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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

#181

Post by jimniels »

1-more wrote: post #62

In 2021 I cut the end off a USB cable to expose the power leads which I scotch taped to the power meter on my bike to charge it. I kept that cable. In 2024 I used it to add USB disconnects to the light strip I attached to the bottom of my son's crib, allowing me to keep the light strip intact when we lowered the base from the baby height to the toddler height. A week later we got rid of the strip because we really di…

waiting for the next piece of this story, where your toddler turns 13 and gets their first mp3 player, which doesn't ship with a charger and guess who still has 18 inches of cable left?

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

#183

Post by raphar »

bsoles wrote: post #180
demritocracy wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A secret I've found is use hair ties instead of rubber bands with cables, they survive long stints in the garage much better

I routinely steal my wife's hairbands to tie various cables in my cable stash. You can never have enough USB cables of various types. But as Murphy dictates, the USB cable that I need now is one that I don't have in my stash.

you'll die violently if she find out you are behind the dissapearance of her hairbands. (At least that would happen to me)

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

#184

Post by jimniels »

johnhtodd wrote: post #176

I will say that Vidmar, Lista, and Rousseau make thin drawer cabinets that work well for cables if you have graduated from "big box of cables" to "cabinets full of cables". Also, old map or blueprint drawers work well. Still requires obsessive coiling, but being able to see (semi-random access) all of them in a drawer all at once is a big speed improvement for searches.

> if you have graduated from "big box of cables" to "cabinets full of cables"

I have much yet to learn, cable master :)

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

#185

Post by Lucasoato »

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…

Same, my categories are power, data, audio, video (for mysterious reasons networking cables are renting a small space into the video’s box).

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

#186

Post by qurren »

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 have a few of those too. My laser cutter needs one. I've seen lots of "expensive equipment" use USB A-to-A cables, for some odd reason.

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

#187

Post by anotherevan »

OroPla wrote: post #159
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…

Remember CD spindles? Those are were a quarter of my cables live now. They can be stacked! There's also a few boxes and one tech bag. Also, the 15m (50ft) HDMI cable doesn't fit anywhere so it got it's own space.

Ha! I use CD spindles for… wait for it… CDs! Just opened the second drawer of my desk and counted four spindles of blank CDs and DVDs that I haven't used in years.

(I also hoard blank CD/DVD jewel cases. Who says technology ruins lives?)

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

#188

Post by jimniels »

bakies wrote: post #29
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.

My gold plated monster cables are going to make me a millionaire

there’s a post-apocalyptic novel waiting to be written where civilization collapses and the cable hoarders sit on the thrones

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

#189

Post by jimniels »

itintheory wrote: post #71

We have a local thrift store that sorts and stores the cables very nicely. 95% of the time I can find exactly what I need right away. That doesn't mean I don't also have my big box of cables, but just offering an alternate strategy.

good for them. essential infrastructure. pillars of a civil society.

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

#190

Post by tiagod »

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.

I have USB, Generic Power, IEC, Network, Audio/Video, Misc
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