So much depends upon the box of cables.

Recently rediscovered this as I did some reorganization. This is also an opportunity to reaffirm Chesterton’s Fence.

Dont get rid of a cord until you know what it goes with and you dont need the thing it goes with any longer. It takes up basically zero space if you twist tie it and place it in a special unknown cables box seperate from cables which you know or can easily visualy infer what they go with

I guess I don’t have such a box, my box is full of USBs câbles: A / B / C and derivates like the disgustings 3.0 versions of USB micro-B and B

Still pays to retain yet not have them become a Rat King

What in fuck?!

Rat King

I have 2 boxes. One for current cables in use on new devices, and one for old stuff. Everything gets coiled and e-taped (over-undered even if it’s long enough)

I had to dig through the old one for a display cable and and an adapter just yesterday!

I also have 2 boxes: Computer cables and audio cables. All separated into ziplock bags to avoid inter-cable tangles

Ok, I know what it goes to and I know I don’t need that thing, but what if I need this specific gauge of for some future project?

Sounds like you feel you may need it later

Wasn’t planning on letting anyone take away my big box of cables.

I clean out my SnakeBox pretty regularly. Sometimes there just isn’t a reason to keep them anymore.

It’s worse having to dig through a bunch of garbage to find the cable you want, then to have to order a new cable once every 10 years.

Yes, but the satisfaction of being able to say “I told you!” when someone who has told you to get rid of the box needs something from said box is exquisite.

I can’t tell you the next time I’ll need a 50ft null modem cable…but I can tell you it’ll be within a month of throwing mine out.

I finally got rid of my FireWire 800 and esata cables. Are you telling me that was a mistake?

No. I work in IT where I dig through a box of cables pretty often. I’ve never once needed a firewire or esata cable.

I thought that too, but then I needed a VGA cable for work, and my cable hoarding ways were vindicated.

It's worse having to dig through a bunch of garbage to find the cable you want

Eh. I coil them up in type-sorted ziplocs with labels, and put them in function-sorted drawers (audio, tv/media, PC interior, phone, etc). Doesn't take long to find anything.

I was about to throw away all my S-Video connectors this week.

Then all this TV-Spying debacle started getting exposed, and I looked at my old VHS and remembered why I kept the cable.

Giving me memories of not having enough hard drive space and using s-video and audio cables to record downloaded episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab 2021 to tape from my computer so I could have more space to download more stuff.

To tape? That’s dedication.

Do you have any idea how expensive 40gb was in 2000?

Aqua Teen started airing in 2001 and I was grabbing the first season as it aired.

I couldn’t afford any other solution. I was lucky to afford a video card with s-video out.

I had good luck using s video and an n64 to mostly descramble cable back in the day.

Don’t do it, you’ll need that shit

The one time it was useful to stack like four different video adapters together was all the validation I needed.

I keep a box of just old power bricks. Some are pretty normal like 12vdc@2a but some are weirder. What needs 19.5vac@5a? I don’t know but when it needs it I’ve got it.

I have a bench variable-voltage power supply. Mine is a very low-end one, doesn’t even have an integrated voltmeter, so you need a multimeter or oscilloscope or something to set the voltage.

But…if you need some kind of exotic power at a given voltage and don’t have time to wait for an order to come in, one of those will fill the hole for all kinds of fixed-voltage power supplies.

I have only very rarely needed it. I’ve used it to provide 5V power to a PIC project that I was breadboarding, and another time tried checking whether it was low voltage causing a problem with a given battery-powered device. Maybe one or two other occasions.

If you specifically want barrel plugs, you can get “universal” adapters that will adapt one cable to various diameters and polarities.

I think that USB is also kind of increasingly filling the hole here as a universal standard for DC power on newer products.

19.5v is pretty common for stuff that needs more power, but I’d bet there’s some threshold at 20v that means a device is no longer “low voltage”.

But AC? Are you sure? That would be exceedingly unusual.

I think it was for a printer

There’s a good reason to keep old cables. These days with everything made in China, there’s a lot of garbage cables out there. The main problems being that they’re made out of aluminum or the wire gauge isn’t as claimed.

I'm impressed with all of the ones organizing, tying up, and labeling your cords. I have a few boxes of cords, adapters, and boards. I have a gut feeling what's in there, but I won't know until I need something. Part of the fun is in the journey anyway, going through it all and remembering what it was for.

You may want to consider the toilet roll system I use. It’s not for thick cables but works well for USB cables. You just shove them in the toilet paper rolls with the connectors on top and then you can see what kind of cables they are, no need for tying or labeling.

🤯🤯🤯

That’s pretty good.

I was rather proud of my ability to remember which cords were where in my several boxes full of rats’ nests. Gradually the collection grew and the memories faded, and I began to spend more time on each search. Eventually something snapped, and in a sustained burst of energy I wrapped every single goddamn cord in a velcro strap and put them into boxes labeled by cord type. oddballs get put in their own labeled baggie and dumped in the misc. box. I’ve maintained the system ever since.

It’s been much nicer. Probably one of my most productive spurts of random energy.

I did finally clean the SIMMs out of my big box of leftover gear. If I haven’t used them this millennium, I probably won’t need them.

My family call it the “spaghetti box”.

Yeah, I had that problem.

I then had a coworker who was a sysadmin, and randomly dropped into his cable box at work and realized what I was doing wrong. Get a bunch of cable ties. Coil up each cable and cable-tie it.

And honestly, one has to keep perspective. Yeah, I’ve occasionally used a really old cable, but let’s say that the worst happens and I need to occasionally get a new cable. It’s…probably not that much of a disaster. It can be hard to get some old computing hardware, but even very elderly cables are generally commercially available.

I tend to think that keeping around things like IECs and analog audio cables are more-worthwhile since they’re slow-moving standards. Most old PC cables just haven’t found much use, in my experience.

Cables used to be something that brick-and-mortar stores had a large markup on. I remember a guy I once knew who had worked at a PC store telling me that the store made more (like, in absolute terms) selling the parallel cable that came with the printer than with the printer. Back then, having some cables around could avoid that, and having a few on-hand was a good idea. But online retailers have made the competition a lot more intense.

I typically have gotten cables at Monoprice if I’m getting a bunch at once, which in the US has historically has had pretty good cable prices, though I haven’t tried comparing online retailer prices recently.

My first job was at a place that had a 20x markup on cables. It was good for closing deals. Saying “I’ll throw in a free cable” sounded like a $15 gain to the customer when it was only a $1 hit to us.

And yes, I still pull out the RCA cables from time to time. My IDE ribbon cables won’t see much action these days.

RIP my BBoC. My ex got it in the divorce.

I call mine the tech graveyard, one bin has cables, but there are many more bins

It felt obligatory.

I have used so many cords in my technomancer box over the years, and there are some from the 90s that still get used.

I kept all my old console cables, and wouldn’t you know it, I needed two for nostalgia purchases, one for a friend, and one that I used to fabricobble a Frankencord(s monster).

I’ll let someone throw it away over my dead body.

I started to sell cables I don’t need anymore, this year. Works great and keeps the copper in the ground.

Sell them as scrap metal? Or are you actually finding buyers for individual cables?

I sell individual cables. Some are new (some in original packaging), some are used.

I used to neatly coil and velcro strap all of these. Seems like there was a time where I’d sometimes use them. Now it’s all madness and a usb cord isn’t trustworthy at all as far as how much charge it can carry or data rate etc. More and more I just through out anything that isn’t especially high quality. I don’t like that, but it only adds to the chaos to keep everything.

If you ever do computer shit, buy one decent length Thunderbolt 5 cable. It will be much more clearly marked, and it’s compatible with USB4.

USB-C is a fucking nightmare, just treat them all as charging cables unless it is explicitly obvious.

So many great organizing ideas being shared here for the big box of cables. Thanks, everyone.

My only problem is that it’s not just cables, but like 10 banker boxes of crap that I don’t want to throw away in case I ever need, but it takes up space in the apartment and the main reason is because i’m poor enough that I can’t afford to replace all of that shit, but that shit just needs to go.

If I didn’t have that clutter (in the boxes, outside of the boxes), I’d have a neater place, and that would make it more pleasant to live here.

Limited space in an apartment is the only reason I’ve ever thrown anything anyway, ive always regretted it

Timely.

I just organized my big box o’ cables last weekend. Of course, then yesterday I had to unpack the entire box because I needed one from the bottom but it’s still progress

Edit: I found my old serial 33.6 modem in there.

I have the cables I might conceivably need again some day sorted into labeled plastic bins (USB, ethernet, etc.) The serial cables and other stuff I doubt I’ll ever touch again unless something odd happens are coiled, bound neatly with twine, and stuffed in a cardboard box in a semi-inaccessible corner where I don’t have to worry about them.

Just one cable box??

I have one smaller box in the office with “modern” cables that are still useful, a bigger box in a closet with duplicates and less occasionally useful cables, then a last box with… vintage computer shit that I never touch.

Box one still has one of each of USB-C to Lightning, USB-C to 2.0 Micro, USB 3.1 A-to-B cable, and USB 3.1 C to micro-B, and a few thunderbolt 4 and 5 cables (fully compatible with USB-C, but easier to identify high speed certified cables than the utter USB-C compliance nightmare). Any other USB-C cables are assumed to be charging cables. It also has a few CAT6A, DisplayPort, and Ultra-certified HDMI cables, as well as a few still-useful dongles to round it out.

I somewhat recently relegated all of my USB-A chargers and cables, all of my USB-A to lightning, micro-, and mini- USB cables, and all non-ultra HDMI cables to box two.

When I moved, all coax cables and pre-CAT6 Ethernet cables got moved to box three.

Now that I have evolved into an old guy, who has developed a habit of buying old used music gear, I can assure you that your years of hoarding, and defending, your box of cables will not be in vain. I have been digging into my box of old AC adapters, and finding success about half the time. It’s like finding gold!

My stock of old adaptors is running low, but I’m good at scavenging them when stuff is getting tossed out. I always make sure to coil up the cord, and secure it with a twist tie. When I undo a cable, I always keep the twist tie on the cable.