Hi all,
I am sure I am not alone in having an absolute crapload of electronic stuff all over the place: everything from chargers to cables to accessories of all sorts.
Has anyone come across a decent container that is designed hold many things that are a) small and b) apt to get tangled up if mixed in a drawer?
For keeping cables organized, I used to keep the original twist-ties around and just kept reusing them. The trouble is they would break after a while, or I’d lose them when I untied the cord.
So I bought a set of these velcro straps that attach to cables: something a bit like this
I coil all my cables and then twistie-tie them neatly. I keep them all in a large filing cabinet drawer. Things like phone chargers and other wire-plus-a-big-thing are kept the same. Smaller items (PC case screws, HD jumpers, USB-to-PS2 adapters) go into one of those half-size ziploc looking bags, also in that drawer.
I have a big plastic tub with a lid that stores miscellaneous electronic crap. Inside I do much the same as shift6. Velcro cable wraps from ikea (super cheap), or masking tape (because I can write on the tape what the charger or cable is FOR) or ziploc bags for smaller things. I learned that being able to label things is important.
Anyone actually go back to use some of this stuff?
I keep saving it in case I have to do some weird MacGuyver type bullshit to get something to work but… that day hasn’t come and I still have this 30lb box of useless crap.
Cables go in one box. Fully functional items (like switches, routers and speakers) go in one bag each with all its required bits. Organised? Maybe. If you have oodles of electronics you don’t use, it’s time to find people who need them more than you ;)
From the LJ image feed, someone’s conversion of an organizer into a laptop storage and charging station:
LOL at the cat charging/napping station on top.
I have a hard time throwing stuff out that used to be valuable and still works.
Not as bad as my dad who saved every broken egg timer he ever owned for that rainy day when he felt like taking up the hobby of watchmaking and repair the stuff… my dad grew up during the German occupation - but clearing up his junk has been a real eye-opener.
So I recently chucked 50% of my USB-cables. All the 1m or less RJ45, the 10 meters of T10 cable and every MP3-player with less than 4GB of storage.
… of course one day I’ll miss it, like I miss the C64 and Amiga I sold years ago.
I still have an adapter for every voltage imaginable and at least one of every cable you’d ever think about putting into a pc (and any weird converter or combination of wires… some of it is work related) as well as a small box of CPUs and RAM that’ll never be put into anything.
I keep my mostly useless stuff in bins. I keep my less useless stuff in a plastic toolbox. It works surprisingly well.