The day I stopped hunting through 3 boxes of cables to find a power adapter

I used to keep every random cable and charger in a big cardboard box under my desk. Last spring after moving into a new apartment in Portland, I finally got sick of digging for 15 minutes to find the right one. Now I use a label maker and those little cable organizers from IKEA, costs like 12 bucks total. Has anyone else found a simpler way to keep track of all those random cords?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_elizabeth26d ago

I get the appeal of the label maker and IKEA organizers, but for me that system fell apart fast. In my experience, once a new random cable shows up, it just becomes another thing to sort and label. I actually just switched to using a different small zipper pouch per cable type, like one for phone chargers and another for laptop bricks, and I toss the ones I haven't touched in a year. Your mileage may vary, but the pouches are easier to grab and go than pulling cables out of a dedicated organizer.

ellis.susan26d ago

@the_elizabeth makes a solid point about pouches being grab-and-go. What worked for me was ditching the whole sorting approach entirely. I just color coded the ends with tiny stickers, one color per cable type like red for USB-C, blue for micro USB, and yellow for wall warts. Now I can spot the right one from across the room without touching anything. Has that ever worked for anyone else who hates organizing?