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Tidy Away Cables with D-Line
Is your house full of cables trailing everywhere? It is easy to tidy away cables using D-Line and make your house look tidy again.
Have you noticed how everything these days needs to be attached to the internet? In the past the internet was slow to load and could be accessed via a dial up modem. Your computer needed to be near the telephone and you would wait while you got a series of bings and bongs indicating the internet was being connected. Once it was you would fire up Netscape and search for a short time to find things out, often being cut off when someone picked up the phone to use it.
These days access to the internet is faster, all homes have a router and more than your computer can be connected. Smart televisions, x-boxes, play stations, dvd players all need internet access. Smaller things are now getting connected as well, it is now possible to control your heating system via the internet and you can even buy kettles that can be turned on via your smart phone.
This technology is great, we can now access on demand tv, information twenty four hours a day and keep track of our bank accounts on-line. The only problem is that in order to have this technology in the house everything needs to be wired up.
Tidy away cables with D-Line
My house has cables everywhere. I have the router in the dining room and have Ethernet cables going into two internet plugs that disperse the internet using electric cables. There is also an Ethernet cable that feeds into the living room and behind the TV cabinet.
There you will find a right mess of cables with two nearly full extension plugs and an internet switch that allows me to plug in several devices. Not only is it a mess it is a dust trap.
Upstairs the internet plug takes the internet to an internet switch which takes the internet to the tv and other devices in the bedroom. The other internet plug is in the spare bedroom with an Ethernet cable to the computer, which again has a mess of cables behind it.
Recently a local company, D-Line got in touch and asked me if I wanted to review their cable tidy products. Based in Tyne and Wear, D-Line have a range of products for getting rid of the mess of cables and hiding them away in a tidy but accessible way. They sounded perfect for my cable infested home and I was happy to try the products out.
I was sent an assortment of different products from the extensive range and got started dealing with the mess of cables in the house.
Dealing with wires from the router.
The router is situated in the dining room, balanced on top of a model railway set as this was as far as the wire reached. The wires from the telephone stretch along the floor, as does the Ethernet cable into the living room. The mess of wires hanging out of the router looks unsightly. There is also an extension plug on the floor.
The first thing I dealt with was the wires on the floor. These were trailing everywhere and getting in the way. I used some D-Line trunking which is a clever idea. It is a semi circular shaped bit of plastic with a flat back. The wires go inside and the trunking sits neatly against the skirting board. It can even be attached to the wall with the sticky strips on the back.
The trunking opens up allowing you to insert the wires easily and access them when needed. When I had finished it looked really neat and it will also be much easier to clean along the skirting board. The trunking can be easily cut to the length you need using a hacksaw and if you need to go round a bend there are clever connectors to allow you to do this. It can also be used vertically on walls to hide keep the cables tidy.
Tidy the cables from the internet plugs
To deal with the wires hanging down from the internet plugs I used some Cable Tidy Spiral Wrap. This is just wrapped by hand around the cables and keeps them together which makes them look much tidier. The wrap can be cut to whatever length you need.
Dealing with the internet switch
In my bedroom I have an internet plug that feeds into an internet switch. Whilst this is a simple way to get the internet to several devices it creates a mess of cables on the floor and makes it hard to clean. The wires are also a great fur trap, catching loose hairs from the dog.
To deal with this clutter I used a D-Line cable tidy unit. These come in two sizes to hold four way or six way extension cables and have three slots to allow cables to enter though either side or the back. It was perfect for hiding the internet switch as well as all the cables and also catches less dust. I still need to install the D-Line Trunking to hide the rest of the cables but this simple change made everything much neater.
Sorting out the computer
My computer is in the spare room and as you can see there is a great mess of cables hanging down behind the desk as well as round the wall.
I used a D-Line Cable Tidy pre-split tube to deal with the clutter and this simple change made it look much neater. I also managed to remove some of the cables that were not needed. It was really easy to install, the spit in the tube allows you to wrap it easily around the cables. To complete the job I will use some D-Line tubing round the bottom of the desk.
I found the Cable Tidy bases incredible useful. After feeding the wires from my mouse and microphone through them they now stay on my desk and I can always find them.
This cable plug and id kit came in useful as well, I was able to colour code my wires and label the plugs so I know what they are for. This stops me pulling out the wrong one by mistake and losing my unsaved work.
D-Line have many other options for tidying away cables, you can find the full assortment in their on-line catalogue. It does take time to get everything installed but it really is worth doing. The cable tidy products have made a big difference to my home and made it much easier to clean without having to move cables. I was impressed with the quality of the products and the thought that had gone into the design.
If you want to take a trip back in time and find out what life was like before technology you can read about what I discovered at Game On at the Centre for Life
I was provided with some products to get rid of the cable clutter in my home and see how the products worked. I was not obliged to say anything nice. The mess in the house is all my own.
tanya says
I will have to check them out. I have having to look at all the clutter by the computer.
Dragons and Fairy Dust says
I know, wires everywhere is so annoying
Suze the Luxury Columnist says
This is such a good idea, cables can look really unsightly so anything that hides them away gets my vote
Dragons and Fairy Dust says
They are a brilliant idea, my house looks so much neater now.
Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy says
I really need to get some of these. It is such a mess behind our TV, especially with the cats always going behind there.
Dragons and Fairy Dust says
These are so good, I still have to do behind my TV but these are going to sort it perfectly