Cord decluttering can be a monumental task, especially if your workspace looks anything like above. Here are a few of our favorite cord tidying tools:
Plug Hub
Quirky’s website claims the Plug Hub is great for “ridding the rat’s nest” and it is. What, at first glance, looks like a lock box is a way to hide all the left over/tangled cords under one contained box. The Plug Hub holds one traditional power strip and has 3 openings to feed your work desk’s cords through. You can mount it on the wall or table. The feet of the plug hub also has rubber grips so it keeps your power strip from moving around. You can see the before and after images of my desk configuration above. Look at how much clutter is eliminated. Plus when Lucy or Eva (the office dogs) come walking under my desk, they don’t get tangled up in the cords anymore.
Pivot Power
The Pivot Power has got to be my favorite power strip. It has six ports like your typical power strip/surge. However the Pivot Power can angle around tight corners or wrap around table legs all while holding large chargers, power bricks, and adapters. I especially like how the head of the plug is flat/parallel with the wall so you can push a furniture up to the plug without damaging it.
Cordies
Cordies are great to help keep your wires in line. I found these to be extremely helpful each time I plug/unlpug my MacBook Pro to/from its display. It keeps cords from falling down in between the wall and my desk and it also keeps them from getting tangled around each other.
Power Curl
Power Curl is a product that MacBook and MacBook Pro owners can use to tie up the unwieldy MacBook power adapter when they’re using the bulkier, thicker extension cord. I like it because it keeps it all together in one compact unit instead of unraveling on your desk or in your bag. This is the worst when traveling and you’ve got to take out all your gadgets for proper inspection and you’ve got some long cords hanging out of your backs with your laptop, camera and phones all strewn out, plus you have no belt or shoes on. The Power Curl helps you from at least one part of that embarrassing mess.
CrossLink
CossLink by iD America is a 3-in-one USB Cable that brings micro USB, 30-pin, Lighting ports in one USB Cord. This a great cord for traveling, or in the car especially if you are like me and carry multiple devices (e.g., iPads, iPhone, Android phone, cameras) that don’t share the same cords. I have especially enjoyed having this in my car since I don’t have to switch from micro USB to Lightning port depending on what phone I’m using at the time.
Satechi Compact USB Surge Protector
This compact USB surge protector is quite useful when you don’t need a full surge protector or power strip to power one device but still want the added protection from electrical surges. The combo USB plug and electric plug frees up valuable extra plug space. Sometimes a 6-plug power strip is too much and just gets in the way and the Satechi compact USB surge protector is perfect for those times.
Editor’s Note: we reached out to a handful of companies to ask about products that help with messy cord situations. The folks of at Quirky, Satechi, and iDAmerica sent us the units highlighted in this post.