The next time you are throwing away the empty toilet paper or kitchen roll tubes or the little clips that fasten bread packaged in plastic bags…don’t! These disposable bits of what you think are trash can work wonders to tidy up the mess of cords and wires behind computers, TVs and other gadgets in our homes and kitchens.

Our lives today are ruled by gadgets. One gadget requires yet another to function properly. The PC needs a printer and a monitor and a Wi-Fi router. The television may sit in the company of a satellite receiver, a DVD player, a Blu-ray player, your laptop, speakers and a home theatre receiver. Then comes the odd mobile phone charger or your tab charger. While it looks awesome at the front, at the back is a mess of wire cords collecting dust; quite a task to clean and keep clean or tidy.

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It’s a jungle out there…a jungle of tangled cords and mysterious wires that snarl up and collect dust despite your best efforts. Here’s how you can sort out the mess of cords that your electronic devices invariably create without having to take a machete to them

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One way to tidy up the entangled mess of wires and cords is by unplugging one end and passing them through the toilet roll or kitchen roll tube. You could even paint or label the tubes. This way, to clean underneath the cords, all you have to do is lift the tube and wipe or sweep the floor or carpet, whatever the case may be.

Collecting the cords in tubes is only half the solution. With so many cords plugged in, it is hard to keep track of which cord belongs to the TV or the computer or the DVD. You think you are unplugging the DVD player, but you end up unplugging the receiver. You can get even better organised if you label bread clips and put them around the cords so you never have to guess which cord belongs to which gadget save time and save stress because now you know what goes where. This can be done with a white board marker or one with indelible ink.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 26th, 2014