I Sent a Pro Organizer Photos of My Tangled Mess of Cord Clutter — Here’s How She Fixed It

Recently, a friend was looking at the tangled mess of cluttered cords and cables I had next to my bed in my studio apartment. “That’s a fire hazard!” he warned. I nodded in dejected agreement, knowing he was right, but I also felt overwhelmed. It seemed something insurmountable to conquer, and with limited space and few accessible power outlets, I didn’t know what else I could do to handle my high-risk cord clutter bundle. It was time, I realized, to call in an expert.

I reached out to Genna Bross, co-founder of Happily Catalogued, for advice on getting a handle on my cord clutter situation. “Proper management is important for reasons such as safety (reduces tripping), functionality (reduces wear on cables), productivity (easily accessing and rearranging devices), and of course improving the aesthetics of your space,” says Bross, who also points out that with the increasing number of devices we use daily, it’s easy to have a mess of excess cables and forget what electronics they belong to.

Bross shared with me a few simple steps to follow to get my cords and cables organized, accessible, and out of sight. And maybe, possibly, creating a more productive and visually appealing environment in the process.

The reality of my cord clutter was I wasn’t 100% sure what some of those cords tangled up in the surge protector even were for, let alone if the cords and cables were used with any degree of regularity at this point — or at all. Which means they were taking up valuable real estate, but didn’t necessarily serve any sort of current purpose.

The first step in assessing how to organize the clutter is to determine the level of daily use of all the cords and cables. “Remove cords and cables from your power source that you do not use daily,” says Bross. So I took everything that I wasn’t using regularly, and placed it in a separate pile for further organizing and storing. 

Part of that process was identifying each of my cords. I needed to figure out if all my cords and cables were connected to charging devices or just taking up space. “Do you know what they belong to? Separate the cables into two categories: Cords you’re able to identify, and those that you cannot. Make sure that you have accounted for HDMI, USB, power cords, and chargers,” says Bross. 

The most interesting result of this exercise? I discovered that I didn’t know why I still had most of the cords and cables that had been littering my floor for so long. This included cords from long-forgotten gadgets and appliances and several cables for a phone that I have not used in years, It was all just excess and unnecessary, but taking up space and creating all sorts of hazards and clutter.

Once all the fat was trimmed, so to speak, it was easier for me to do the next step: Determine an organized layout for my most-used cables. “Depending on the location and proximity of your devices, consider placing the longest cords farther back on your power source and the shorter cords at the front,” says Bross.

After a few household organization projects, from organizing my medicine cabinet to cleaning out my kitchen junk drawer, I’ve discovered that the editing portion of organization is sometimes the most important part of the process. Weeding out what you aren’t using or don’t need is the best way to get what you do need and use under more manageable control.

So, the next thing I did was grab the pile of cables that I do not use daily and wrap them individually with cable ties. These are easy to grab on Amazon, such as these bundlers from Command. I then stored them separately in a bag that was accessible but not taking up this specific space, and got to work on the remaining task at hand. 

Bross advised me to pull the project together by getting those cords and cables that I currently need to keep actively plugged in organized and in a streamlined appearance. I’m attempting that by playing around with some CordBrick weighted cord holders/managers, and seeing how that goes — but it’s very much still a work in progress, and I think this will fall under the category of making better maintenance choices every day to keep things from going awry again anytime soon.

For any unused, old cords, Bross suggests recycling them at an e-waste recycling facility and be sure to avoid overloading your power source.

Ready to start decluttering? Sign up for Apartment Therapy’s Decluttering Cure, a free 14-day program that’ll help you achieve a tidier home in just two weeks.