Whether you’re in a corporate officer, are a regular work from homer, or just like to have a place to focus, setting up an organized desk space is essential. In fact, a study from scientists at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute found that our brains like order, and that constant visual reminders of disorganization drain our cognitive resources and reduce our ability to focus.
This doesn’t just apply to items on top of the desk – under desk cable management is key to creating and sustaining an orderly work area. Not only does organized wiring make the space appear neater, it also ensures that your space is safe and prevents accidental trips or short-circuits.
To help you create the most organized office, we have put together a step-by-step guide to under desk cable management. With this guide, all of your electronics will have streamlined, organized and labeled cables to make working in your office a breeze.
Under Desk Cable Management Guide
Step 1 – Hide/Organize Power Strips & Plugs
No matter how many outlets you need, you should definitely be using a power strip or surge protector in your office. While this will protect your electronics, it’s not the most aesthetically pleasing tool.
Thankfully you can either hide or mount your power strip out of sight. To hide a surge protector, you can make or buy a cable box that serves two purposes:
- It hides your power strip out of sight
- It helps organize cables with designated slots
If a cable box isn’t your style, we suggest mounting the surge protector to the wall or underside of the desk. One way to affix a power strip to the wall is with a screw mount cable tie. These zip ties have specialty heads that can be drilled directly into the wall, and then the zip tie can wrap around the power strip and fasten it tightly to the wall or desk.
Step 2 – Collect & Tie Cables Together
You can’t have wires going in a million different directions and expect to create an organized office space. Before you route cables from point A to point B, you should securely bundle them together in one bunch. The easiest and safest way to do this is with a zip tie. There are many zip tie options, but we suggest:
- Standard Cable Tie: The industry standard, nylon cable tie that will permanently and securely hold your wires together.
- Heat Stabilized Cable Tie: If you’re concerned about high temperatures or electrical short circuits, heat stabilized zip ties are specially formulated to hold up in these conditions.
- Velcro Hook & Loop Ties: These are reusable and expandable ties that can be adjusted as your wiring bundle changes size over time.
Step 3 – Route Cables
This is the most important part of under desk cable management. Routing the cables from the power source to their corresponding devices will make the biggest difference in terms of neatness, organization and aesthetics.
There are many options for routing cables, and many tools that will create a streamlined look. Here are a few of our favorite cord holders for desk organization:
- Wire Ducts: Wire ducts, also known as cable raceways, are a singular routing option that will hold all of your cables in one duct. This helps to hide unsightly wires and protect them from dust. Wire ducts come in flexible and rigid options and can be affixed directly to walls for ultimate under desk cable management.
- PVC Extruded Sleeving: PVC extruded sleeving is an excellent option if you want to be able to identify individual wires within the cable router. PVC sleeving is available in clear and other colors. It provides excellent protection of your wiring from any dust, and most importantly, spills.
- PTFE Extruded Tubing: This cable management option is similar to the PVC sleeving, but has a much higher temperature threshold. PTFE extruded tubing makes a great cable organizer and will help you achieve a specific look not available with typical wire ducts or sleeving.
- Spiral Wrap: Spiral wrap is one of the most versatile under desk cable management options. Spiral wrap comes in a wide variety of colors to help you organize your wiring and securely bundle cables. Additionally, spiral wrap is available in Teflon and fire-resistant polyethylene to protect you and your equipment in case of electrical malfunction.
- Wire Loom Convoluted Tubing: Wire loom tubing is incredibly easy to use for cable routing and protection. Made of black nylon or polyethylene, this tubing is available pre-split so you can quickly and simply install it around your cable and wiring runs.
- Expandable Sleeving: Expandable sleeving is the most versatile under desk wire management tool on this list. Available in a variety of flexible materials including standard nylon, heat resistant materials, and high temperature Halar, expandable sleeving is a great way to bundle and protect any cables that might be moved regularly.
Step 4 – Mount Monitors
You can’t know how long your cables need to be until after your monitor is set up. You can either mount your monitor to a wall or use a desktop option, but either way, this is essential for the next step in desk wiring organization and management.
Step 5 – Shorten Cable Lengths
You don’t want your cables to be tight from the power strip to their corresponding device, but you should try to bundle excess wiring in an organized fashion. We suggest either looping cables by themselves or wrapping them around a small piece of plastic. Then, simply bind the cable bundle with a zip tie or a Velcro reusable tie to hold the bundle in place. This will shorten your cables, and these organized wires will keep your desk much neater.
Step 6 – Identify the Cables
The last step – after cables are plugged in, wrapped into a cohesive bundle, secured in a cable router and shortened to a safe length – you should identify each individual cable. The perfect solution for this is Write-On Flag ID cable ties. Write-on cable ties can be, you guessed it, written on to easily identify which cable is which. The variety of colors are a secondary and useful organizational tool.
If you have any questions about the Nelco under desk management tools mentioned in this blog post, please contact us! We would be happy to help you find the right solution for your home or office space.
