One of the things that I see most frequently cluttering up people’s lives are cords and cables. They are very easy to lose, very easy to duplicate and seem to breed when you’re not looking.
Here’s a simple way to organise the ones that aren’t being used much (some live permanently on desks – I know my iPhone one does!). You’ll need a box, some ziplock bags, a label maker (or white paper and some sticky tape will work too) and a permanent marker.
1. Collect them all together
2. One at a time, establish their purpose, what device they belong to and whether you even need it anymore
2. Label the cord with a meaningful description and put it in a ziplock bag, making sure you also label the bag (you can store duplicate cables in the same bag)
4. You may need to have a bag of “Unidentified” cables if you don’t have the courage to part with them.
5. Stand all the bags up in the box. They’ll be labelled for easy identification and won’t get tangled.
Store chargers separately, if they aren’t plugged in at a charging station, but you can still use the same storage method for them.
Thanks for this article. We decided to do this a couple of years ago because there were so many cables that we did not use. When we needed one, we had no idea what they were all for. We now have a large plastic box with each cable labelled . This has helped identify the correct one when needed.
I will now add the ziplock bags — great idea. It will stop the tangle.
Now if only I can sort out all the bits of paper I have accumulated with information for my genealogy, my study will be a lot tidier. I’ve tried putting them in folders for the individual families but there are many which belong in more than one family. I guess I will just have to stop gathering info till I have entered the details I already have.
Kind regards,
Judith.