Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I didn’t get into my organizational techniques, but agree with your take! Ziploc bags + a sharpie is exactly how I do it.

https://imgur.com/JMUIcDY

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.

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.

Negative. I might need them all some day.

(Unfortunately, not kidding.)

> 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.

Yeah. I do the same

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.

My first thought was "awesome, what project can I start that uses ten of those cables?"

(I'm rarely smart and have a second big box of modular PSU cables that I maybe ought to get rid of.)

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I've got "USB", "AV" and "Networking & PC Accessories", which obviously has enormous overlap, but equally divides the cables I have pretty nicely.

I use cables from it once every few years.

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.

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/444287

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.

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.

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

I have much yet to learn, cable master :)

It's mostly a resource/constraint time/space/money/effort problem.

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.

Call SOS on your telegraph?

IM/FWIW: I personally have found 4mil ziploc-style bags to be pretty close to indestructible. They're like thick evidence locker bags

* for now, in certain locations, from certain retailers

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)

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.

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.

And now you have a bunch of boxes with adapters ;P

Now I need to go through that box in detail to see what else might be lurking.