Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
blog.jim-nielsen.com
blog.jim-nielsen.com
Grouping them is key to deduplicating.
It's easy to look at a single legacy USB A-to-B "printer" cable in isolation and think "I might need this someday!" Because you really might need it someday. However, if you group them you might see that you have ten of them. And then you can get rid of... maybe 8 of them.
I also (mostly) put individual cables into baggies. You can get clear 2mil generic ziploc style baggies for super cheap on Amazon or elsewhere. $15 for 200 or something. Prvents tangles and way less effort than wrapping or tying them.
I'll second "grouping" with "capability sorting". Get a cable tester and sort your cables by Charge/USB speeds. Even with my default "grouping" of things like "USB-C -> C", "USB-A -> C", etc I still was buying new cables for projects/uses since I wanted to make sure I got exactly the speed/power requirements right. Now all my cables are sorted by capability and that led to more purging and less purchasing since I can go to my cable bins and grab exactly what I need.
Data:
White if usb2
Blue if it supports USB 3 data (because 5Gbps USB 3 ports are mostly blue)
Green if TB/USB4/40Gbps
Power:
None if low/no Power Delivery
Yellow for 45W PD
Red for 65W+ PD
You could cut the heatshrink tube, wrap it around the cable and then secure it with transparent tape. It would slide around but at least it wouldn't leave residue on the cable.
Maybe clip-on cable markers like this? [1] Easy to 3D print if you're so inclined.
[1] https://uk.farnell.com/multicomp-pro/pb-250-sm0c/cable-marke...
Visually, if it's something I'm going to be staring at on a daily basis, I like this much better than having tags hanging off of the cable. Tip: consider white-on-black labels.
The labels have been plenty durable in my experience, but if you need extra durability, you could probably just brush some lacquer over it with a Q-tip.
One big differentiator between various Brother models that's not immediately obvious is the tape sizes they accept. The cheaper models don't accept the fatter 24mm/1" labels, gotta step up to the $99ish models for that.
Obviously hell if you need to remove it, but we're talking about permanent labels. If I need to change a label I just put on a fresh layer of tape.
I would not trust or even leave any kind of tape for long term application myself. There's always something better.
This follows (at least my local) electrical code--it's quite robust. I have 40 year old electrical conduit that has tape applied like this and there's no movement, no fraying, no stickiness.
Note to others: that tester board looks fairly passive, i.e. I don't see (mention of) a microcontroller to talk to the chip that high-powered cables must have. So I guess it's somewhat limited in the number of things it can check?
As far as I know the marker chips is mostly to tell the devices to not abuse the cable.
Sometimes it even shows USB-C connectors that are only wired for one orientation!
[0] https://treedix.com/products/treedix-usb-cable-tester-usb-c-...
I also have preferences between my cables by the quality and aesthetic, I prefer some over others because they look or feel nicer even if in testing they contain the same conductors, but that's just ... me.
I currently have 3 such cables connected to my work laptop each sending 4K/60Hz video to each of my 3 x 4k monitors, audio to my soundbar and one of them is powering the laptop at 90W and sending my keyboard, mouse and webcam inputs back.
You can almost always tell the second it's in your hand; in order to do the high throughput stuff, 20Gb, 40Gb etc, the wire is much thicker and stiffer, it needs conductors for all of those contacts. Ive never counted but it's something like 20 of them vs 4 in a standard cable.
Of course always C to C; the A connectors with the extra contacts in between the normal USB 2 ones still aren't enough.
the A connectors with the extra contacts in
between the normal USB 2 ones still aren't enough.
[0] https://treedix.com/products/treedix-usb-cable-tester-usb-c-...
Makes it super easy to find, say, a data microUSB (blue, orange) for the Audiomoth) or a simple charging microUSB (red, orange) for the old blood pressure cuff).
> transparent plastic box
> Banker's Boxes
Do not do this. All plastic baggies, storage tubs, and grocery bags, are going to build up with static electricity. While it may seem totally fine to drop inert cables into a plastic bag, eventually you'll come up against a USB stick, or an SSD or SDRAM, or something, and that ESD damage will not be a pleasant customer experience.
Go here: https://silicagelpackets.com/aluminized-and-clear-moisture-b...
I picked up some resealable, aluminized bags and they've lasted for years. I also purchased fistfuls of silica gel packets, and I toss one into each bag when I seal it up.
I'm not sure if organizing "by cable type" would make sense to me, when there are adapters and dongles involved. Some of these baggies have been labeled by the central device, e.g. "All ThinkPad accessories are in here".
Also, for cable organizing, I've ordered rolls of plain Velcro strips: https://www.amazon.com/VELCRO-Brand-VEL-30765-AMS-Self-Gripp...
You can just cut these to the desired length and wrap them around your cables, for routing or bundling. They are, of course, reusable. I cut little notches in them so that they stay locked to each cable. You could get them in rainbow colors, but I like the white rolls so that I can write on them with a Sharpie.
Keep in mind that not everything stores optimally at very low humidity.
I was surprised to learn (from a recent thread here) that books will degrade more quickly if they are kept completely dry.
I understand the theoretical concerns here, but it feels like an overkill in real world situations.
If I do not own a scanning electron microscope, and if I cannot pair that microscope with comparable images of the circuitry when it was 100% healthy, I really wouldn't be able to tell ya the root cause of malfunction in SODIMMs, SSDs, mainboards, or sdcards or smart-cables. ESD is a silent and invisible killer of electronics. Prevention is its best cure, IMHO.
For example, I have a variety of USB C to USB C cables but they each have their own capabilities. Some support high transfer speeds, so I keep them around for connecting SSDs, while others are just USB 2 speeds so they are strictly for charging.
Another case is I have a very specific USB C to USB C cable that looks incredibly generic, but it is for connecting a screen tablet to a laptop because the manufacturer decided to make the port recessed, so only their cable fits. If this cable wasn't labeled as for a specific device, I would have donated it years ago.
It is some effort, for those who don't like to tinker with tech I can understand why they just shove them all into a box in the back of their closet. But I find that culling my cables at least makes me aware of what I have and don't have.
One other suggestion I have is just buying a longer cable than you think you need because eventually you'll have the need for it anyway. I have so many 3.5mm aux cables because I kept changing my desk set up and needing to buy longer and longer cables. If I had just bought the longest cable I could have at the time I would have saved myself some headache.
Another tip is adapters. Sometimes it's easier to just have cables of one type and a bunch of adapters for when you need them rather than having a ton of different cables for each possible scenario. I used to have a mix of RCA and 3.5mm cables but never had the right combination of what I needed at the time. Eventually I caved in and just bought a ton of adapters so I could standardize all the cables and use adapters as needed. Same with USB C cables.
This only works with cables that bend easily. For something stiff/sensitive like high speed USB4 I found it more problematic than helpful.
My first thought was "awesome, what project can I start that uses ten of those cables?"
Do you mean micro-USB-B? Full size (and mini) USB-B cables (comparatively) built like tanks.
Even though it's annoying, I understand the design tradeoff. You definitely would rather your (replaceable) cable get damaged than the port it's plugged into.
USB-A to micro-B cables, and the connection is tetchy beyond belief about which ones it will accept and which it won't, either with or without the theoretically-unnecessary-for-this-printer power wire blocker. I can see no rhyme or reason to it but now I have a cable that has a dot painted on it...
Ziptie once coiled, attach label for what format / length.
Bag cables with the same connectors. If you have more than fit in a gallon ziploc you should probably reduce them.
Bonus if you hang them on a pegboard so you can see them with big clear labels on each bag.
Edit: and shrinkwrapped labels on each end (e.g. 12345-USBC-2m) for double bonus points so that you never have to trace a cable to find the other end.
Please god, no more zip ties. Use double sided Velcro strap. You can buy it in a roll and cut to length. Reuse it all you want. Join multiple shorter lengths to make a longer one. Just please don't make me cut another god damn zip tie off a bundled cord. I deal with enough zip tie bondage fetishists at work.
Back many years when I was touring with bands, at the end of the night you'd see all the lighting crew walking around the stage coiling the long cables, with one end trailing after them, to make sure the twists were correct. That was much more useful than generic over-under for all cables.
over-under has its place, but I don't use it everywhere.
I think I hardly have any pairs of cables that are similar enough to be interchangeable, and at this point most of them are USB-C, so they'd all mostly end up in the same bag if that's the criterion.
The sounds hard
My USB-C charging cables are all 3' or longer, so they're visually distinct from the crappy little cables that come for free inside the package for various budget-priced gizmos.
My Thunderbolt/USB4 cables are labeled as such, and I am very confused that you are talking about Thunderbolt/USB4 cables so stiff that they cannot bend to fit into a container or bag.... I mean, mine are stiff but not that stiff. Plus these are expensive cables. Not sure I have any spares. Those are bought for purpose.
Charging is an interesting case, I actually deliberately use crappy cables for that too, depending on the charging time I need!
Re: stiffness: I mean I guess it depends, how big is your bag. I'm thinking like a freezer bag not a grocery bag. I could bend them to fit but then I'd probably mess them up.
There are only a couple of places where I need the fancier cables that can carry video and have super high xfer speeds. Those don't move around because they're connected to monitors and external hard drives and usually come labeled USB4/Thunderbolt from the factory anyway.
The rest of my USB cables are just rando charging cables... attached to various chargers sticking out of various outlets around my house. No data functionality required and I think iPhone and Android both warn you now if you're plugged into a slow charger.... so I don't really need to differentiate these...
> Re: stiffness: I mean I guess it depends, how big is your bag. I'm thinking like a freezer bag not a grocery bag. I could bend them to fit but then I'd probably mess them up.
I guess maybe it is a bit of work in an absolute sense. But, it requires basically zero brainpower. I just sorted and bagged them all up when I was watching a game on TV or something. So it didn't really feel like work lmao
Don’t ever let anyone take away your wildly overengineered cable shrine.
I used to just have a generic big tub with all the generic cables and wires. Some were nicely wrapped up, others often got themselves into a giant tangled mess. I could never find anything. I got a bunch of small/medium sized plastic bins with lids for all the generic stuff. An old labeler quickly made them "USB cables", "A/V Cables", "DC Power Adapters", "AC Power Cables", "Coax Cables"...now it takes me two seconds to find any particular random cable.
As a bonus, you don't need to raid her hairbands.
Zip-ties, velcro, and twine (all suggested previously) also work well.
No fasteners to wish for, or to fail.
Both ends of every cable are always next to each other for identification at a glance.
Different cables cannot tangle with each other in a box.
There are no axial twists imparted into the cable.
(Stage hands hate this technique, but this isn't stagecraft.)
Longer cables can also work but it kind of takes more space to get it done. Like, a 30-meter extension cord or similar is completely do-able, but it's useful to be able to walk around while it is happening. If the cable is both very long and very heavy, then it's a great workout for all kinds of muscle groups that may have been forgotten about. :)
But again, it's quick for the lengths we usually use in PC and home AV spaces. Or at least becomes quick with enough repetition: My hands seem to know how to do it on their own without me really looking or even thinking about it, and that frees my other resources up enough that I can visually plan my next (unrelated) move while the first is still in motion.
Multiple cables of about the same length can be wrapped together like this. A stereo pair of RCA interconnects, or the same 3 cables that always get used with a laptop, can stay grouped together and never become separated in storage.
It also works on laptop cables with a power brick in the middle.
And it's nice to the cables. Inherently avoiding axial twists is key here and the process also tends to help remove minor twists that showed up while the cable was in-use. It does produce periodic bends, and those bends always happen at the same places, and that repeated deformation does promote stress fractures at very predictable places.
But cables generally survive thousands of iterations of this over the span of decades, and decades is good enough. :)
---
Stage hands, meanwhile: There's reasons they hate the double-double technique, above. Their cables can be very long, there can be literal tons of them, and speed is a very important factor.
So they use a very specific coiling technique called over-under that seems impossible to describe with written language alone. It does put axial twist into the cable but those twists alternate and average to 0 instead of accumulating or multiplying (like elbow-wrapping can do[1]).
Over-under always requires the coil and cable ends to be tied up together before storage. That's often accomplished with an appropriate length of stout string or even rope that is permanently tied to one end (nothing to lose), but velcro can work too.
It's a solid technique. When done right, it allows fast deployment: Untie it, hang onto one end, and the rest can be literally thrown across a stage or whatever. Since the twist averages to 0, it tends to unwind neatly as it flies and lay flat when it lands.
And, of course: It stows well. Cables wrapped over-under can be tossed into a bag or a trunk or hung on hooks or whatever; they don't tangle.
It's probably overkill for the big box of mostly-short cables at home, but it's also worth understanding for the longer stuff we also use.
[1]: Elbow-wrapping and other very common methods that aren't unwrapped exactly oppositely of how they were wrapped up to begin with, or provide some other mechanism to manage twist: Those are great ways to put permanent axial twists into a cable. It is the entire reason why the long extension cords hanging in so many home garages and work environments alike (and especially on commercial vacuum cleaners[2]) wind up looking like coil springs or curly pasta even after being stretched out flat-ish in an open space. They didn't start off that way; they were forced to be that way through handling. Friends don't let friends elbow-wrap cables.
[2]: And that's also why residential vacuum cleaners usually have a large number of ridges running down the length of their power cords.
The usual storage method has the user winding the cable around hooks on the side of the machine, and the usual deployment method involves rotating one of those hooks and liberating the entire coil of cable at once. This tends to promote axial twist.
But! The ridges enhance rotational friction. So as the ridged cable slides through the user's hand as they wind it back up onto the side of the machine after use, the ridges help those twists to be pushed down the line to the far end where the plug is. And since that end is loose at that time, it's free to rotate and alleviate twist. This happens automatically as the user winds up the cable and is a pretty good design trick. :) (I have no idea why commercial machines use smooth cable.)
It took a while, but I learned the over-under technique. It isn't hard at all and works well, but I have no clue who to describe it in text. Come over to my house and I'll be glad to teach you on a real cord - it won't take long. (I did learn it online not in person so I'm sure there are good instructions out there, I don't know which are good, and there are a lot of bad ones)
(I also hoard blank CD/DVD jewel cases. Who says technology ruins lives?)
I didn’t get into my organizational techniques, but agree with your take! Ziploc bags + a sharpie is exactly how I do it.
Pro-tip, use a hole punch on a corner of the bag. That way, once zipped you can just squeeze it to get the air out.
Of course, I DID need one of them just a month or two later! But it was still a good exercise.
Now I have a whole drawer in a workbench devoted to cables sorted by type. What's surprising is how I NEVER have spare USB-C cables and ALWAYS have spare lightning cables. I mean, it SHOULDN'T be surprising, since more and more devices I own are now USB-C, but it's interesting that I expect my stock to always provide, and it never does -- for that cable type.
The frequency with which I have to buy new USB-C cables of varying lengths really illustrates the migration I've undergone. "Surely I have one I can just snag for the other car..." and I'm always proven wrong.
Yeah. I do the same
Which of the cables are for PD? How much power? Can they do USB? If yes, at which of the dozen speeds? Is it a Thunderbolt cable? Which TB version? Is it certifiable or just blatantly unstable when running 40Gbit/s? Or is it some proprietary alt mode cable? And which ones are just spec breaking fire hazards if you tried PD with 240W through them? Do the cables have markings to tell you the capabilities? Are they even correct? Were they put on as a lie to upsell cheap USB 2.1 cables?
Bonus points if there are cables with some sort of “adapter” dangling in front (quotes because these are not a thing in USB). Double all your points if there is an USB-C to USB-C extension cord in the box.
It is certainly a box of mysteries.
I do not mean to invalidate your organizational scheme, but every time I am reminded of USB I have an irrational desire to rant about the flaws of USB-C.
This doesn't work for everything: audio cables do not evolve much, nor do remote cables for DSLRs; but in general it's reasonably effective.
Somehow, after decades of careful curation, the cable I need is always missing!
There is some unfortunate crossover regarding where things belong because some USB are for power, some are for A/V etc, others or data...
What I realised, when going through these boxes was two things; it would cost a fortune to replace all of the cables in them, I wouldn't be surprised if replacement cost ran into the low thousands of £££ (should they be on my home insurance?!) and secondly; I'm no longer indecisive about what to do with a frayed or otherwise non-ideal cable, it goes straight in the bin; I used to retain the "nicer" ones and solder new connectors if the microUSB had worn out, or the cable was damaged near the end, that got much harder with USB-C unless I'm going for a simple +/-/D+/D-, so I just don't bother.
As for how often they're used; the USB box comes out almost daily, sometimes several times a day, if I'm charging things in my home office, or connecting something that isn't permanently plugged at my desk, I put the cables back away when I'm done. Power comes out every few weeks, and "networking" only when I need to reorganise things in the network cabinet/server rack.
For USB, the "final form" would be to create a labelling system so I can tell at a glance what each one supports, because as it stands I have to pull out my little LED cable tester thing and see how many light up to know if it'll do DP or high power charging etc.
You can keep it in the same box!
Storing stuff in individual boxes takes up too much space. The transparent bags can just go into a box and it's easy to just browse through. Nothing gets entangled.
I try not to overfill them if possible, much easier to see what's inside.
(Unfortunately, not kidding.)
Negative. I might need them all some day.
I didn't know this; I had foolishly assumed that SATA power connectors were standardized on both ends.
They're standardized on the device side, but not the PSU side. So always check pinout before you make the very reasonable assumption that if it fits it works
Especially if the "manufacturer" is just a reseller.
They had to make a post on r/hardware to get the brand to cover the damage, but IIRC, they never paid for data recovery services for the damaged HDDs.
I like Corsair because they at least mark the cable types on both ends; and while their PSU range vary in quality; none are trash -- Type-4 is Type-4 (or at least, I haven't heard of any reports of mislabelling on that front).
(I'm rarely smart and have a second big box of modular PSU cables that I maybe ought to get rid of.)
It's seriously annoying that this is the case though. Unless you kept the cables in the original package or in a labelled container, you cannot safely use them again if you owned more than one modular PSU.
On the bright side, the actual replacements that eventually got to me were both 2TB bigger than the originals. They didn't tell me about this, so I'm not sure if they silently upgraded me to apologize for the wait, it was an accident, or they happened to be out of stock and just grabbed the next size up.
6 pin EPS and 6 pin PCIe power cables are not the same. Even though the connector may fit they are not the same pinout.
Double uh oh.
The motherboard cables do all kinds of different scary crossovers so never separate them, though you'll probably never have an "extra" motherboard cable in the first place.
None of the other cables bridge pins on the PSU side, they "just" scramble the pins they're attached to at the other end.
Visual inspection would normally catch situations like that, and then you might be able to figure out if it's okay with continuity checks and voltage checks with a multimeter on the relevant pints of the psu to see if those pins are different voltages... as long as the PSU powers the connector in the absence of load or sense pin signalling.
I picked out a random short ethernet cable that looked nice (it was flat) to connect my wifi AP to my router.
It took me about a month to realize my 100mbit internet connection had dropped down to about ~85-90mbit, but more importantly, transferring files between a wifi client and the wired network was also only ~90mbit.
Turned out the cable was so bad that it only connected at 100mbit...
I have now gone the other way and I actually curate the BBOC: All cables I get for 'free' with random appliances now go straight to the bin (unless they are specialised) and I only keep cables I specifically bought and know they adhere to a standard.
One day I'll sort the box out. There's even SCART and PATA cables in there, as well as my old diskette holder.
...I should try and build myself a vintage PC sooner rather than later. Mind you, my dad got rid of all our old shareware diskettes years ago, unfortunately.
We've been unspooling the stash of wood off-cuts, bits of copper pipe, and misc. broken or trash-picked parts from my late grandfather's workshop for the last few years. He always seemed to have materials at-hand to fix anything and, as a kid, I was in awe of that. Now I understand why.
I hope I can leave less stuff for my daughter to poke thru, but at the same time I want to be like my grandfather, seemingly being able to fix anything immediately.
What you've got to do is become more forgetful.
Ask not what a 17v power supply can do for your friends. Ask if you'll remember it and find it when that moment comes.
I have two boxes for cables and power supplies. We have a couple of rental properties. In the garage I have boxes for plumbing parts, electrical parts, one for brackets, one with all kinds of fasteners, one for special tools. These are just small size moving type cardboard boxes, all on storage shelf. My helper laughs at why I keep all the junk, but he's the first to rummage through them when we need something. Everything somewhat organized enough that there's room to park the cars inside the garage.
The fact that you haven't used those cables in 10+ years doesn't mean that you haven't used the Big Box of Cables in 10+ years. "Declutter" advice doesn't work for needs like cables, auto maintenance, or cooking where doing the thing means you need a huge variety of tools/supplies on hand. Maybe you haven't used a USB 3.0 micro cable in years, but you use some cable every day.
If you pull some cable from the big box (multiple drawers labeled separately as USB, network, display, audio/RF, serial, AC, wall warts, and misc for me), you're using the box. If you haven't made a recipe that requires majoram in forever, but you cook and eat every day, it's perfectly reasonable to have a bunch of spice jars. And maybe you haven't used that 3-jaw gear puller you "customized" for a tight fit with an angle grinder since that timing belt change in 2019... but cars still need constant maintenance.
If you have given up the hacker lifestyle, and have decluttered your devices to a single iPad and a phone, both with wireless chargers, and think you'll never need a cable again...I pity you. But sure, give up the box of cables. But if you're constantly connecting and disconnecting things from other things, the combinatorics go up really fast and you need lots of cables.
[0] e.g. https://www.homedepot.com/p/32-8-ft-LED-Tape-Light-120-LEDs-...
[1] https://www.homedepot.com/p/Star-brite-4-oz-Liquid-Electrica...
[2] hero image from https://us.govee.com/blogs/led-strip-lights/how-to-solder-le...
When my wife and I moved into a new house, my big box of cables got sorted into several smaller boxes of cables, and an "other" bin.
I also have a travel bag of meticulously packed USB cables of all kinds.
3 times in the last month, I produced exactly the right cable for helping her set up some older hardware at her office at her small business.
The kinds of cables lesser men would have thrown away long ago.
I have one box that has all that I need when we go away for the weekend/week (by car, not plane). All the chargers since the family now has a lot of phones, headsets, kindles, cameras etc. 2 HDMI cables, audio splitters, speakers, extension leads etc that I nearly always need when away for a while.
And then my commute bag has a small essentials bag for the now rarer times I work elsewhere.
All with duplicates of what I already have at home. That I before instead used to unpack and reuse at home, then find and repack all the time, and forget some. Not a problem anymore. My tech packing is literally picking up a box and put it in the boot of the car. Done.
One thing that bothers me though (or an excuse my brain uses to justify it maybe) is that it feels so wasteful to dump so many cables that will probably end up in landfill when I know there's someone out there who could make use of them.
If anyone has a suggestion on that or can tell me about the pop up local cable donation swap initiative I haven't heard of them that would be welcome.
learn how and get the tools to strip wires and sell the metal for scrap when you have too much, do it right and better than recycling, you can sell it
I wouldn't be so sure. I bet there's more cables out there than functioning equipment, especially for older standards like VGA or PS/2.
It's ok to throw out junk.
It wasn't always that way, though -- I used to collect and keep all of the cables. It was quite a burden.
10 years ago or so, I went through them all and sorted them. I got rid of hundreds of pounds of cables. Those that went away were all broadly useless to modern society, or duplicates, or both.
I did think about taking some to a thrift store but, I mean: I see the same used wires on the shelves there sometimes for months or years: People don't want them. And I wasn't about to landfill them.
So I decided to recycle them by selling them as scrap.
In my case, with the scrap yard near me: They offered me a much better price without connectors on the wires than with them. So I cut all the ends off, bagged up all those bits of insulated copper wire, and sold them by the pound. It took a fair bit of time to prep all that stuff for scrap, but meh: I made a rather decent hourly wage doing it and felt like I was working towards the right goal.
Since this transaction gave them value, I can be reasonably certain that they got made into something instead of just being dumped into a hole in the ground.
---
If direct re-use is very important: You can sell them on eBay, I guess. There's buyers there. But then you're doing all of the things that selling cheap stuff on eBay requires and that sounds like an awful way to spend time.
Otherwise, the prospects are bad. Even at hamfest fleamarkets in Ohio, people don't usually bring in collections of old miscellaneous cables. A special programming cable for a Yaesu radio? Sure! 50 feet of LMR-400 coax? Why not.
Yet-another USB A-to-B printer cable? No, nobody wants that (we already have our own burdensome stash), and even if they do then nobody wants to scan through all of the old computer power cords and audio cables to find that printer cable any more than you want to sort it all out for for display and perusal.
If the money isn't important and the main goal is to avoid the landfill, then: Just put them on Craigslist or FB marketplace (or whatever regional variation works where you are) for free, in bulk. Someone will pick them up. Whether they think they're finding a pile of scrap to get some tax-free beer money from or some kind of hidden treasure doesn't really matter.
Or, in the right neighborhood: Put them in a pile on the curb so that people can see them. They'll simply disappear.
Yea, I would love to get a few bucks each for all this crap, but eBay sucks as a small time seller. I've got to take some pictures of each thing, guess how much it's going to cost to ship (or list free shipping and eat the cost) post it, wait for it to sell (or for the auction to end), go buy a cardboard box or mailer for it, go buy packaging/stuffing to protect it, go buy packing tape to tape the box up, go to USPS, UPS or whatever, to finally mail it off, and then wonder if you're going to be hit by the nonzero probability that the buyer is a scammer and will cause a problem. Repeat for each little thing you want to sell.
I wish eBay was more like consignment. Ship them off a big box-of-stuff, they pay you a small amount for it, and then it's their problem to sell and distribute.
This prevents me from throwing away a lot of stuff. I can't stand the idea of this stuff just going into a landfill somewhere, adding to the world's pollution. I feel like every time I put something into the trash, I might as well be beating a baby seal with a baseball bat. I also put a (perhaps insane) amount of effort into reusing things and avoiding buying things in the first place, because I know eventually it will be polluting the world.
Often I just set up a folding table at the curb, and put my boxes of stuff there with a sign that says "free". Yes, I know the next person might throw it away, but somehow it's easier to ignore that fact.
My categories are identical to yours. Home Depot had a sale on these stackable dewalt boxes that are much more cost effective for semi-junk stuff than Milwaukee pack outs.
I've got "USB", "AV" and "Networking & PC Accessories", which obviously has enormous overlap, but equally divides the cables I have pretty nicely.
Mine is similar but I split audio and video since I have a lot of audio-specific stuff. "Video" only has the various monitor cable standards going back 20-odd years.
"USB cables, standard"
"USB passive/special, except pigtails and USB->AV"
"AV, including USB-AV cables"
If one of those buckets is too full, prepend it with something more specific
i.e. USB, Data instead of just Data
The biggest piles can get further subdivided into more-specialized roles.
There will be piles that consist of memorable cables that have interfaces you haven't used in years. Segregate these unicorns; they'll be handled with special care later on.
After that, you've got a broad selection of current-vintage stuff that is in active use -- all laid out before you. So just spend a few minutes to pick out a few nice examples from each remaining pile. A few cat5-ish cables of various lengths. Some AV interconnects of different descriptions. A few universal power cables: IEC, figure-8, and Mickey Mouse. Pick out the very best of the USB cables, and of the SATA cables, and whatever else you're making use of in 2026.
Wrap each of those selections up neatly and put them in appropriately-small boxes. Label each box by role. Put each of these boxes away somewhere that is both out of the way, and able to be quickly returned to later.
That was easy.
The remaining piles on the floor are just scrap. Make a plan to scrap them and package them appropriately. Put that package near the front door.
---
Now we get to the really fun part. All those precious historic artifacts that were carefully isolated before? It's time to sort those.
Who knows when a 24-pin dot matrix printer could turn up that you need a DB-25 to Centronics cable for testing with, or you might find a use for the 15-pin PC joystick splitter? That PSX controller extension was hard to find even when it was new.
It's all very important stuff with very specific roles. It's not like any of these things are being made in factories every day anymore. And it all has history.
So take a photo of this amazing collection of vintage cabling, and then package it all with the reverence and care that it deserves. After that, simply put that package near the front door with all of the other scrap cabling.
Nothin' to it.
Most recently: a USB to TTL serial adapter.
If you’re using 20 year old hardware, okay - keep 20 year old wires and accessories.
Most are not.
Put an expiration date on your neuroticism. Old dirty stuff can literally consume you.
Ask me how I know!
These are all >20 years old
Keep what you’re using.
I use cables from it once every few years.
For the last 10 years my "techno box" has been a box of bags - the cables don't get tangled and small bits (adaptors / notes) get to live with the cables. Its one of the rare few home environment hacks I actually have!
It's been beautifully organized and useless for so many years that it's all junk now. Nothing is using USB A/B. The airline earbuds are as much trash today as they were then. The usb keys are very old and untrustworthy. Even the USB-C wires are all out of spec, won't charge modern phones, etc. The old webcams look like true trash compared to the modern ones. Etc etc
And this post is basically "hoard all this garbage because in 10 years you might need one thing"? I'm sorry, but "buy that one thing for a few bucks off amazon the one time you need it" is looking a lot more attractive than "meticulously maintain a tech hoard to save $3 on a single use wire"
In engineering terms, it feels like my tech hoard is an automation I spent two weeks writing, for code that only ever runs once every ten years.
I naturally have the ~< £ from AZ mindset, but I try to challenge that by re-using avoiding waste. It doesn't always work (and there's a lot of eventual waste in those hundreds of zip-lock bags).
Point is, use clear bags so you can see inside, and Hefty makes the slider version. I get the gallon and half gallon bags for this, and then the quart size as well. This is the Marie Kondo technique and it's amazing for keeping all these cables which are always coming in handy!
I keep the duplicates, because you never know which color and length is going to be the perfect fit for the current need!
Getting rid of almost 10 different proprietary charging cables for pre-smart phones and some old laptops felt great though :P
Decades ago, I purchased a usb external hard drive case with a usb-a for the connection to the computer. Returned that pretty quick because eww.
My D2A converter I use to route TV audio to a small amplifier died. It was cheap, but decent. I wanted another cheap one. I had trouble finding any. Finally, I snagged a pair on Amazon/eBay, but it used ancient USB connections. Luckily, I had old USB cables, so I'm good. But what will I do if the USB cable stops working?
I wish that happened a lot less as I have entirely too many old cables.
Also that weird, really small USB connector that was found on some early digital cameras. I think Kodak was a big user of it. Sorta looked like a narrower and taller version of the Mini-B. Maybe the Mini-AB but that doesn't look like it. I have one in my box at home.
You need at least 4. And another one for power supplies.
So, the way it needs to be communicated is that they are necessary evil that help machines be happy. And also to allow special purpose tools and cables to be stored inside the machine if possible, so they don't psychologically present as excess decorations and/or gifts.
The other day I was fabberglased I could not find an HDMI to HDMI cable! HDMI > DVI yes, to VGA yes, to display port yes, to mini-HDMI yes. it was so shameful, for me having to go to amazon/best buy to purchase an HDMI cable is the lowest of the low.
1: use transparent boxes like an 11l IKEA Samla so you can easily see what you have.
2: fold each cable in half or a few times more and apply the granny knot[1], this will prevent your cables becoming an entangles mess. There are superior(tm) ways to fold cables, but doing the granny knot for household cables seems the way to go. Doing festivals with retro gaming computers I’ve done this thousands of times and it’s fast, saves space, gives quick and reliable access and prevents damage by pulling on cables from clutter etc
3: use multiple boxes for different categories: audio, game computers, standard power cables, pc cables (sata, usb), power bricks and so on to have some sort of a system, any system will work
4: don’t keep an inventory list: let the anarchy that is you, your memory and family, add and take away cables ad hoc. You will forget what is in the box and that is fine.
5: don’t forget the box exists and look in the box :)
Then whenever we are travelling we just grab that and I know that basically whatever happens on the plane or when we get to a hotel or whatever I have basically every possible combination covered. Perfect for carry-on.
Its bad consumerism, but I try not to keep too much legacy stuff around and send it for recycling. If I need it again in O(years) then amazon will have it for me usually the same day or next morning.
That doesn't mean I purge all cables I'm not using. However I try to make sure that I know what they are for and be realistic about my odds of using them again.
There is a lot of USB cables that look the same but have different capabilities, there is a lot of HDMI or DisplayPort cables that look the same but have different capabilities, there are cables that stop working once you bend them in a particular way.
There are cables that can get sticky and filthy practically on their own (Apple!).
Mind cables whose plugs are bent.
I think the same should apply to perfectly fine screws you take off broken stuff, pieces of metal profiles, nuts etc. But I could never be arsed to sort them proactively. My late father used to keep a Big Jar of Screws and spend time rummage through them when he needed a particular one. I don't know which approach is superior, to be honest.
I tossed them in the garbage with a ton of other use less cables. I kept one HDMI cable (not 8) and a few odds and ends. I kept one rj45 Ethernet cable and tossed the rest. I even tossed my rj45 crimping tool kit. Why? Because I don't see the need to crimp Ethernet cables anytime soon and should the need arise I can buy a kit for $30.
So at the end my cable box when from being overflowing to half full.
Onto the next project.
5 for five generations of consoles into the same TV
1 for the audio bar
1 for the hdmi switch to the tv
1 for a laptop when nothing else works
This is also a good reason to keep your knowledge of MIPS assembler fresh, lest you have to type lots of it very quickly as the swarm approaches.
I put those in another box, seal it completely, and write a message on the outside along the lines of "presumed useless - Sep 2016".
If I come across that box in, say, September 2026, I feel entirely comfortable tossing the whole thing.
Thank you for listening.
1. Sort into cable type
2. Keep the shortest and longest of each type
3. Ditch all the others
I still have 6 drawers of cables.
I do want to mention though, a huge amount of cables can be replaced by usb-c cables + an adapter. You don't need a bus to HDMI cable: just get an adapter that has usb-c female, that your cable plugs into, that changes it to HDMI. Ditto for displayport, USB micro, USB b, USB a.
And for power VFLEX has a quite reasonably priced adapter to DC barrel jacks. I still have I dunno 70 power supplies, for laptops, gadgets and whatever. But at this point almost all my devices actually run on high efficiency gan usb-c power supplies. These once again follow the pattern: a usb-c female, then a pigtail (yay, better than fixed, like the HDMI), then the barrel jack.
And now you have a bunch of boxes with adapters ;P
Cost or no, like it because it means much much much less space. Instead of packing for a trip and wondering what set of cables I need, I have cables, and I have adapters. A couple short cheap cables and two longer good ones work for almost any purpose.
But you can pry my Palm data cables from my cold, dead hands.
The box stays, but cables come and go. I cleared out some PS/2 related cables recently, after not owning any hardware with that port for like a decade now.
Thunderbolt 3 -> Thunderbolt 2 -> Firewire 800 -> Firewire 400
-> Ethernet
USB 3 -> USB 2/1 --> micro/mini/whatever-USB
VGA, DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI, microHDMI, [m]DisplayPort
Often people don't realize there is only "downwards-compatibility", meaning later technologies can "tunnel" an "older" signal (such as DisplayPort being able to Tunnel DVI/HDMI) when using passive adapters, while the other way it's not possible.
My dad passed a few years back, this past year I spent a considerable amount of time helping my mom and sister tame all his junk. So much junk was tossed or donated, very little was kept and even less sold. Not wanting to burden my family with all of my junk I started working on my own hoard this summer. Letting go wasn't easy, but once it was done I felt less burdened by it.
And yes like clockwork a week after tossing it all I needed some random cable. I spent a couple of bucks for one at Walmart of all places, but Amazon and ebay would have had my back if that cable hadn't been there.
If you have a similar junk box, you have my permission to just throw it away. Don't look in it, don't worry about it, just toss it. You do not need to be carrying so much junk. You do not need 20 year old ethernet cables, 30 year old scsi and ide cables, or 40 year old audio cables. You can buy new ones, in new condition today, most of which are reasonably priced and wont produce random errors or noise due to internal faults.
tl;dr- You don't need it, toss it and do it today!
That doesn't mean I don't also have my big box of cables, but just offering an alternate strategy.
At least they are see trough plastic so I can easily see what is inside them though.
I did also make it more organized per cable type (USBs, Network, Audio, etc.). It's OK. It's for me. It's OK.
- USB cables with at least one USB-C end
- All other USB cables
- Network cables
- Audio and video related (RCA, HDMI, SCART, phono, XLR, displayport, BNC, S/PDIF, etc)
- Power cables
- Power adapters
- Batteries and battery chargers
- Flash sticks, type adapters, diagnostic tools
- Spare keyboards and mice
Not a week goes by where I'm not grabbing something from that cabinet. A couple of months ago I actually needed a SCART cable for the first time in forever for some old hardware.
I have much yet to learn, cable master :)
In my defense, over the years, I upgraded the box for one of this big semitransparent IKEA boxes, lid included.
I think there was some point in the dream where I was going ape shit because the USB type C ones were missing or I couldn't find them and I was blaming [someone].
I'm not like this when awake FYI.
Oh and the extensions, splitters, surge protectors, and remote switches all get their own big box in the garage of course.
Sometimes hoarding stuff pays off. It's usually just hoarding.
It's mostly a resource/constraint time/space/money/effort problem.
It's much easier to find a cable than searching in a box or plastic bag.
As time and attrition happens, those 30 VGA cables turn into 10, then 3, then 1. What was once a bag of unimportant parts labeled “VGA” is now a single tool with a specific use case and that is critical for solving certain narrow problems.
Don’t let anyone take your big box of tools.
then i sorted my cables and printed out a normal piece of paper, with the text like "networking", or "PC cables" or whatever and placed that in the side of the boxes
then i can stack them in the basement and easily know which box i need, when i need a cable
its been super handy.
ive used the same trick, for same boxes, for our other storage boxes too. Wifes hobby items, christmas decorations, old consoles, or whatever
makes it super organized. (you need transparent boxes if you wanna just throw in a label print on the inside. i can place one on top of the items and i can see it from above, or either side of the box)
One for every-day cables (like USB C), one for the stranger cables (like USB-B 3), and one for the one-offs (like a Nintendo DS cable).
It's the easiest to actually keep organized and it's easy to find what I need.
IM/FWIW: I personally have found 4mil ziploc-style bags to be pretty close to indestructible. They're like thick evidence locker bags
All bagged up using ziplock bags and labelled.
Never know when I might need them again...
I need to get this under control.
I need help.
Call SOS on your telegraph?
1) It still exists. Cool. 2) What's left: Nobody taking their boxes of cables away!
Luckily our fire alarm on four legs quickly alerted us.
Don't keep busted cables. It's not worth it.
Throw out the box of cables.
* for now, in certain locations, from certain retailers
Things like big, thick composite cables and extra long VGA cables.
Now… maybe not?
I recently followed through the Marie Kondo methodology, and giving up my cables (the ones I actually don't use, the ones "I might need later, some day, maybe") to my local community was a relief. Cables are obviously a tiny proportion of what the methodology covers, but part of my mental load anyway. Now, I know they have a greater chance to be used, and if I ever need one again, all of these cables are common enough to find them again.
You need at least one big one for the mains-rated bulky ones, and a few smaller ones: USB, Monitor/Ethernet etc, Audio.
I can recommend the small Ikea Knagglig boxes, they look nice and have the right size.
At least my past self was good enough to bag and label.
There are some 3d printer models for building grids of individual cable organizers (https://makerworld.com/en/models/946444-gridfinity-cable-org...) but I have too many cables and my collection is too dynamic to well-utilize something as static as that.
I very much recommend them. As a bonus, you can label them if desired. (Print a label out, or slap some tape on there and write on that, or just stick a sheet of paper inside the bag and write on that)
I wish the power vs data ones were easier to tell apart though
> "If I throw away a cable, and then I need that same cable, I'll kill myself. I will go to the store and buy it, and then hang myself in the parking lot." "I know, it's not a matter of life and death, it's much worse than that."
Bag the groups of cables by type and then put them in pencils bags and skip the untangling the next time you have to go hunt for one.
(That said, I probably still have two of them in my stuff ha.)
That box that you move every time you move house without opening it.
i throw away all old cables and components now. screw the little sh*ts. into the bin before they cause me that level of misery again.
Throw away what doesn't work - either because it is complicated or...its protocol is needlessly contrived.
Next step: do whatever you want. Upstream it, downstream, whatever.
HN:
Using your list I'd likely keep one IDE and comoposite video cable, but toss the RG59 and CAT5 because I could use a current RG6 or CAT6 cable in their place.
Now I need to go through that box in detail to see what else might be lurking.
I still keep _some_. A basic supply of standard cables "just in case", and clearly labeled things for "who the fuck needed to invent another connector" cases. (Looking at you, printer manufactures and WD hard drive enclosures)
But I strongly suggest tossing most of it. You need the space more than you need more cables.
those are rookie numbers
Please don't use the word "skeet" to refer to a post online. I use bluesky semi-frequently, I've never heard that term before, and it's just... no. Just simply no.
The idea of grouping by same or at least like is great for de-cluttering.