Ran my desk setup without cable ties for 3 weeks and my cat chewed through 2 ethernet cords
Went from fully sleeved and bundled to a total rat's nest just to test if the mess actually mattered, and yeah, it mattered about $40 worth of replacement cables. Anyone else lose the battle to a pet, or is it just me?
Ha, see I would argue you just proved the opposite! The cords cost you 40 bucks, sure, but how much time did you waste sleeving and bundling everything in the first place, and now you gotta redo it all anyway. My setup has been a mess for two years and my cat only went after one cable, the one that smelled like chicken grease from my desk lunch (okay that one was kind of my fault). Cats chew cords when they're bored, not because they're tangled, so a tidy desk just makes the problem look nicer while it happens. You paid 40 dollars to learn that mess isn't the bad guy here. Buy some bitter spray and a few cheap toys and save yourself the zip tie headache.