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

blog.jim-nielsen.com

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

#51

Post by miguel-muniz »

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…

Yes grouping is the important part. The next important part is labeling.

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.

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

#52

Post by stmw »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #9

I wish the old cables, gear, etc. I have squirreled-away stopped saving Customers' and friends' asses because I could feel good about getting rid of it. 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. N…

It's what JIT (just-in-time) inventory and offshore manufacturing took away from us. Hold onto your spare parts.

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

#54

Post by booty »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #5

I do have a big box 'o cables, though organization is getting difficult. I need some way to organize them into broad categories (USB, audio, power, ethernet, etc).

Large 4mil ziploc style bags are extremely durable and are about $0.26 each in bulk on Amazon.

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)

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

#56

Post by theturtle »

booty wrote: post #45
joshstrange wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I use a white paint pen. DATA and NO DATA.

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

#57

Post by ramses0 »

bakies wrote: post #28
advisedwang wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Those are my categories!

"USB", "TV/HDMI", "Networking", "Every Audio Connector Known to Man", and the inimitable: "Plugs-to-Wall"

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

#59

Post by ValdikSS »

jttnr wrote: post #14

My cable box is my retirement fund. Copper prices are rising, and scrap-metal dealers pay pretty well for it. But jokes aside: last year I also sorted some out and took 10 kilos of household cables to the local scrap-metal dealer here in Germany and got €30 for them. Better than throwing them away.

Do you have flea markets in DE? I'm pretty sure 10 kg of cables could be sold for more than €100 in a single day. Is it not common in DE?

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

#60

Post by wil421 »

stmw wrote: post #52
EvanAnderson wrote: post #9

I wish the old cables, gear, etc. I have squirreled-away stopped saving Customers' and friends' asses because I could feel good about getting rid of it. 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. N…

It's what JIT (just-in-time) inventory and offshore manufacturing took away from us. Hold onto your spare parts.

My dad worked at Lockheed and in the 80s they joked they used JIC (just in case) manufacturing. They had so many parts without a clear reason as to why they created so many.
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