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

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

Brajeshwar

Comments (221)

  • booty
    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 also (mostly) put individual cables into baggies. You can get clear 2mil generic ziploc style baggies for super cheap on Amazon or elsewhere. $15 for 200 or something. Prvents tangles and way less effort than wrapping or tying them.
  • SmasherEpilepti
    Recently, I was screwed by my big box of cables, when I pulled out a SATA power connector for my modular power supply, and learned very quickly that though the ports universally fit across modular PSUs, the pinouts are not actually intercompatible, and you can and will fry your hard drives.I didn't know this; I had foolishly assumed that SATA power connectors were standardized on both ends.
  • 1-more
    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 didn't need the light like that any more. Still, no regrets. This was my version of using every part of the buffalo.
  • EvanAnderson
    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. Now I understand why.I hope I can leave less stuff for my daughter to poke thru, but at the same time I want to be like my grandfather, seemingly being able to fix anything immediately.
  • kingrolo
    I decided years ago to limit myself to just one box of cables... So then I ended up having to keep finding a bigger and bigger box to switch them to.One thing that bothers me though (or an excuse my brain uses to justify it maybe) is that it feels so wasteful to dump so many cables that will probably end up in landfill when I know there's someone out there who could make use of them.If anyone has a suggestion on that or can tell me about the pop up local cable donation swap initiative I haven't heard of them that would be welcome.
  • lowken
    I recently purged my cable box. I had 8 HDMI cables... 8. What do I need 8 HDMI cables for?I tossed them in the garbage with a ton of other use less cables. I kept one HDMI cable (not 8) and a few odds and ends. I kept one rj45 Ethernet cable and tossed the rest. I even tossed my rj45 crimping tool kit. Why? Because I don't see the need to crimp Ethernet cables anytime soon and should the need arise I can buy a kit for $30.So at the end my cable box when from being overflowing to half full.Onto the next project.
  • godelski
    I put my cables in bags then in a box. I can't tell you how helpful the bags are. It only took me like an hour to sort the first time. But it's already saved me hours only a year later. Those 5 minutes of searching add up. Just fight the laziness and don't let entropy increase. It's *far* easier to stay organized than it is to organize
  • random3
    You’re not serious about it if you only have one box
  • squarefoot
    I have surplus/military bare cables dating from the 1970s or so, extra shiny silver plated copper with PTFE jacket: a joy to solder, then more "normal" ones from the late 80s and 90s, then "old" modern ones, that is, power/audio/data cables usable with recent stuff. I'll never throw away any of them because unlike most crap they bundle with consumer devices today, they're made of real copper. Take a cheap cable bought today and chances are that it either sticks to a magnet, meaning it's copper plated steel or other crappy alloy, or it doesn't and it's super light which indicates it's made of aluminium; in all cases not good where power dissipation can be a problem or where resoldering may be necessary. Keep old cables!
  • VariousPrograms
    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.
  • OroPla
    Wait,.. you guys only have one big box of cables?
  • felixfurtak
    Only one big box of cables! What an amateur.You need at least 4. And another one for power supplies.
  • jwilliams
    You want to do task X and discover you need cable Y. You go to find cable Y missing, then discover a new one is $55 and 2 days delivery. Never again.
  • marcogarces
    I use big drawers for "types" and ziplocks for within; i have a network drawer , a media one and a generic one that says "stuff that glues or grabs" (zip ties, tape, etc)
  • BeetleB
    I'm terrified of not being able to find old USB cables.My D2A converter I use to route TV audio to a small amplifier died. It was cheap, but decent. I wanted another cheap one. I had trouble finding any. Finally, I snagged a pair on Amazon/eBay, but it used ancient USB connections. Luckily, I had old USB cables, so I'm good. But what will I do if the USB cable stops working?
  • tikhonj
    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
  • karim79
    This is so strange because I have a big box of cables. And I had a dream about it the other day. Which was more like a nightmare.I think there was some point in the dream where I was going ape shit because the USB type C ones were missing or I couldn't find them and I was blaming [someone].I'm not like this when awake FYI.
  • dekhn
    I 3D print cable rocks and mount them in my garage and then hang them in groups by type. I also get rid of every cable type I haven't used in 10 years because you can always just buy more of that cable.
  • ElijahLynn
    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!
  • aidenn0
    I seriously doubt that I'll ever need the 3 floppy-drive cables or 10 IDE cables that I have.
  • jttnr
    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.
  • johnhtodd
    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.
  • BorisMelnik
    I have a rack of boxes of cables in my home, its not that out of the ordinary since I'm in the industry and am the network admin for my entire block in my housing community.The other day I was fabberglased I could not find an HDMI to HDMI cable! HDMI > DVI yes, to VGA yes, to display port yes, to mini-HDMI yes. it was so shameful, for me having to go to amazon/best buy to purchase an HDMI cable is the lowest of the low.
  • tolerance
    For evidence that Bluesky is a long-term living facility operating as a social media platform...look no further than how their users employ the word "skeet" to refer to "post".
  • swalberg
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICDRBVaH6Rc is an earworm of a song exactly about this.
  • anotherevan
    I have at least one box of old A/V cables and such sitting in my cupboard that I've been thinking I need to sort through and probably throw out.Things like big, thick composite cables and extra long VGA cables.Now… maybe not?
  • anon
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  • rickydroll
    I try to keep only 3 or 4 of the same cable, and if one gets damaged, I throw it away after the fourth or fifth time I look at it and wonder if I can fix it.
  • asciimov
    I used to think this way, but now I know better.My dad passed a few years back, this past year I spent a considerable amount of time helping my mom and sister tame all his junk. So much junk was tossed or donated, very little was kept and even less sold. Not wanting to burden my family with all of my junk I started working on my own hoard this summer. Letting go wasn't easy, but once it was done I felt less burdened by it.And yes like clockwork a week after tossing it all I needed some random cable. I spent a couple of bucks for one at Walmart of all places, but Amazon and ebay would have had my back if that cable hadn't been there.If you have a similar junk box, you have my permission to just throw it away. Don't look in it, don't worry about it, just toss it. You do not need to be carrying so much junk. You do not need 20 year old ethernet cables, 30 year old scsi and ide cables, or 40 year old audio cables. You can buy new ones, in new condition today, most of which are reasonably priced and wont produce random errors or noise due to internal faults.tl;dr- You don't need it, toss it and do it today!
  • lynndotpy
    I organize mine into roughly three boxes by how common they are.One for every-day cables (like USB C), one for the stranger cables (like USB-B 3), and one for the one-offs (like a Nintendo DS cable).It's the easiest to actually keep organized and it's easy to find what I need.
  • __MatrixMan__
    I had four big plastic totes full of cables. I pared them down to just one recently. I'm 90% happy with the move. It's ok to let go sometimes.
  • reyostallenberg
    Very funny comedy about this kind of stuffhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6wZUV1t1y0
  • itintheory
    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.
  • m000
    Hey! It’s not just me! The other day, someone at work decided to throw away a large drawer worth of HDMI, DP, USB cables that I had neatly organized a couple of months ago. This was to make room for like 5 spare power strips that take up <20% of the drawer and while we had like 3 empty drawers in the cabinet. Needless to say, I was livid. Especially because I found out while looking for a USB cable to charge my mouse that we had at least x4 in the drawer.Thank you for listening.
  • walrus01
    You never know when you'll need a FireWire 400 cable or a charger cable for a handspring treo, I guess...
  • analog31
    As an aside, learn to properly care for cables. There are several YouTube videos on this topic, typically from musicians. Most importantly for small molded cables, avoid sharp bends and stress on the wire near the ends. Just a loose coil is much better. And the “over under” method for long cables avoids getting them twisted up.
  • nudgeee
  • jtbetz22
    I periodically go through the big box of cables and pull out anything that I don't expect to ever need again.I put those in another box, seal it completely, and write a message on the outside along the lines of "presumed useless - Sep 2016".If I come across that box in, say, September 2026, I feel entirely comfortable tossing the whole thing.
  • juliie
    I had to pull out a VGA cable to connect a screen to my server the other day. The motherboard has IPMI so I hadn't used that cable for years, possibly a decade now. I'll never throw it away.
  • geocrasher
    I see those boxes at estate sales regularly. And on FB marketplace for free or $5. Or sometimes somebody thinks they're sitting on a gold mine of technological history and tries to ask actual money for a box of 20 year old tangles.Sometimes hoarding stuff pays off. It's usually just hoarding.
  • alaudet
    I also have a big box of cables and now I no longer feel shame my brothers.
  • lordnacho
    This is how your kids end up with a SCART cable.That box that you move every time you move house without opening it.
  • ChrisMarshallNY
    I'm a cable hoarder. I have cables for technologies that have been dead, for decades.I need help.
  • axus
    If you have children, at least one of them may become fascinated with retro hardware, and play with all of this stuff, reinstalling OS and connecting old drives. Once they grow past that phase, THEN you can bring everything to the e-Waste center :)
  • asdfman123
    The proper Latin term for someone throwing away your big box of cables is cabula rasa.
  • rodrodrod
    I have a transparent plastic box of my own, with cables twist-tied and sorted into labeled zip bags.The box stays, but cables come and go. I cleared out some PS/2 related cables recently, after not owning any hardware with that port for like a decade now.
  • Balooga
    The trouble with old cables is after years they can become "tacky" or "melt" softer plastics they come into contact with. So storage is important.
  • yoggies_bro
    1. it is easy to buy a cable and have it delivered to your home in 24 hours 2. You have to be able to remember -where- the box of cables is 3. box of cables takes up space and clutters your environmentThrow out the box of cables.
  • joelrunyon
    Pencils bags.Bag the groups of cables by type and then put them in pencils bags and skip the untangling the next time you have to go hunt for one.
  • comrade1234
    Every now and then I look through the cables and take out the ones I no longer have hardware for. We have a cargo-tram every couple of months where you can bring things for disposal that don't go to normal garbage or recycling. Supposedly they recycle the cables but I suspect that means incinerating them (to generate electricity) and collecting the metal after.
  • schmookeeg
    Somewhere, deep in a storage tote, a UW SCSI cable I paid 50 bucks for at Fry's shows a glimmer of hope.
  • jsisto
    Wife forced me to consolidate my boxes of cables to a single bin. I joke the retail price of the bin is hundreds of dollars
  • beastman82
    that's boxen in my case and I'm sure others
  • Dwedit
    How about obsolete cables? IDE, RG59 coax, Cat 5, Composite video, etc...
  • joeconway
    do yourself a favour and buy some zip mesh bag on amazon (often used for children's toy sorting; they're much more robust than zip-locks) and use them to group your cables. the big box(es) goes from a source of stress to an absolute delight.
  • Ekaros
    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.
  • octol
    What if you have 7 big boxes of cables…?
  • wewewedxfgdf
    Tthe 2 days delivery is MUCH quicker to buy a new cable instead of searching for that cable in your many boxes of tech crap.
  • Night_Thastus
    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).
  • cesaref
    How on earth do you survive with just one big box of cables? I've got mine sorted into plastic storage boxes with labels, so things like 'Firewire' or 'Monitor' or 'SCSI' can get me to a particular box to sort through. I recently needed a SCSI-2 terminator to connect a CD-ROM drive to a 1990s sampler, and my box came up trumps. It's so pleasing when you find stuff like that...
  • ocd
    Rubbermaid Roughneck half size of resealable bags of cables.
  • malkia
    10% of my garrage... okay, exxagerating - but at least 0.1% is the big box of cables of who the fuck knows what ... including several firewire, and really old nintendo, and some that I forgot what it was about...
  • ErroneousBosh
    "Why yes I do have E1 twisted pair to E1 coax baluns, and 50 ohm BNC to 75 ohm BNC with matching stubs, and VGA to SCART cables, right here in my big box of cables!" <gestures at shed with bulging walls>I need to get this under control.
  • dogscatstrees
    Today I learned another definition of skeet.
  • christkv
    Yesterday I found I still have a dozen firewire cables of different types but no devices to use them with. I put them in the possible recycle box.
  • platevoltage
    Oh never. I have 2 giant boxes of them. The absolute worst thing ever is when you need something like a USB or HDMI cable, and you're forced to spend like 40 bucks at Best Buy because you're in a pinch.
  • groby_b
    Flip side? I have, in almost half a century of tech dabbling, never once needed a cable from that box that I couldn't have bought again.I still keep _some_. A basic supply of standard cables "just in case", and clearly labeled things for "who the fuck needed to invent another connector" cases. (Looking at you, printer manufactures and WD hard drive enclosures)But I strongly suggest tossing most of it. You need the space more than you need more cables.
  • jauntywundrkind
    I still have quite a number of packing cubes with silicone-tie'ed and zip tie'ed cables.I do want to mention though, a huge amount of cables can be replaced by usb-c cables + an adapter. You don't need a bus to HDMI cable: just get an adapter that has usb-c female, that your cable plugs into, that changes it to HDMI. Ditto for displayport, USB micro, USB b, USB a.And for power VFLEX has a quite reasonably priced adapter to DC barrel jacks. I still have I dunno 70 power supplies, for laptops, gadgets and whatever. But at this point almost all my devices actually run on high efficiency gan usb-c power supplies. These once again follow the pattern: a usb-c female, then a pigtail (yay, better than fixed, like the HDMI), then the barrel jack.
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