When we were moving down to Mexico in October, I had several miles worth of various cables that I needed to take with me. Network cables, audio cables, USB cables, adapters for various devices, etc. At that point I just had them all thrown into a box and it looked like a huge rats nest. I got to thinking about how it might look to a custom’s officer and decided I needed something that looked a little less disorganized.
My first idea was to wrap everything up with twist ties, but we didn’t have any. So I eventually settled on using Ziplock sandwich bags. It turned out that this worked even better than the ties because it keeps the cables separate so they can’t get tangled up in each other. If you wrap up a wire, put it in a bag and then push all the air out, it tends to stay wrapped up. The clear bags let you easily find the right cable because you can see the ends without having to follow the wire manually to make sure it has the right connector on both sides.
I do this and let me tell you …it is the best system ever! The cords (Ethernet cables, extension cords, USB cables, phone jack cords, charges, etc.) stay organized, they do not get tangled up in one another, and they are easy to keep track of and find when needed.
The zip lock bags with the sliding closures are the best as they are more durable and last longer.
Thanks!
I put all of my cables into Ziploc bags, then put them into the thin “under the bed” plastic bins from Rubbermaid. My cables never get tangled, I can sort them by type (coaxial, component, composite, audio only, video game cables, etc.) and they’re out of the way.
You can also put labels on the cables themselves to indicate what device they go with, and label the ziplock bags to correspond.
I have always done this with my strings of Christmas lights but somehow the idea never crossed over to other cords/cables.