Thread: Clear your Inbox Daily

When you have a tangled mess of dust-coated cords knotted into a bundle under Wyour desk, disconnecting a laptop or setting up a new printer can be impossible. The cords used for power, USB, speakers, and FireWire all look the same. A set of simple labels can help you avoid accidentally killing your entire rig by pulling one wrong plug. Print out your own with a label maker to stick on your home-office or living-room plugs. When the cat knocks one out or it's time to rearrange, you'll be glad you did.



Then, get those cords up off the dusty floor with an under-the-desk cable tray. To keep gadget and laptop cords from falling off the back of your desk when they're not plugged in, affix a simple cable catcher (or a binder clip) to the edge of your desk to hold them. Finally, plug your workstation and your collection of peripherals into a single power strip or UPS so you can shut down the energy hogs with a single switch when you're not using them.