Whether you’re just tired of staring at a tangled mess, or that mess is actually inhibiting your productivity, messy cords in the office can create a big problem, and can even create a safety hazard. When you’ve got phone cords, computer cords, not to mention cords for all the other office machines you use, it can seem overwhelming to try and manage them all effectively. Luckily, with the right supplies and just enough patience, you can finally win the battle against the cords, and never have to deal with a giant knot of who knows what ever again.

Begin Well

Before you can truly begin to organize your cords, you need to make sure that the cords adapters you currently have are the most conducive to be organized effectively. For example, if your phone is only 3-feet from your phone jack, but you have a 15-foot phone cord, all that extra cord is going to do is get tangled with nowhere to go. To ensure effective organization, start by purchasing new cables and adapters so that you can effectively route everything in the shortest span. The good news is that most cords, switches and adapters can be purchased for quite a low price at sites like Americord, ensuring you won’t break the bank just to get your workspace looking great.

Plan Ahead

Another crucial step before you can effectively organize your workspace is planning for any contingencies you may face in the future. For example, if you are running a printer cable, but think you might one day convert to using a wireless printer, make sure that the printer cable is easily accessible so it can be easily removed. Otherwise, when you go to remove the cable, you’ll risk totally undoing all the hard work you did to organize your cables. Additionally, it’s important to plan out your cable routing in advance to ensure that as few cables as possible cross over each other so they look neat and tidy when the project is completed.

Take Your Time

Organizing cables can be a frustrating endeavor, especially at first. Trying to make sense of where all the cables go, and which ones need to face which way to promote good organization can be a daunting task. Just start with one cable that you think might be the “most important,” and work your way from there. Add another cord to the bundle, then another, and then if you find a cord that is wrapped around the ones you’ve already organized, just take a deep breath, and then let go of the previously-organized cables to unravel the newly-discovered rogue cable. Eventually, after several tries, you will suddenly break through the mess and find yourself with a neatly organized bundle of cables, which can then be bound together and hidden away.

Encourage Others

As you complete your organization process, others in your workplace are likely to notice your newfound tidiness. To help make your workplace more organized overall, encourage your co-workers to use the same process you did to help them get their desks looking great, too. If they ask for help, be willing to offer it, but of course, only if it doesn’t interfere with your actual job. Perhaps you can even make a few bucks offering your services to those who consider themselves organizationally-challenged.