I opened the lower doors of a seldom-used cabinet in our game room the other day. Peering inside, I saw a jumble of cables and cords, left from old computers or game boxes, phones...who knows what.
It looked like a tangle of snakes in there, and I looked at them with about as much horror. Where did they all come from? Did they procreate in that cabinet?
Most importantly, could I eliminate them, or at least most of them?
Heaven knows I had not used them in a long time, so I could probably cram the whole mess in a garbage bag and find somewhere to dispose of them. But what if I threw away something useful?
I had some time, so I pulled the nest of cables out. I started by separating them.
Some looked like cables for phones or tablets. Often these are USB at one end and lightning or USB-C on the other. Some are micro USB. I had to look carefully.
Some were ethernet cables. Ethernet cables tend to have clear plastic on the ends and a little clip-like thing you push to insert them securely into a computer or other device.
Then there were some strange things with a round connector and a single stiff wire coming from the center. I think these had been left over from cable TV connections, maybe.
I decided cable connections could go first. If we ever changed our cable provider, whoever came to install would likely have parts.
Next, I eyed the phone or tablet cable connectors. First, I visually inspected cords. Frayed cords went into the toss pile. Then I had to look at all the phones, tablets, and such to see if they used these connections.
Most of the cables were too old for more up-to-date devices. They had multi-pin connectors that more modern phones do not use. Into the bag they went.
Last I considered the ethernet cables. I had two of those...one long one and one short one. These I decided to keep. I remembered using one once to transfer files when I bought a new computer a few years ago. If your WIFI is undependable, wired connections may be faster and more reliable. My printer sometimes
does better when wired to my desktop computer.
I was then left with a bunch of wires/cables I was pretty sure I could get rid of and another, much smaller box of cables I was keeping. I took the box of those I was keeping and neatly bundled the cables using strips of Velcro. I also labeled things I knew, like lightning, USB-C, or
ethernet.
I neatly bundled the ones to donate just because I like things tidy. But before taking them to be donated or recycled, I asked all family members if they knew any reason to keep them, if they went to anything I had not considered. The answers were all negative.
Some of the cables had chargers with them. No one wanted the chargers either, so they also went to the donate/recycle box.
What to do with old cables? As convenient as it would have been to toss them in the garbage, I looked up places that might take them. Thrift stores often do, as people go looking for such things there. Some stores, like office or electronics stores, will take them for recycling. Mine went to the thrift store
the next time I took a load of things to donate.
This was one of those jobs, easily put off, that I should have done long ago. It was not a particularly large or difficult job, just one I procrastinated about.
Now I no longer cringe if I open that cabinet door. And I can put that space to much better use. Do you have old cords and cables taking up space? Take a few minutes one day this week and clear them out.
