Binder clips and cables

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: They can easily be attached to things like other cables (smaller clips) or even the edge of a table (larger ones). The handles are flexible, can be removed, and you can run cables through them. Clip one onto a bunch of cables and hang them onto a nail on the wall. 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. When you’ve attached them to something they can usually withstand several kilos without falling off. - 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.

4 Responses to “Binder clips and cables”

1. Benjamin Franzmayr Says:
   July 5th, 2006 at 19:47

   Hi. Yep, good idea which works well. I’ve just looped the cables through the “jaw” of the clip & clipped it onto something.
   Using the arms is clever.
   You can get stainless steel ones (we bought some for use in our laboratory at work) but they were very very expensive.
   Benjamin

2. Dotan Cohen Says:
   July 12th, 2006 at 7:05

   Great idea. I’ve now got the cable of my Dell Axim put away where my pet rat can’t get to it… Thanks!

3. Peter Says:
   July 24th, 2006 at 10:44

   I’ve got another solution for cable mess. At http://tinyurl.com/mrrkl you will see industrial, open slot trunking with a lid. It’s 50mm high, 50mm wide (i.e. roughly 2″x2″) with slots and a lid.

   It has an incredible amount of uses: tidy cables under the desk, duct cables up a table leg, trunk complex cable setups over the wall (speaker, sat, aerial, network - and that’s just one side of my workroom . Best of all, if you want to change something you just rip the lid off and get on with it. Lid back inplace and presto - all tidy again.

   Worth buying a couple, it’s industrial stuff so it’s likely to be available at your local ‘pro’ electricity wholesales. PB

4. CRS Says:
   September 29th, 2006 at 21:30

   Adopted - works great, nice pointer.

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