If you’re anything like me, then you take great pride in both your gaming battle station and also your workstation – especially if you work from home – and there is one forever-ongoing battle, and that’s the task to try and keep the area looking neat and tidy. From maximizing the space on your desk to hiding those pesky cables.
Home offices have multiplied exponentially, and people have had to set up what was once an office workstation and replicate that at home. There are all types of combinations of laptops and desktops with varying numbers of monitors and of course many more cables. Keeping a clean and tidy workspace can often improve your productivity as decluttering and cleaning can promote a positive mental attitude and can have an energizing effect.
Everybody’s setup is different, be it the number of desks, the PC tower on or under the desk, and of course your number of gadgets and peripherals. But one thing all setups have in common is that they all have to be near a power source and there are plenty of cables and connections.
One of the first things you can do to tidy up is cable management. Try and group all your cables together and route or hide them away tidily. There are plenty of products to help you with this task, from cable ties to cable sleeves or even little cable management trays under your desk.
Tidy Cables
Cloth cable ties are a great way to bind cables together. They are really easy to use and are reusable, which is very handy when you need to make an adjustment like adding and removing a cable from a new peripheral.
Other great cable management options include material or plastic cable sheaths. These can be cut to length, and can make a bunch of cables look neat and tidy. A third option are cable trays that you can attach to your desk via small clamps, so there is no need to drill or damage your desk. Here are some great examples of these products.
Go Wireless
What about the desk itself? Start off by just storing items properly that don’t need to be on the desktop. Some shelves, a peg-board, or drawers offer great storage options and help to reduce clutter.
Choosing wireless peripherals will reduce the amount of cables that connect to your computer,giving a nice clean look to your desk. There are plenty of great deals to be had on wireless devices for your setup. Why not have a look at our best wireless mice, or best wireless keyboards for ideas and suggestions.
One Hub to Rule Them All
If you can’t escape having lots of wired devices, perhaps you might want to consider using a USB hub. If your PC tower is below the desk, having a hub connected to the PC can not only reduce clutter, but also save you from having to crawl around under the desk, especially if your computer doesn’t have that many USB ports. See our best USB hubs page for inspiration on the types of Hubs that you can get to fill your needs.
- Sabrent 60W 10-Port USB 3.0 Hub: now $41 at Amazon (opens in new tab) (was $49)
- Wenter 11-Port Powered USB 3.0 Hub Splitter: now $28 at Amazon (opens in new tab) (was $49)
Mount Up
Is your monitor placed on your desk using a stand or riser? If so, you can free up a lot of room by mounting your monitor on an arm using a Vesa bracket. A massive amount of monitors are compatible with the Vesa mounting system and there are an abundance of monitor arms to choose from.
These mounting devices can also just clamp to your desk, which is great for people who cannot mount one to a wall in a rented property or don’t fancy drilling into their desk. You will need to check the size and weight of your monitor though, and compare that against the specifications of the monitor arm to make sure it can support the dimensions of your monitor of choice.
Some arms even come with laptop holders to help get that work laptop off of the desk when it’s connected to a monitor – so there is a lot of flexibility in your setup options. We even have a tutorial on how to install a desk mount for your monitor.
All of these options can help you to keep your computer desk setup clutter free and give you more room to work with, but don’t forget that it is ok to have some extra stuff on your desk. Glasses cases, microfibre cloths, pens, notebooks, and headsets all make up part of your workstation ecosystem – just try not to let too many bits and pieces build up over time.
