Take a few minutes to clean up your cords

10 February 2022

The surge protector in my office failed last week and I had to buy a new one. That surge protector was under my desk, out of sight. I don’t usually pay much attention to it, so when I focused on the situation I was kind of horrified. There were so many things plugged into it, including two other surge power strips (which I’m confident is unwise). There were at least a couple of different outlets involved.

So I took a picture and then got to work.

Here’s the before picture (please don’t judge):

And here’s how it looked about 45 minutes later. There were a number of cords plugged in that weren’t connected to anything at all. There were devices plugged in (like an ethernet hub) that were completely unnecessary. Once I got in there, it was a pleasure to eliminate all that I could. I took a few minutes to label the cords that I kept in use.

Here’s the after photo:

Because I reduced the number of things that were plugged in, I was able to get down to just one surge protector (the new one). And four of its 12 outlets are unused!

As I approached the finish line, I had to channel my inner imperfectionsist. I could have spent more time and made it look better for the after photo, but I didn’t think that was a great use of time. The cord situation is now definitely good enough.

I am delighted to have those extraneous and cords and devices out of the way. If you have a snake nest of cords somewhere in your home, I encourage you to spend a little time going through them. That was 45 minutes well spent!

Tagged with: cords, decluttering