Tips for decluttering my Mac workstation

Post date: 2024-04-11 00:18:06

I have a ton of cables and peripherals attached to my MacBook Pro, which is cluttering up my desk and making it a hassle to unplug the computer and actually go anywhere. I am looking for ways to make this easier and nicer, and happy to spend money to do it.

Some renovations in my office led me to unplug everything and pack it all up, and before I put it all back together, I'd like to make this easier. I've accumulated a lot of stuff that attaches to the Mac—not all of which is used all the time, but it doesn't feel like it makes sense to unplug this and that frequently.

Some of what is attached includes: Time Machine drive, a drive with music and movies (plus a clone backup), a drive with photos (and a clone backup), a DAW, a midi keyboard, a DVD drive, a card reader, an Ethernet adapter, two monitors, and surely other stuff. All four USB-C ports on the MacBook are occupied and I somehow am using both a powered and unpowered USB hub and the USB port on one of the monitors, plus a couple lightning/USB C/micro USB cables for charging and connectivity. It's a mess.

I may cull things as I put it back together, but at least rationalizing the connections to the actual MacBook would be a win.

Is there a high-capacity "professional grade" USB hub that could take all of my wires off my desk and leave me with just one connection to the MacBook? Should I just buy a Mac Mini and connect my drives to that and connect on the network? Move the drives to a NAS or something (I have a Synology NAS for some files already).

Thanks in advance. Despite having all this crap, I don't follow technology closely so I have no idea what the best way is to make this easier.

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