How to use ribbons to keep your snake pit of electronic wires in check

Guest post by Miranda Whittaker
#Organizing#electronics#great-ideas#organization

SDC10873

I can’t be the only one who’s taken a look in the electronics drawer and thought “what belongs to what?” Wires tangle easily and all look much the same. The wire that recharges my cell phone looks awfully similar to the wire that recharges my mp3 player… and so on.

Fortunately I have come up with a system for keeping the snake pit of wires in my drawer and under my desk in check.

In order to do this yourself you will need:

  • Many tangled wires — I know you have them. I’m not judging.
  • All of the ribbons! If you tend to hold onto the pretty satin ribbons that come on top of holiday or birthday gifts, now is the time to reuse them.
  • A pair of scissors.
  • Some spare time — an afternoon will do.

Step one:

First, take the time to separate the various wires and connectors from one another. Then pair each wire with the gadget it’s meant to go with. This is the hard part — fun times from here on out.

Step two:

Next, find leftover ribbons that are long enough to tie around the gadgets and wire.

Step three:

Colour code each ribbon to a set of electronics. For example: I use a red ribbon to tie up the wire for my mp3 player because its red. This way, the next time you look at a wire and wonder “what does this go with again?” All you have to do is look at the colour of the ribbon that is attached to it, then find the item that has the corresponding ribbon. And as a bonus: it looks rather pretty.

Consider your electronics drawer hacked!

Now what are YOUR tips for keeping your electronics drawer/snake pit of wires under control?

Guest Post By: Miranda Whittaker

Miranda is a artsy, nerdy writer-type living in Toronto. She likes being surrounded by books. When working in her local library, she's either dancing, sewing or thinking up puns. She blogs about the stories we tell, and tells stories of her own.

Comments on How to use ribbons to keep your snake pit of electronic wires in check

  1. This is such a good idea! My husband is a massive techie. and sometimes I feel like our entire house is a snake pit of cords! Unfortunately, my son frequently plunders the cords and would most definitely eat the ribbons (he’s 1). Maybe someday when I don’t have such young children in the house who try to eat ALL THE THINGS.

  3. I started sticking my random cords in toilet paper tubes with both ends of the cord sticking out the same side of the tube. They stand up nicely in a box for storage. It isn’t necessarily a pretty solution, but they could be decorated if you were less lazy than I am. 🙂

  4. Great idea! I was just looking at cord organizer type things, but now I am going to use a piece of ribbon and a pushpin to hold my phone charger cord up on my side table.

  5. Awesome! When I travelled, I figured outthat tied cords were way better to pack than loose ones, so I tied them with color elastic bands. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years, and now it’s burned in my brain: green elastic = camera charger, blue elastic = micro USB, beige elastic = laptop cord 🙂

Join the Conversation