My desk had a cord problem. The charger for my laptop, a separate charger for my tablet, a mouse receiver, an external drive, and a phone cable that snaked across the whole surface. I bought a small USB hub with a cable that hides under the desk, and it retired four cords in one afternoon.

What to look for

Not every hub is worth it. After trying two duds, here is what I check now:

• Powered or not. A powered hub has its own wall plug and can charge devices and run external drives. A bus powered one just shares your laptop’s power. For a desk setup, get the powered one.
• Ports that face the right way. Some hubs stick out sideways and hog space. Mine has ports on the front edge, which keeps cables pointing down and out of the way.
• USB 3 speeds. The cheap hub I bought first was USB 2 and my external drive crawled. Check the spec before buying.

How I set it up

The hub sits under the back edge of my desk, attached with double sided tape. Everything that stays on the desk plugs into it: the mouse receiver, the external drive, the tablet charger. Only one cable runs to the laptop, and I unplug that when I pack up. The phone charger moved to a wall outlet near the couch, where it belongs, instead of dangling off the desk.

I also used the hub’s extra ports to retire the dedicated charger for my headphones and e reader. Both now charge from the hub. That is three wall warts gone.

What changed

Cleaning the desk took ten minutes, and it has stayed clean because the hub gives every cable a home. The visible cord situation went from a nest to two cables: the monitor cable and the hub cable. I keep a couple of short cables plugged into the hub’s front ports for the devices I connect and disconnect, which beats reaching behind the desk.

My only regret is buying the cheap one first. The powered hub cost twice as much and it was worth every dollar.