We pack tech into our homes, and aesthetic and functionality get into a bloody thumb war.

We connect our TV to our DVD players, our Blu-ray players, our DVRs, our video game consoles, our Time Warner Cable, and this results in not only a clutter of devices but also a mindnumbingly complex jungle of wires, cables, prongs, powerstrips and existential despair.

And what of our random mobile devices sitting out charging at random outlets in random places? Our iPod on the coffee table. Our cell phone dangling off the bookshelf. And where did we put our Kindle?

The ever-increasing influx of electronics in our precious little lives is leaving our modern spaces in chaos.

It’s time to minimize, to blend our wires and gadgets and pointy, shiny things into the background. It’s time for aesthetic and functionality to cuddle.

It’s time to “tech-orate.”

Tech-orating is the process of finding that perfectly symbiotic, Feng Shui-ey relationship between gadgets and interior design, between technology and living.

Another new way of describing furniture made for this design issue: A/V or audio visual furniture.

Here are a few tips from a reformed tech slob:

Keep it simple

• Don’t get too big. A flat-screen colossus is great in theory but not if it overwhelms the small room it’s in. Make the gear fit the space.

• Your TV and its chums are likely the centerpiece of your living room. Don’t spread them out over a gargantuan entertainment console. Aim for something long, short and with doors and drawers. Find a piece of furniture in which you can conveniently tuck and untuck your various components with ease, where the only thing on display is your TV.

• Wall mounts and shelving units = awesome.

• Wires, ughh … How soul-sucking is it when you have to dig back behind your TV and figure out what strand of component cable goes to which color hole? You can avoid the tangle by straightening out the wires and then, more important, keeping them aligned. Do this with something as simple as a few old bread bag ties or ponytail holders.

• Avoid having to play a guessing game as to which plug-in goes to which device. Make labels for every plug-in, and you’ll save yourself a lot of pain.

Consolidate and hide

• Cell phones, MP3 players and other mobile devices are one of the biggest culprits of home tech clutter, especially if we’re talking about a full family. You can address the mess with a charging station, which is like a shadowbox for electronics. Hide everyone’s charger wires beneath your wee elegantly designed station, and your family’s various gadgets always make it home to one centralized location.

• Hide your router and modem. Behind a plant. In the top drawer of a slightly cracked open dresser. Make them so invisible that visitors think you must be getting your wireless Internet through some dark magic.

Trash, sell and recycle

• You don’t need to hold onto that broken DVD player or that vintage router. What you can sell, sell. What you can’t, trash. Your basement shouldn’t look like a museum of technology, modern and classic.

• If you’re of the artsy persuasion, you can recycle your old and broken tech into something crafty, even useful. The computer monitor fish tank is a popular number. I’ve made a graveyard of all my vanquished iPods, and I find folding origami swans out of old Netflix envelopes to be quite relaxing.

[Thanks: http://journalstar.com]