Yep, ziploc bags with the type of cable written in permanent marker.

Pro-tip, use a hole punch on a corner of the bag. That way, once zipped you can just squeeze it to get the air out.

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.

This bags or bins or whatever your preferred organization method is. Don't just have "cables" group them. This is how I discovered "yeah, I don't need all these DVI/VGA cables and I can do with only 10 extra HDMI cables".

I'll second "grouping" with "capability sorting". Get a cable tester and sort your cables by Charge/USB speeds. Even with my default "grouping" of things like "USB-C -> C", "USB-A -> C", etc I still was buying new cables for projects/uses since I wanted to make sure I got exactly the speed/power requirements right. Now all my cables are sorted by capability and that led to more purging and less purchasing since I can go to my cable bins and grab exactly what I need.

Unless you are very short on space, keep all 10. Because 50-100% of them will randomly cease to work.

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

That sounds hard. Is a USB-A-to-C cable in the A group or C group or neither? What about the inverse? What about cables that only do data but can't transmit enough power? What about cables that are slow but high power? What about thick cables like USB4 that barely bend or fit in the bag? What about male-to-female vs. male-to-male? What about brand-specific cables that have their own abilities (say, high-powered but not PD)? The list goes on and on...

I think I hardly have any pairs of cables that are similar enough to be interchangeable, and at this point most of them are USB-C, so they'd all mostly end up in the same bag if that's the criterion.

Post author here.

I didn’t get into my organizational techniques, but agree with your take! Ziploc bags + a sharpie is exactly how I do it.

https://imgur.com/JMUIcDY

Proper flaking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbxMyytWw60

Ziptie once coiled, attach label for what format / length.

Bag cables with the same connectors. If you have more than fit in a gallon ziploc you should probably reduce them.

Bonus if you hang them on a pegboard so you can see them with big clear labels on each bag.

Edit: and shrinkwrapped labels on each end (e.g. 12345-USBC-2m) for double bonus points so that you never have to trace a cable to find the other end.

+1000 did _exactly_ this right down to the ziploc. Also a bag for audio, HDMI, old apple cables, and "random" cables. These days, I store the ziplocs in a pelican-type case and that goes in a stack with cases for power cords, camera gear, SBC gear,etc - and the stacks all go on furniture dollies, so I can roll them out.

I do this. All my FireWire 400-to-800, 400-to-400, 400-to-dinky little Sony 400, etc. cables were all in one box, the FireWire 800-to-Thunderbolt adapter was in the box with my Thunderbolt cables and adapters, and I still didn't find the FireWire 800-to-800 cable I needed to use Target Disk Mode on a friend's Mac a few months ago until a few weeks later when I was cleaning out my storage unit and found an unused FW800 cable in a box I guess I was saving on the off chance that I needed to return a 15-year-old LaCie RAID enclosure that was shucked about a decade ago off for warranty repairs.

Yeah, this is pretty much what I was going to write. I group my cables into boxes for USB, power, network, audio/video, and power supplies. The boxes are a finite size, and when no more cables will fit into the box, I go through and do some deduplication.

Yes grouping is the important part. The next important part is labeling.

For example, I have a variety of USB C to USB C cables but they each have their own capabilities. Some support high transfer speeds, so I keep them around for connecting SSDs, while others are just USB 2 speeds so they are strictly for charging.

Another case is I have a very specific USB C to USB C cable that looks incredibly generic, but it is for connecting a screen tablet to a laptop because the manufacturer decided to make the port recessed, so only their cable fits. If this cable wasn't labeled as for a specific device, I would have donated it years ago.

It is some effort, for those who don't like to tinker with tech I can understand why they just shove them all into a box in the back of their closet. But I find that culling my cables at least makes me aware of what I have and don't have.

One other suggestion I have is just buying a longer cable than you think you need because eventually you'll have the need for it anyway. I have so many 3.5mm aux cables because I kept changing my desk set up and needing to buy longer and longer cables. If I had just bought the longest cable I could have at the time I would have saved myself some headache.

Another tip is adapters. Sometimes it's easier to just have cables of one type and a bunch of adapters for when you need them rather than having a ton of different cables for each possible scenario. I used to have a mix of RCA and 3.5mm cables but never had the right combination of what I needed at the time. Eventually I caved in and just bought a ton of adapters so I could standardize all the cables and use adapters as needed. Same with USB C cables.

I'll pay the price to sound like your average redditor but... thanks, Internet stranger, for this advice. I will follow it from now on - especially for the "prevent tangles" part.

I grouped mine a few months ago. Since then, several times, I've been able to find a cable and use it right away. Before that the prospect of digging through the massive tangle often led me to (lazy!) order new cables.

USB B cables are also notoriously sensitive and the slightest damage can result in malfunctions. Went through this recently with a PreSonus AudioBox.

I'm going to steal your idea. What ziploc baggie size have you found is best for cables?

> clear 2mil generic ziploc style baggies

> transparent plastic box

> Banker's Boxes

Do not do this. All plastic baggies, storage tubs, and grocery bags, are going to build up with static electricity. While it may seem totally fine to drop inert cables into a plastic bag, eventually you'll come up against a USB stick, or an SSD or SDRAM, or something, and that ESD damage will not be a pleasant customer experience.

Go here: https://silicagelpackets.com/aluminized-and-clear-moisture-b...

I picked up some resealable, aluminized bags and they've lasted for years. I also purchased fistfuls of silica gel packets, and I toss one into each bag when I seal it up.

I'm not sure if organizing "by cable type" would make sense to me, when there are adapters and dongles involved. Some of these baggies have been labeled by the central device, e.g. "All ThinkPad accessories are in here".

Also, for cable organizing, I've ordered rolls of plain Velcro strips: https://www.amazon.com/VELCRO-Brand-VEL-30765-AMS-Self-Gripp...

You can just cut these to the desired length and wrap them around your cables, for routing or bundling. They are, of course, reusable. I cut little notches in them so that they stay locked to each cable. You could get them in rainbow colors, but I like the white rolls so that I can write on them with a Sharpie.

Yeah, "grouping" is largely the way to go for the generic parts, and keeping parts together when they really do need to go together is another.

I used to just have a generic big tub with all the generic cables and wires. Some were nicely wrapped up, others often got themselves into a giant tangled mess. I could never find anything. I got a bunch of small/medium sized plastic bins with lids for all the generic stuff. An old labeler quickly made them "USB cables", "A/V Cables", "DC Power Adapters", "AC Power Cables", "Coax Cables"...now it takes me two seconds to find any particular random cable.

>However, if you group them you might see that you have ten of them.

My first thought was "awesome, what project can I start that uses ten of those cables?"

Welcome to the OCD lounge. I also put my cables into bags, which helps me sleep better at night.