- Cable management.
No, I'm not talking about cord cutting
or having to babysit this guy.
(electricity crackles)
Or putting on a suit and tie and going to work for Spectrum.
Nope, today we are taking a look at cleaning up
that nasty bird's nest of wires, wherever it might be.
I'm going to give you some best practices
on cleaning up your mobile life and your home life,
hopefully with some angles you haven't thought of yet.
Let's get into it.
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First things first, let's talk home cable management,
and there's a lot to talk about,
so many different scenarios and situations and solutions.
Let's first talk about one of my best "practices"
when it comes to cable management.
Wherever possible and wherever it makes sense,
I try to go wireless.
Less wires means less cables to manage, right?
Now, let's start with taking a look
at work from home desktop cable management,
then we'll head over to the TV and pick it up there.
You're probably saying,
"Well, Tshaka, if I go wireless keyboard or mouse,
"I'll still need the cables to charge those."
Well, that depends.
Logitech, for example, has many wireless keyboards
like the K375s, which I own and have reviewed,
and it's amazing.
No backlight, but the two AAA batteries
that it takes to run it will last you longer
than that introductory discount you got
for adding a new line with your cell phone carrier.
Shots fired!
But I've since moved to the Razer Pro Type,
which does have built in rechargeable batteries,
made it to my indispensable Logitech MX Master 3 mouse
and both require charging.
Since they're both USBC, I use only one cable
because the mouse rarely needs charging.
So, I've yet to have to charge both at the same time.
But how do I keep the cable handy and neat,
so I'm not reaching under the table to find the cable?
That gets us into our first physical solution.
Adhesive cable clips or cord holders.
You can find these on Amazon at various price points.
These from OHill have 48,000 reviews with 4 1/2 stars.
These are great for keeping cables at the ready,
on or near the actual top of your desk, your actual desktop.
And now you're thinking,
"That's great, but how do I route all of my cables up there
"without everything looking a mess
"on the way up to that desktop, Mr. Armstrong?"
Well, dear viewer, in Philadelphia J stands for jawn.
But in cable management land,
you're actually going to pick up one of these jawns.
A J channel desk cable organizer.
You can stick one of these to the leg of a desk,
though I wouldn't necessarily do that,
unless the back of that leg is outta sight.
But more importantly, you can stick one under the rear
or side edges of your desk,
then run the cables out to the top
to meet the adhesive cable clips.
And if you really want to keep things tidy,
you can pick up some wire loom tubing cable sleeves
to run all of your power cables
from the power strip to the J channel.
You know, in some instances you can even use that loom
to just cut out the J channel completely
and run all your cables up to the back of your desk.
There are a few different types of that wire loom.
I like these which self seal around your cables
and these which have a zipper
which runs the entire length of the sleeve.
And these things, these sleeves kind of work in both worlds,
your desktop and your TV.
You can use this to run all of your desktop power cables
up to the J channel.
And you can use this to run your power cables
from your surge protector to your streaming appliances
like your Roku, Chromecast, or Apple TV,
even your surround system or sound bar, whatever you have.
And while we're talking about running things up
from your power supply, choosing one large enough
with enough outlets will be a big plus in managing cables.
Why?
Have you ever known someone
who has a couple surge protectors around their desk
or TV area?
Maybe even three?
Well, that's three more cords to deal with.
And it kind of does make for a mess with everything plugged
into the different surge protectors.
So instead,
figure out how many power cords you may have running
behind your TV or at your desk,
and then plan for an additional three on reserve.
Now, choose an appropriate surge protector.
I have this Belkin 12 outlet home office surge protector
for my desktop workstation where I edit all of these videos.
And this 11 outlet APC SurgeArrest surge protector
with USB charge ports for my home entertainment center.
Something I'll be picking up,
which I've only just discovered is a surge protector box
like this one.
It's flame retardant.
The reviews on it are generally great,
but with a few things plugged up
I wonder what the heat inside will be like.
It has fairly large openings on both sides,
so I imagine that alone is enough to keep it
from overheating.
But I think it's definitely worth checking out
in your quest to manage a mess.
Now, one of the ways I minimize the need
to have multiple cables on my home entertainment center
is my wireless best practice.
I keep a three device wireless charging pad on my TV console
so that when my wife and I are sitting
in the living room watching TV,
we can just place our devices right here.
No need to bring chargers in the room with us
or take up multiple outlets
when I'm using more than one phone.
Like I said earlier,
less cables needed means less cables to manage, less mess.
Also, the back of your TV console is a good place
for the J channel, out of sight where it won't be seen.
And what about running cables
from a wall mounted TV down to your entertainment equipment?
There are options for that,
but you're gonna wanna check those out for yourself
at a Best Buy or do some research online
because depending on how you want to paint them
to match your walls or if you just want go with white,
there's just numerous endless options with that.
So, there are definitely some great articles out there
on choosing molds or hollow molds
so that you can run cable or cable hiders down your wall.
So, I'm gonna leave you with that one
'cause that's a whole video on itself.
Though, if you'd like me
to go down that rabbit hole with you,
let me know in the comments below,
and we'll consider doing that.
Moving on to mobile.
I think the right bag is the first important step
in cable management.
Are you the minimalist or are you the heavy gunner?
Call of Duty reference.
You carry a lot of ordinance.
I kind of go between the two.
But having the right carry solution
with the right amount of organizational space
is the first stop on this mobile cable management tour.
My everyday bag for the last year and a half
or so has been Urban Armor Gear's
24 liter standard issue backpack.
The storage and organizational functionality is one
of the best for my heavy carry.
There are multiple pockets on the sides,
protected by this water resistant tape seams.
So, you got all these pockets here,
a front pocket for documents, passports, et cetera,
a top pocket, which I actually have so many things
in this pocket in my bag, not this one.
I actually carry the midnight camel all black version.
But there's so many pockets here.
You can put headphones and all kinds of things, cables.
It's pretty deep, and it's got a felt lined interior.
And then you've got interior mesh pockets
on the inside of the bag on one side,
then organizational pockets on the other side on the inside.
So, it isn't just a large opening with no organization.
There's all kinds of organizations inside the bag,
and you have a laptop compartment here in the back.
But what if you want to go a step further
with your organization?
That's where an accessory organizer
like the In Case Bionic comes into play.
This one is on the pricier side,
and you can definitely find some cheaper on Amazon.
But this one is made of reclaimed plastic from the ocean.
So, it's not only a great organizer,
but a product matched to a great cause, recycling waste.
It has an external zip pocket right here.
One internal zip pocket and two open pockets.
And then it has five elastic loops to hold cables,
charging bricks, a top loop here for an Apple pencil,
and then three mesh pockets
to hold whatever else you might put in there.
I use it to hold charging bricks.
One of the things that's important to me
when wrapping my cables is keeping them coiled
when in transit.
So, I have solutions I have used for this.
The one I use occasionally is called a bongo tie.
I actually use these a lot with my camera gear and cables
and power solutions.
When I'm rigging power cables or AV cables to C stands,
I strap these cables down to the stands with bongo ties.
For my mobile cable bundling,
I actually use these Velcro straps though the most.
I have a love affair with these
and have been using them for years.
They just work, and it takes years before they stop working,
before the Velcro goes down,
literal years before it gets even remotely less sticky.
Every few years I'll buy another bundle of these
as the old ones wear out,
or I just lose them or inadvertently toss out cables
with them still attached.
But they can be used
to wrap multiple device cables together.
They can be used for just all kinds of things.
I've actually used them in many different applications,
even just around the house.
So, these are really indispensable,
and they're really inexpensive, a really good combination.
So, you get a lot of value out of these.
So, I've walked you through kind of the basics
of my cable management schemes
and cable management tools and organizational tactics.
I hope that's helped you.
I hope you've gotten something out of that.
If there's any questions you have
about anything I've talked about in this video
or anything you might be considering,
go ahead and leave those in the comments below.
Love chatting with you all.
I am Tshaka Armstrong for Reviews.org.
I will catch you on the next video.