We found and shared a pretty useful tip a while ago that involved organizing loose cables with binder clips. I switched to a new desk recently, and found myself with the messy cable problem:

The cables had to be pulled somewhat far into the desk to prevent them from slipping into the crack between the desk and the wall. I tried using binder clips, but my desk is too thick for them to be attached.

Look around for another solution, I decided to try using some old tennis balls. I have quite a few lying around the house from the glory days of high school tennis. Here’s what I used:

The small screwdriver set and scissors are simply used to cut holes into opposites sides of each tennis ball. There’s probably other (and easier) ways of doing this, but a box cutter didn’t work for me.

Puncture the tennis ball using progressively larger screwdrivers until the hole is large enough to shove the scissor blade into. Then cut or tear a hole using the scissors.

Create a coin sized hole in both sides of the tennis ball, with the slits lined up. This allows an opening to be created in the tennis ball when it’s squeezed:

Thread each cable through a tennis ball, and voila! They can be neatly stored at the edge of the table without falling into the crack:

When you need to use a cable, you can simply pull it through the tennis ball while leaving it pressed against the wall. This helps you avoid having tennis balls scattered all over your desk:

Yay for organization and efficiency! Do you have any personal tips for organizing your cables?