Sometimes you do things and you keep on doing them and you forget that you’re actually are doing something special. This is the case with the way that I always organize my cables and a colleague of mine (let’s call him Tony as that is actually his name) mentioned the other day ‘Hey – what can’t I find that on Grynx?’. That’s actually a good question… Hence this article.

A large problem today with computers, iPAQ’s, iPOD’s, laptops and such are – cables.
You have cables next to the monitor and cables behind the desk, cables here and there and cables just simply everywhere.

So you try to clean it up and tie them up with tie strips or Velcro bands, but then they’re stuck. And you try to move a keyboard or a monitor and then what happens? You end up cutting up the tie strips or loosening the Velcro bands and reconnecting everything. Not very practical…

And what about all these cables that are not permanent but not temporary?
Like your charger cable for you laptop. You want to have it accessible but still not in the way and in many cases it comes up from behind your desk just to lay on the desk and take up space. And then you try to grab it – and it slides back behind the desk… Not very funny.

 

The solution that I’ve been using for a long time are binder clips, you know these black clips that are used to keep large amounts of papers at the office. The reason for using these are several and a few of them are:

1. They can easily be attached to things like other cables (smaller clips) or even the edge of a table (larger ones).
2. The handles are flexible, can be removed, and you can run cables through them.
3. Clip one onto a bunch of cables and hang them onto a nail on the wall.
4. Use one to attach to something like a radiator and take a second one which you loop through the handles of the first one. Then clip the second one onto a bunch of cables.
5. When you’ve attached them to something they can usually withstand several kilos without falling off.
6. – And the main reason – They can be attached and removed instantly and easily!

They are available in different versions, as the bulldog clip that pinches
with harder force, different colours like yellow, steel, blue, white and so on.
The normal ones you usually find at your office are black and those are the ones I always use myself. Then again – to have the clips in naked steel would be very sexy!
If you still haven’t got a clue about what I’m talking about then don’t despair – just have a look at the following pictures and you’ll get it.

I’m going to show how you make those cables that always slide behind the desk become easily available and yet neatly tucked away.

You will need one binder clip that is thick enough to fit over the end of your desk. So If you have a desk that is 20mm think (roughly 3/4") then you take a clip that is 50mm wide (that’s the standard big 2" one).
The Läkerol is optional but helps.

Attach the binder clip where you want that have you cables hanging behind your desk.
Now remove the clip arm as shown in the picture and have you cables run through the hole so to speak. I prefer to try to fit the cables through the little loop at the top of the arm but there is nothing stopping you fill more or less the whole space available with cables. But the more cables the less smoothly the cables will ‘fall back’ behind the desk when you let go of them.

And attach the arm again. And – Voila! You’re done.

Now here’s something to think about. I usually remove the top arm and attach the cables on the lower arm as this will make the cables hang a couple of cm below the surface of the table.
You won’t see the cables which in some scenarios can be a bad thing. Well – use the upper arm then – Duh!

Using something as ordinary as a binder clip to attach your messy cables can really impress people. First they usually just define you as insane – then they’ll see the ingenious in the idea. And why stop there? You can probably find more ways to make use of binder clips attached to things.

Let me know about them! Then I can sell the solution to the cheap manufacturing company in China and earn millions 😀 Moahhhaahahaha {Mad scientist laught}