Ativa Cable BurritoAs I walked the aisle of my local Office Depot, I wondered what I would need for my home office road trip. Laptops and routers, storage devices (for paper, pixels and docs) and organizational stuff. Just like I worked from home, really.

But then I saw it, and knew I had to have it. Knew I’d be lost — or at least in an entangled mess — without it. Velcro cable straps and the Ativa Cable Burrito. Absolutely.

Yet my wife had other ideas. After asking her to peruse RV Vacations For Dummies, I inquired what the top three items she said were Must Bring accessories. Robbie whittled it down to one: rubber gloves. Anyone who’s seen RV with Robin Williams knows where Latex gloves would come in — though he needed a hazmat suit. (Robbie’s other two items were a broom and binoculars to spot low-cost fuel from a distance. One suggestion there: GasBuddy.com).

Yet as a home officer, my list would be a bit different. Those who try to organize things know Velcro is the Killer App — whether you’re managing tech or reeling in cords for some other situation. I’m the drummer singer in a garage band. Yet with all our boundless experience and professionalism, we can’t control reel in and control a microphone cable or extension cord worth beans. And the keyboardist’s solution – to shove the cables into large Zip-Lock bags, is an admirable, if half-cocked remedy.

So I got a handful of Velcro wire wraps, and seemed to have our problem licked.

The problem is, whether you’re in a garage band or just an adult human, you seem to accumulate cables, cords and wires as if you’re wiring a rock concert. Extension cords, phone cords, even consumer electronics need taming. Got a new digital camera? The USB and power cords need to be reeled in. Have an external hard drive? Ditto. Even standard-issue items like the PC, monitor and printer have cords that, if left to their own, would grow like vines, and tangle as intertwined as if they were, well, the cords in the bottom of the case where I store the band’s cables and cords.

Wire wraps, like the Velcro One-Wrap Strap, are flame retardant remedies. Known to scientists and Velcro-ologists everywhere as a polypropylene hook and FR-treated nylon loop application, these are vital Wire Positioning Devices. They’re ideal for wire, cord or network cable management — especially in a space-starved RV.

One hint: when using the One-Wrap, securely affix the strap to the cord or cable in question, then wrap abound the rest of the neatly rolled cable. This way, the next time you unroll the cable, the strap will remain affixed to the cord. It only took 43 years on this earth to learn that little bit of advice.

Time to talk to the band mates about a new song on Velcro cable straps. Could be hit – at least among cable-rolling-challenged garage bands and RV road warriors everywhere…