Cable management
I really need to rearrange my home office but the thought of tackling the tangled mass of snake-like cables makes me want to curl into the fetal position, rock gently back and forwards and think of candy floss rainbows and chocolate covered kittens.
My cable-management strategy is pretty simple and has served me well.
Buy a huge bag of plastic zip-ties from a hardware store. When I bought my supply, there was no quantity available between 25 for $4 and 1000 for $15, so I went with the bulk option. (This was in 2004. After an interstate move and at least 10 desk/cable rearrangements, I’m about a third of the way through the bag.)
For every cable you have, ziptie the excess at a point relatively close to the end of the cable that’s most out-of-the-way. This makes the biggest difference, since most cables are much longer than you need them to be. (Bonus: For cables that you can replace cheaply and come in a variety of lengths, such as network cables, just buy new ones to be the exact length you need and no more.)
Wherever possible, ziptie bunches of cables to desk frames and legs to stop them from dangling freely.
Want to rearrange? Cut off the ties and reapply liberally. When you have a bag of 1000, you don’t need to think twice about it.