Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by ButlerianJihad » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

booty wrote: post #24

Key for me is to "group" cables. For example, I have a bag of USB-C cables, a bag of USB-A cables, etc. 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 a…

> clear 2mil generic ziploc style baggies

> 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.

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

#42

Post by schmookeeg » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 4:39 PM UTC

Somewhere, deep in a storage tote, a UW SCSI cable I paid 50 bucks for at Fry's shows a glimmer of hope.

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

#43

Post by majorchord » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 4:53 PM UTC

tikhonj wrote: post #6

In my big box of cables I have, among other things, a double-ended USB-A cable. I understand that this is absolutely not standards compliant, and I have absolutely no idea of where I got it from. I have never used it. But it is a thing that exists. Getting rid of almost 10 different proprietary charging cables for pre-smart phones and some old laptops felt great though :P

mine came from a USB charger spycam

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

#44

Post by theamk » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

advisedwang wrote: post #20

random3 wrote: post #2

You’re not serious about it if you only have one box

Challenge: come up with categories for the boxes such that every item has exactly one box that is correct for it. I've got "USB", "AV" and "Networking & PC Accessories", which obviously has enormous overlap, but equally divides the cables I have pretty nicely.

Easy! I put exclusions on my labels

"USB cables, standard"

"USB passive/special, except pigtails and USB->AV"

"AV, including USB-AV cables"

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

#45

Post by booty » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #34

booty wrote: post #24

Key for me is to "group" cables. For example, I have a bag of USB-C cables, a bag of USB-A cables, etc. 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 a…

This bags or bins or whatever your preferred organization method is. Don't just have "cables" group them. This is how I discovered "yeah, I don't need all these DVI/VGA cables and I can do with only 10 extra HDMI 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…

God, yeah. I try to label the USB-C cables directly by capability with my label maker, if they are more than basic charging cables.

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

#46

Post by Ekaros » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

At some point I need to go through my USB-A-C cables and figures out which ones are actually USB 3. Which only have power and which are USB2... Thankfully I think I have tester that can do that.

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

#47

Post by EvanAnderson » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

VariousPrograms wrote: post #37

Whoever does need it, I give you permission to throw out all your old cables, power adapters, and routers. Yes, on the off chance you do decide you need a Palm III dock, Linksys WRT54G, or Sony PSP charger that means you'd have to buy one on Ebay, but you can cross that $10 bridge if it actually happens.

For me it's not the cost that bugs me when I don't have a part, but rather the disruption to my flow. If I can't get a project done all at once I'm much less likely to ever get it done.

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

#48

Post by booty » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #41

booty wrote: post #24

Key for me is to "group" cables. For example, I have a bag of USB-C cables, a bag of USB-A cables, etc. 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 a…

> clear 2mil generic ziploc style baggies > 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…

Hmm, interesting. I've never had a static charge issue, but then again, maybe I will someday. I'll definitely look into that next time I mess around with my storage. Thank you.

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

#49

Post by creaturemachine » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

tikhonj wrote: post #6

In my big box of cables I have, among other things, a double-ended USB-A cable. I understand that this is absolutely not standards compliant, and I have absolutely no idea of where I got it from. I have never used it. But it is a thing that exists. Getting rid of almost 10 different proprietary charging cables for pre-smart phones and some old laptops felt great though :P

I installed some HP slide-out rackmount keyboard/monitor units that used these as the host connection. This was back in the days when PS/2 was still around so they usually weren't used.

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

#50

Post by ElijahLynn » Thu, Sep 10, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

Clear Hefty Slider bags are perfect for this! I have my cable boxes (Hefty Hi-Rise) filled with these bags, USB -A to USB-C, USB -C to USB-C (then sub-bagged with 65w, 100w, 240w) and so on.

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!