounds funny, right? But this is one helluva game changer! Get this, if you have a lot of wires, both used and unused, simply get a bunch of empty toilet paper rolls, roll up your cords one after the other and place them in the toilet paper rolls. Afterward, you can put them in-store and only take them out for future use, said Lifehacker.
For sorting purposes, HomeLane maintained that it is always a good idea to paint or roll painter's tape around the roller, then label them. This makes for easy sorting and recognition.
Use cable sleeves
The next time you head into a maintenance store, do well to pick up cable sleeves. These sleeves function as a tube that bundles the cables together and tidies up the room. Galvin Power said that sleeves come in different forms, depending on which suits you and the capacity you need. In addition, cable sleeves keep your wires dust-free, and Window Central said they are really functional and easy to remove.
Use zip ties
You probably have these wires laying everywhere because you basically do not have a zip tie or you are just not using one. If your TV cable is dangling all over the wall, you can roll it into a spiral circle and tighten it with the zip tie as recommended by PC. If you don't want extra attention drawn to the cords, pick neutral-colored zip ties.!
Meanwhile, Nelco said to tie the wires slightly loosely so that the wires do not get cut and so that you can make use of the extensions when you need them.
Tame with painter's tape
TapeUniversity recommended using painter's tape to organize wires. This is pretty easy and straightforward; all you have to do is press it on the wall vertically and make sure you double the painter's tape to attain a satisfying result. If you are not satisfied with the color blend, simply paint the tape! Similarly, JRin.net explained that painter's tape could effectively work for wall-mount wires like TV and speaker cables, especially when you're not permitted to drill holes on the wall for wire channels.
Set up TV panels
According to CNET, you can always tuck your out-of-control wires in place by just hiding them behind a home theatre system. Doing this helps you hide the shame of wires peeking out of your TV, especially when you have friends over. Also, the aforementioned site said you can also call a professional to fix a panel specifically for wires behind your TV. However, for the do-it-yourselfers, we admire the proactivity, just please be safe when installing the panels, wrote elcosh.
DIY charging station with shoebox
Do you remember when we said you could put your wires in a basket? If you haven't gotten any, you do not have to pretend to like raffia; simply bring out the shoeboxes. There's a chance you have a collection. The How-To Home said that all cables could be organized by placing them inside your shoebox and HomeLane said to cut a hole in each box which will serve as a cable pass.
Shorten wire length
You wouldn't even have that much of a wiring problem in the first place if these wires were shorter and of a length actually needed for its purpose only. The next time you purchase extension cords or cable wires, consider looking for ones with shorter cords if that's all you need. However, where you already have long cords, you could always cut them, rejoin them and seal them with electrical tape for safety purposes, said Instructables.
Adopt wireless charging method
Regarding charging smartphones, such as iPhones or Android, adopting a wireless method is an excellent way of getting cables and cords out of sight. Not to bore you with tech stuff, this is basically power transmitted to your phone with no cords attached to it, said Home Stratosphere. Apart from this making you feel like you're living in the future, wireless charging also ensures simultaneous and multiple charging all from a charging plate, wrote Business Insider.