Help with Cable Storage

[Stentorian]

Hi all, 

 

I've come to make my yearly post on this forum requesting help from the genius minds of the LTT community. 

 

I am currently having issues with storing cables. The management side of any in-use cables is great (I bought the LTT Store management pack), but in-terms of the cables that I do not have uses for and are sat as spare ones, I do not know how to store them well. I've got a week off work and I want to organise and sort all of my stuff because I'm currently taking up more space than needed in my parent's house as I've not had the time to do so. 

 

I've currently got one of the plastic clear tubs (70 x 50 x 25cm - L x W x H) full to the brim with cables. They're in zip-lock bags, but the labels are no longer on these zip-lock bags and not every cable is inside of them from where I've just ransacked the bag and not put it back properly. I will be sorting through the cables and have bought a tester for the USB types (mini, micro, usb-c, etc.) and disposing of any rubbish ones (probably the ones that came with a product I ordered). 

 

However, I don't want to just put them all back into zip-lock bags and call it a day. I'm curious as to how others do it so that I can magpie ideas to help improve my own solution. I don't want to spend a whole lot of money on it and ideally keep it within the same area that the storage box is currently in. I've got a Sovol SV06 3D printer, so I'm up for any pre-existing models that I could print and try out too! 

 

I look forward to your suggestions and thank you in advanced!

[Needfuldoer]

Instead of writing on the bag, get some index cards. Write your label on those, then stick them inside the clear bags with the cables.

 

This trick also works well with clear containers. (Regular size index cards are a perfect fit for the ends of those 6 quart plastic boxes.)

 

In general, I don't like the bigger clear Sterilite bins because the clear plastic is both flimsy and brittle. (Smaller ones are fine, but they don't scale well.) The black bins with yellow lids are a lot sturdier and they stack better.

[TetraSky]

Do what I did... Keep 1 or 2 cables of each type and get rid of the extras.

You don't need 15 HDMI cable. You don't need all those short Ethernet cables that came with routers over the years. You don't need a dozen usb cables of the different type. You don't need that one weird proprietary cable that came with a device you trashed years ago but kept "just in case".

 

You need a handful at best.

Just doing that helped reduce my pile from a whole drawer to less than half of it. I used to have a bunch of power bricks. I sure didn't need those.

[BootlessBuck]

I use labeled ziplock bags, in containers that are about the same size as the bags, so everything is upright and I can look through it much like a filing cabinet. 
 

I did this about 6 months ago after having a big mess of cables in a box that I only went to when desperate. 
 

so far it’s worked out well from a functional standpoint. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it’s in a closet, so I only really see it when I need it. 

[Lurking]

If you have that many unused cables, I bet some you will never use again. Determine obsolete ones and get rid of those.

 

If you have HDMI, for example, get rid of the old pre-4K ones. 

 

If you need a legacy cable ( to help a friend one day), keep one of each type.

 

Maybe sell them or give away. 

 

For the rest, look in your house for an old tool box or something else. Make sure to keep like ones together.