Cord Management

Cords, we can all agree, are one of the banes of the computer world.

It's always amused me that even in the wireless world we've got a Medusa's head of cords snaking through our homes and offices.

This month's Real Simple magazine took one of its carefully honed looks at the wire clutter problem and came up with a very systematic way to look at cord management.

For too-long cords, one of the answers was Cable Turtle, a flexible rubber cable organizer. This looks like the base of a weed whacker, and you wrap the excess wire around its spindle. ($15 from The Container Store.)

If your desk is a snake heap of thin cords from all sorts of electronics like PDAs and iPods, the answer may be Cableyoyo. It holds six feet of cord, releases when you push the button, and fastens to your computer with a stick-on pad. ($6 from Organize.com.)

For those rooms where you've got a data port on one side and the outlet on the other (think about the hotel), the solution is a retractable High Speed Internet Cable. ($14 at the Container Store.)

And for those times when the sheer number of cords makes an unruly mess (like the back of your computer), there's the Flexible Cord Manager Tube—a plastic sheath that attaches to the neck of a tabletop with adhesive strips. ($29 at Roomandboard.com.)

Check out the magazine for more great ideas and "problem solved" ways of looking at cord management.