From The Tips Box: Vacuuming Tight Spaces, Paper Clips For Cables

Readers offer their best tips for vacuuming and sorting cables.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.

Vacuum Tight Spaces With A Knife Sheath


Matt gets his vacuum to fit into small places with a simple tool:

Lint gathers in my dryer and the vents are too small for a standard attachment to fit through. I was cutting up some boxes recently and a light bulb went off in my head. [I used] a standard cleaning attachment that came with the vacuum and my box knife. The box knife has a thin sheath and my idea was to tape the sheath to the attachment. Voilà!

It’s a bit hard to understand in one picture, so check out Matt’s full blog post for more info.

Secure Loose Cables With Paper Clips


Javip shares yet another way to keep your cables in order:

I have a mess of cables under my desk (working for a startup) — basically the cables run the perimeter of the room. At some points they’re secured with zip ties, but not under my desk. Before I just pulled them taut under my desk and carried on, but then on the weekends our cleaner would knock them loose. I then secured them with tape and the same thing.

Today, I secured them with cheap, coloured paperclips. I just straightened the clip and wrapped it right around; because the paperclips are cheap and coated in plastic, they were easy to bend, too, and the fact they’re colourful and bright make them look pretty neat.

Photo by Neil Turner.


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