Melanie Pinola is a writer focused on home-office gear. To find the best paper shredder, she has shredded enough junk mail to fill several bathtubs.
Kitchen appliances, tech gadgets, and home-entertainment electronics quickly create tangled, ugly messes of wires. It’s especially challenging for me, since my job is testing gear like microphones, headsets, and webcams. I am inundated with cords and cables everywhere I turn; finally overwhelmed by the clutter, I knew I needed a solution.
I tried multiple items that claimed to do the job, but the Velcro One-Wrap Ties are my favorite, and many of my colleagues agree. They’re thin yet strong enough to secure everything from phone chargers to bulky extension cords. And they’re not just for organizing cables.
These strong fasteners wrap around themselves to tightly bundle multiple items. At about 10¢ per piece, they’re a simple, inexpensive solution to an all too common problem.
These cost a bit more—but they come in six colors for additional organizing options.
They’re heavy duty
The Velcro One-Wrap Ties are thin and long (0.5 inches wide by 8 inches long), which makes them ideal for bundling multiple cords without adding extra bulk. I use one to tie together six fairly thick cables that connect my laptop, keyboard, external hard drives, and other gear to my monitor, fitting them through the wire management hole in the monitor’s stand.
They work so well for laptops and countless peripherals; senior staff writer Kimber Streams has used thousands of them to wrap computer cables while testing laptops.
They work great for TVs and components, too, says senior staff writer Lee Neikirk, who uses them to create order out of chaos from thick HDMI cables and power cords when testing TVs and audio devices.
Several other Wirecutter staffers confessed their love for these Velcro ties for things like gathering cables routed behind furniture, tidying up the family video game area, traveling with chargers, and keeping long cords from dangling willy nilly.
But flexible enough to corral small items
Clearing out a junk drawer and turning it into an organized piece of art is so satisfying. Whether you’re organizing a pack of pens, a collection of chopsticks, or a handful of small tools, the Velcro ties can group whatever you like so they’re less of a mess in the drawers around your home.
They work for awkwardly shaped items outside of drawers, too: My daughter has more headbands than any kid needs to own, but the ties help keep them from wandering about her room.
Because the Velcro ties wrap around themselves, they stay rolled up neatly wherever you store them.
An adjustable, reusable alternative to tape or string
When things inevitably break, I usually turn to duck tape. But the Velcro ties are a more attractive alternative, especially for temporary fixes or if you want to add some grip to a tool. I had a pair of tongs that lost the rubber grip on one side of the handles, but I prolonged its life by wrapping it with one of the ties, which has a slightly rough texture.
Because they can wrap so tightly, these ties can also be a better option than securing things with string if you’re not an expert knot tier. My dog pushes a doorbell (a strap of bells I hang on the doorknob of my back door) to let me know when he wants to go outside. It works great except that when he’s very adamant about getting into the backyard, the bells topple to the floor. One twist of the Velcro ties and my bells were back in business.
These ties have become indispensable to helping me stay organized, and you’ll likely find a variety of uses for them throughout your home too. Good thing they come in packs of 100.
This article was edited by Annemarie Conte and Erica Ogg.
Meet your guide
Melanie Pinola covers home office, remote work, and productivity as a senior staff writer at Wirecutter. She has contributed to print and online publications such as The New York Times, Consumer Reports, Lifehacker, and PCWorld, specializing in tech, work, and lifestyle/family topics. She’s thrilled when those topics intersect—and when she gets to write about them in her PJs.
Further reading
Lawn and Garden Gear to Get Your Yard Cleaned Up
by Harry Sawyers
Here’s everything you need to keep your yard tidy, no matter what winds up on the ground out there.
The 42 Best Gifts Under $10
by Samantha Schoech
Yes, you can get someone a great gift for one Alexander Hamilton and a little inspiration.
10 Great Ideas to Declutter Your Home’s Small Entryway
by Alex Arpaia
We interviewed four interior designers and spent 20 hours testing to find the tools that’ll make any small entryway more efficient, functional, and stylish.
Tame Your Desk Clutter With This One Simple Trick
by Michael Hession
Keeping a desk free of clutter can seem like an impossible task. Here’s an easy way to tame your desk mess.
