A life hack to keep cables organized

We all have a supply of cables that we aren’t using at the moment, but don’t want to discard because we might have a use for them again at some point. And some people will tell you you shouldn’t do that, because the cables will just turn into a tangled mess and you won’t be able to find what you need anyway. Here is a life hack to help you keep those cables organized and keep them from becoming a tangled mess–using something that you would otherwise throw in the trash.

Sort and organize cables and adapters with toilet paper rolls

The trick, believe it or not, is to store your unused cables in toilet paper rolls.

This trick works with cables of virtually any size, although you will want to use a different method for small cables and adapters than you do for very long cables.

Organize long cables with toilet paper rolls

To organize long cables with toilet paper rolls, fold the cable in half, with both ends on the same side. Then fold the cable in half again and again until the looped end fits inside the toilet paper roll tightly. Slide the toilet paper roll over the end of the bundle and slide it to approximately the center of the cable.

Now the cable is in a compact bundle that won’t get tangled with itself or with any other cable, and the two ends are right next to each other in the bundle, making the cable easier to identify. And if anything about the cable might be ambiguous, you can write the cable’s purpose on the toilet paper roll. This saves you from it becoming a mystery cable you need to tone out to identify.

You can then store the cables in a box or a tub without them getting tangled up. This makes it quick and easy to pull cables out until you find the one you need.

This also reduces the amount of exposed surface area on the cable, making it safer to store the cable with its accompanying equipment without causing cable burn. Although if I were putting a cable in long-term storage with a device that has a plastic case, I would probably wrap the whole cable in paper after sliding it into the roll, rather than relying only on the roll to eliminate cable-to-plastic contact.

How this helps

More often than not, when I need a cable to hook something up, I have the cable I need in my stash. I’ve saved a lot of money and a lot of trips to the store over the years not having to buy the same $15 cables over and over. But I can think of at least two occasions the last two or three years when I needed a cable, knew that I had it, but couldn’t find it after spending more time looking for it than it would have taken to drive 30 minutes both ways to Micro Center and buy another one. And then of course, I found the cable many months later, sometimes when I wasn’t even looking for anything.

My grandmother’s propensity to save toilet paper rolls is a family legend, and not in any good way. My parents had no idea why she saved them, and I always chalked it up to her having lived through the Great Depression. I still don’t know what she used them for, but I know what I’ll use them for.

Organizing small cables and adapters with toilet paper rolls

The toilet paper roll trick is much more useful for large cables like video cables than it is for small cables like USB charging cables, for instance. But you can still use them to corral small cables and adapters.

The trick is to use the toilet paper rolls as dividers in a desk drawer or a box. You just need a drawer, box, or plastic container at least 5 inches deep. Place rolls in the box in a honeycomb pattern to maximize the usable space in the box.

Using the dividers

Fold your small cables in half and then in half again until they are around 5 inches in length, then bundle it with a bread tie so it doesn’t come unraveled. Then place it in a roll along with other cables of the same type if you have them.

You can put small adapters in a roll as is. This works well for USB-A-to-USB-C adapters, PS/2-to-USB adapters, PS/2-to-AT adapters, Ethernet couplers, RJ11 couplers, and whatever else you may have on hand. You probably get the idea.

You can print or write a label and tape it to the end of the tube to indicate its contents if that isn’t immediately clear from sight.

And in addition to saving you time, money, and energy, it’s good for the environment. Toilet paper rolls are recyclable, but how many of us really remember to recycle them? By reusing them, we keep the carbon trapped in them out of the atmosphere.

My descendants may wonder someday why on earth I had a shoe box full of ancient toilet paper rolls mixed together with random antique electronic adapters. Maybe though chalk it up to me having lived through the post COVID-19 supply chain issues. Maybe they’ll see it as a willingness to do little things that make a difference, or maybe they’ll chalk it up to eccentricity.

But I’m less worried about that than I am excited about knowing what to do with my PS/2-to-USB adapters when I find them again, and knowing that at some point in the future, when I need one of those, exactly where to find it.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.