One time I had an ex ask me for some obscure cable that I happened to have. We went over to my cable drawer and as I pulled it out she said "Why do you have this drawer of random cables?"
FOR THIS EXACT PURPOSE BECCA YOU BITCH
Think about the apocalypse BECCA
I was a Scout as a teen. Taught me the value of being prepared and the use of good tools. Basically, I still carry things like a Swiss Army Knife, flashlight, that sort of thing. I also just like to have things in case I need them, like a charge cable or bicycle pump.
You wouldn’t believe how often I’ve had interactions that go like this:
“Does anyone have a knife? I need to cut this”
“Here, use mine”
“Why do you have a knife???? Who are you going to stab???”
Same thing with other tools. People need one, you’re someone who carries it, now you’re somehow weird for being the only person prepared…
I’ve had to guide people out of buildings during blackouts while using my flashlight (this was before phones had them). Number one comment while doing that? “Why do you have a flashlight???”
MOTHERFUCKER, WHY DON’T YOU? On this planet, it gets predictably dark for, you know, almost half the day. So it might just be handy to carry some light with you. Tool use is what sets us humans apart from most animals, so can you at least try and not embarrass your species?
“Why do you have a knife???? Who are you going to stab???”
I've gotten this one too. I've had a knife on me almost every day for the last 15 years or so and I've managed not to stab anyone except maybe myself a little bit.
Tool use is what sets us humans apart from most animals, so can you at least try and not embarrass your species?
I'm stealing this.
The Problem is, being unprepared worked out for them because they always had someone around who was prepared. It's the same people who say afterwards: "You see, wasn't that bad, all worked out fine". Yes, it worked out fine because someone else was prepared and saved your ass. The worst of those people then also somehow turn it into their own achievement, which makes them think like that: "Why would someone carry around $thing$, I never do that and yet I still manage to save the day."
Unfortunately, being such a person seems to be a requirement to get hired for middle management.
It's so annoying. I stopped carrying a knife regularly not because I stopped thinking it was a useful tool to always have but because while the law here does allow carried knives to be defined as tools, if you bring them in to certain places, they automatically get considered weapons and carrying any weapon is illegal (in most circumstances). So if I happen to go to a bar and have my knife in my pocket, it could result in a possession of an illegal weapon charge.
I hate laws that assume intents based on triggers that aren't necessarily associated with those assumed intents, like "carrying a weapon implies intent to hurt/kill someone", "having possession of your keys anywhere near your car while drunk implies intent to drive drunk (even if you're sleeping in the back seat)", or "carrying more than some arbitrary amount of drugs implies intent to sell", like anyone who shops at Costco intends to open up their own store. Lazy fucking laws.
For this exact purpose. To impress your ex? Sounds fair enough.
You never know where you'll be when you need a mini-B usb to 30 pin apple sync cable.
There's a tool sharing program in my neighborhood. You pay like $20 a year for access, and come by, borrow a tool/leave a tool. It's great as people leave lots of big tools sitting around doing nothing.
I want that for computer parts and wires.
Lets pool our ps/2 keyboard adapters and VGA cords together!
I refactor the box every year because there are usually some new cables.
Some simple empirical rules:
- keep the shorter cables
- maximum of 3 cables of the same type: for donating, for lending, for spare
- USB cables that can transfer data > USB cables that don't transfer data
- no damaged cables
- store long cables as coils (tied up tight)
- store short cables in bunches (tied up tight)
- should be sorted and grouped into categories
- box should be sealed, but aired out once in a while (outgassing)
Wait, there are USB cables that don’t transfer data? What do they do then, charge only?
Just be sure to not damage cables with plastic zip ties or other things that crimp the wires inside.
I bundle my cables and put them in ziplock bags by type. I bought a whole spool of twist tie wire with it's own built in cutter. I also keep a bag with damaged cables because sometimes I make my own custom cables or just need some scrap wire.
Wait why does the box need to be closed?
My wife had her finger nail grinder break and it turned out to be the power adapter. It was an obscure 9.6V. guess who had it in my box.
She still complains about my box, but that night she complained a little less.
Voltage fluctuates. You could put 9v into it and it will be just fine. Hell you can probably put 12v into it and it will be fine. I have a switch at work that only exists to split one ethernet cable into two, and it's rated for either 5 or 9v, but I'm using a 12v power supply on it and it's just fine because it's power conversion is rated for well over that (I think 16v max).
Disclaimer: don't blindly put higher voltage into a device rated for a much lower voltage. 9v devices will usually tolerate 12v, but not all.
Ya, I run 18V for for my kid's 12V power wheel and he can drift with it now.
Vindication of the box is better than cocaine.
Amen brothuh
Last move, I collected all cables in a one HUGE box.
After the majority of the unpacking (like I'll ever finish that) was completed, I sat down with the box and sorted out all the cables.
I kept a sane amount of each cable, at least one and trashed the rest.
I now have half a dozen labeled sterelite dollar store organizers with the cables in them.
add it to your bucket list....
I organized all my cables into like types and put them in gallon sized plastic bags to prevent all that intertangling, at least nominally. I still hardly go into that box though. It's still a pain in the ass, just less of one.
LPT: intertangeling only happens when cables are looped. Just put them together linke you would crumble a piece of paper and put them in your bottles. No more intertangeling
Same, except I kept all of each kind that have potential use, and set aside any that are technologically obsolete by over two decades so I could throw them out.
That box is still on the shelf as well ...
I did this last time I was unemployed. Garage is super organized now
I store all mine in a closet door shoe keeper. Each pocket is 1 type. And I keep as many as will fit in that pocket except for a few special things I keep a ton of. PC power cables, Current USB, HDMI/DP
No one f’ing dare touch my box of obscure cables and stupid converters I’ll probably never use !
Thanks, J. Walter Weatherman!
It's true. That box has the utility of the highest utility cable in it. Which means it's a lot. Worth taking up space under a bed you aren't using. Anti-horder culture goes too far. It's more complicated than dogmatically throwing away everything or keeping everything. Don't throw away things with real utility. Civilization is built on accumulated utility in durable goods.
I finally got a house so I can hoard everything in the basement and attic away from the wife and I can finally keep my precious safe forever muhaha
Also, if you tell yourself "I'll just buy a new one if it breaks", take note that the quality of whatever new thing you buy will be worse than the current one you have due to decades of companies skimping on quality to remain profitable.
Of course.
Also, though it might not happen today, apocalypse things could happen to Amazon or delivery services...better to have things on hand than have to buy them again.
After switching to solar DC and batteries I suddenly cared a lot more about ac/dc power inverters needlessly wasting my limited energy supply.
Slowly I figured out how to power my devices without ac outlets. Mercifully 5v,9v,12v,19v at 1-5A are pretty standard values for most lower powered DC appliances.
A good DC barrel plug 5.5mm universal adapter kit, a usbc-PD adapter cable with manually selectable voltage levels to 5.5mm barrel plug, and a car plug to dc barrel plug universal adapter kit have taken good care of 95% of my adapter woes.
It feels sooo good to figure out how to power something directly with USBC and see the wattage drawn get cut down significantly.
Whats my point? If people knew a little bit more about the finer details of power supplies and dc barrel plugs most of their box of junk cables could be phased out with confidence. If you have 20 year old electronics with some weird incredibly specific voltage and barrel plug I would heavily consider just getting a new version that runs on usbc-pd or a more standard power rating. And if I ever need an old video cable? You'd better believe amazon and eBay still got it.
Yeah I have a handful of USB-to-random 5v nonsense adapters and they've saved my ass so many times.
You have inspired me.
Are you suggesting that modern USBC power supplies don't have that parasitic draw that other DC power packs have?
They have solar + batteries, so they have to convert the sun into DC, hopefully directly supply that DC to their batteries, then convert that DC to AC power, then convert that AC power back to DC. Converting AC to DC or vise versa is a reasonably lossy process, so not doing double the conversion is even better.
Also some less than ideal setups convert solar directly to AC, so in order to charge your batteries you have to convert it back to DC.
Thanks, glad to have inspired you! The other person who replied is spot on. I have an entirely DC system so my main advantage comes from cutting out pointless double-conversion from dc to ac back to dc again. Powering on an DC to AC inverter is a parasitic draw that consumes enough power to eat through a good amount of battery capacity if left on by itself. Then using that AC inverter just to power another inverter to step back to DC introduces even more losses and parasitic load. So, its worth my time to try figuring out ways to directly power devices by directly converting DC to DC voltages and cut those needless loads out greatly boosting total efficiency.
USBC-PD technology is an incredibly useful innovation for direct variable dc to dc voltage supply. Specifically a 100 watt usbc-pd charger can supply 5v,9v, 15v, 20v at up to 5 amps (5Ax20V=100 watts). A car cigarette plug can supply 12V at 10A or 120 watts of power. Together they can directly power a great many household DC appliances off of batteries powering a DC to DC inverter.
For some examples:
A 24" lcd computer monitor at full brightness consumed 50Wh through AC inverter. It was brought down to 25Wh running through DC inverter. On half brightness it consumed 15Wh and 10Wh at minimum brightness.
A thinkpad laptop full brightness was 25wh idle -50wh full load, then brought down to 12-20wh.
My nintendo switch game console docked into the lcd screen consumed about 15-20Wh with inverter, brought down to 10Wh.
Desktop dry herb vaporizer (Arizer Extreme Q): 80Wh heating up, 30-50wh idle brought down to 50Wh heating up 15-25Wh idle.
Electric blankets. During the cold months using my electical energy to help keep warm is very important to me. But I cannot keep a regular house electric blanket on for more than an hour or two. I could not keep a car plug blanket on overnight at 80wh. I could keep on a USB powered blanket on overnight at 10-15Wh. And you know what suprised me most? It was damn warm, when I figured out the right way to sleep with it. Have to sleep on it as a matress warmer and layer some heavy blankets on top and let it warm up for an hour or two. But it works and works well. The USB blanket doubles as wearable poncho too which is nice. I wish a USBC-PD one existed with variable wattages.
So as you can see each time I macguyver a way to directly power these devices the total power usage is cut by almost half per device. To someone else who can afford an array of solar panels and a massive bank of batteries they can get away with not caring about saving 20Wh here or 15Wh there. I have a very modest system of 200watts solar feeding into ~400Wh battery capacity total so these savings mean the difference between my batteries being dead overnight and having lots of spare juice left over to brew a cup of coffee with those AC inverters when I wake up.
Of all these devices listed, the LCD monitor is one that has a noticable parasitic load even when the screen is off it consumes a noticable amount of power at idle. The way I would deal with most instances of parasitic draw like this is to find a product throws a physical switch to manually cut contacts with the DC-DC inverter when not being used. In this case a car plug extention cable with a knife switch built in would work great.
Oh I never of this. So do you have different electrical systems in your house for each voltage or how does it work?
I am off-grid for much of the time so I rely on an entirely DC to DC system. 200 watts of solar panels power up my batteries which supply 12V at a capacity of about 400 watt hours. So for many appliances like laptops and speakers and computer screens which use DC power it makes sense to try to convert the voltages directly though other means than the typical AC to DC power plug supplies that you usually use in homes. Doing this I can cut down total power consumption for each device down by about half which is really important for conserving power on a limited energy supply.
In a theoretical scenario you could totally run a seperate voltage line for DC energy through a house, though this has several complications. The main drawback of DC energy is that the lower the voltage the more resistance losses you get running power through a foot of cable. So the cable losses would become signifigant after running 200 feet of cable probably less even. You could bump up the voltage to 48VDC for longer stretches of wire and to power high end RV appliances but now were loosing some of the safety that comes from a lower voltage DC system. Im not familiar with commercial solar installations in homes but I think its easier and more economical to eat inverter losses and use the batteries to supply AC power using preexisting wiring. If you were building a offgrid home its a design thing to consider, reducing and centralizing wiring and appliances.
I really like your comment. Nothing gets me going more than eliminating unnecessary waste and streamlining the system to a simpler one, even if it is more work. 😤
Microcenter is the answer. But never ever give up the box. One day you may need to daisychain VGA to DVI to HDMI through a series of adapters.
Only a very lucky few live near a Microcenter.
The rest are a 8-16 hour drive away from one.
I miss Radioshack. Old radioshack, not the "Come in and buy a smart phone and toys" radioshack.
As a hobbyist in the 80s, RadioShack was a tinkerer's play space. I miss those days.
Microcenters cables and adapters are outrageously expensive, and at least the one near me has the least useful supply of shit.
They opened up a MC by me about a year ago.
I was returning an item last weekend and the employee made a comment on how many times I've been there haha.
Bro I literally just used 2 of my cables from the cable box today. Never giving that up.
This is natures way of punishing you for defiling and disrespecting the box.
The Box should always be kept, and respected, lest it bring ruin to your household.
So, so true. And yet my wife questions the merits of my vast attic collection. I shall tell her later how I discovered that the Internet agrees with me.
A few months ago I FINALLY organized my cluttered box of miscellaneous technology and cables into one of those plastic bin drawers with wheels. I now know what I have and can keep it all fairly organized. Found some stuff I could've thrown out, but this post just told me not to. So thanks!
I still have my 5 1/4 inch floppy drive in a box. At some point someone or some company will need it desperately and I can fund my retirement
Look for aviation maintenance businesses, you might get a good price. Testing equipment never gets upgraded, just replaced. intel 386 32MHz with a 5 1/4 floppy and Windows 3.1 is pure gold.
Work at retirement home doing tech. My drawer has grown to a closet of old cords.
It pays off weekly. Too many people with too many different generations of tech. Never know what you'll run into.
Old Person (on deathbed): "This disk contains my entire life's work, I want you to take it."
many years later, playing in park
"Daddy, where did you get this weird frisbee?"
"Dunno. Some old guy wanted me to have it."The magnavox tv on the shelf makes it not that far off lmao
Umph.
Gut shot.
I guess I hadn't had a bad enough Dad joke this week.
Starting to speak in tongues, give thanks unto Jesus my brethren
OMG! I was just about to throw away a box of "cables" I've been accruing since college. My wife has been complaining about these cables that never get used. I think I'm going to have to hold off now. Thanks for the warning!
I had an ISA serial card sitting on a shelf next to my desk at work for 14 years. In the yearly clean up it was kept. 10 years after the last ISA machine had been in the office it was scrapped.
Not 2 days after the truck I had to order one exactly like it for a machine i did not know exsisted in a printing press i did not know at a customer... NEVER throw out anything!No problem! You can purchase that hard to find cable at Radio Shack....Oh wait.
I lugged a box of cables around for 10 years without ever needing one. I finally decided that I was being foolish and donated all of them. Literally the next day I needed one.
Hey! You're in this meme!
I haven't donated a cable since then. Never again!
Beginner move, you go through the box, check all cables, and do one of two things:
-
Get rid of all duplicates but keep one of each type of cable.
-
Catalog and label all cables in the box, make a list of all cables including their numbers. List all known devices that use them, index their usefullness based on how many devices you know use them and how long ago it was that you needed them. The more usefull the cable the more copies you keep, but you allways keep one type.
Never kept just one cable. Always have a spare.
I will pay you to come over and handle my cables. I really like idea number 2, but I have nearly 4 decades of computer cables and 3 decades of audio cables that have gone through several moves. I don't have the energy or attention span to go through them.
Honestly, I like sorting cables, get some good gloves, some headphones and a good podcast and I'll be done faster than you think.
Audio cables have a long life in general, and are useful for other things as well. Speaker wire can for instance work as spark plug leads:
Computer cables are also fairly easy, unless you are into retro computing you can probably throw out all IDE and SCSI cables, they are useless if you have a computer without the relevant connector anyway, so keep one of each if you are unsure, same goes for old centronics printer cables, cat4 networking cable will work, but only at very slow speeds, throw it out and use cat5e for general purpose, serial (RS232) is useful, keep some, power brick are allways useful, keep them all, USB cables are cheap, replace any USB1 cables with a minimum of a USB2 cable, male USB-A to male USB-A were used before mini USB came along, keep one as a spare, mini USB is still in limited use today, keep 2, micro USB has many different connectors and types, keep 2 normal and one of each of the odd standards.
Video cables: VGA - keep one spare, DVI is still useful, keep two, HDMI/DP - keep but beware that they might not work with the latest specs of the standard. Component, there is little need for it these days, depending on if the cable has a custom connector used for a gaming console or other device, keep, else no need to keep them, composite is the same as above. S-Video same as above.
This might sound harsh, but unless you are into retro computing or retro gaming you mostly won't need old computer/video cables.
I am an IT guy, my dad is a civil engineer, I get keeping old cables just incase, I have component cables to my PS2 that has almost never been used, the PS2 is from the last slim version, I have an almost brand new original gamecube controller, I have component cables for gamecube that has never been used, I have countless power bricks that I never use, i have a super long cat5e cable that I built when I moved in to my apartment a decade ago, up untill last year I used a custom cat5e cable between my computer and the wall.
I was into retro gaming a while ago, but I have never had a TV here only an old crappy projector, that I have used once.
I am getting tired of keeping the old stuff that I never use, and will probably clear it out in a few years when my annoyance has reached boiling point, and I have more time to deal with it (I am not planning on just throwing away all the stuff, that would be wasteful, when I have more time I will take inventory of all gaming stuff and make a plan on how to best deal with it)
Just get a bunch of bags or small boxes and sort them into different types, and write on the box what it has. No need to catalogue devices or deduplicate...
Change my mind: two hours of my work is more expensive than all these half defunct cables from 10 years ago. Just throw em away and buy them new when needed. You will only need one or two of them anyway. No more sticky, broken cables, no more cable sorting, no more wasted time and no wasted space.
-
If you've got the money, and just want to reduce clutter, get some adapters for existing standards like USB-C cables instead.
I have multiple Micro USB, Micro-B, Audio Jack, and Lightning cable adapters that take up less space than one single USB-C cable.
When I used to do LAN games with my dad it was a tradition that we needed on average of 2.75 adapters per PC to get the right combination of male/female ends and pin count. I think you need a cable box AND an adapter box.
I have all my cables zip ties and in labelled clear bags and grouped by cable type into larger bags. It's like my own store inventory, I love it.
Solid. Good care of gear is worth more than their original cost.
Agreed. I also do the same thing for my radio equipment and electronics in general-- all in compartmentalized, clear bags with printed labels on them. I always thought label makers were expensive but I bought a $20 handheld label maker + 3rd party tapes and it's amazing how good this thing is. It's really helped me stay organized.
This way I basically have an inventory that is easily accessible by friends and family, like a shared inventory. The initial process of labelling, zip tying, bagging and boxing everything... That admittedly took a few days of work because I wanted to find and sort every cable/most small electronics, but after that? Smooooth sailing.
You never know when you might need a PS/2 to DIN convertor!
Of course you'll never be able to find the one you need in the moment, so will end up ordering one for about £3 from Amazon.
Strangely enough I know exactly where mine is, not least because it was connected to my last but one keyboard for approximately 15 years.
Now my Xbox controller to usb cable, no idea where that is at the minute (it'll be in one of the boxes)
I have several boxes of these that I'll never let go, but I have to admit, I ditched the SCSI cables at one point and have no regrets.
USB ate SCSI in a similar way to HDMI eating DVI so that one makes total sense.
Not throwing out DVI or even VGA cables. I run in to/test older gear way too often to let them go.
Buying things from thrift stores requires tools to make them work with your stuff.
Until a few years ago my workplace still had dozens of BNC networking cards, ISDN routers (bought on the cheap a few months before ADSL took off), and Windows 98 SE licenses.
I’m sure I’ll never need all 4 of the SCART cables I have, but then maybe I will so I’ll hang onto them just in case.
You could make a scart scarf
I've got 3 boxes. One for power cables, one for signal cables (ethernet, phone, RCA cables, coaxial) and one for usb cables and power adapters.
They're tote sized and I'm going to need even bigger boxes soon. No way I'm ever getting rid of them.
This has happened to me, which is why I now have an entire section of a cupboard dedicated to parts and cables. I'm not entirely sure an ISA card would ever be needed today, but you never know!!!
Same. I have a shelf dedicated to old PC stuff because sometime I end up needing it. Maybe I haven't touched it for years but it comes in handy sometimes. For example I was asked to get some files off some floppy disks someone had a couple years ago and I was the only one they knew who was able to do it. There's also been quite a few instances of someone's PC going down and I was able to loan them something to get them going again until they bought a replacement. The way I keep from spilling over into full "hoarder" is that this shelf is the only place I allow myself to keep computer parts so if I get more stuff than will fit on the shelf something has to go to make room.
Here I am, literally waiting for delivery of a USB-C to Mini-USB cable that I thought I would never need and got rid of six months ago.
Turns out the little external DVD player I keep around if I ever need to watch a DVD requires it. 🤦🏻♂️
If you need to get rid of a pile of DC power supplies and they're all similar, consider donating them to a stem youth club. I have a huge pike of 12v power supplies with the 5.5-2.1mm plug on them and they work great with breadboard power supplies.
Just happened to me yesterday. I needed a 12v power adapter to trigger cable, but I had thrown out the previous one thinking I would never use it.
Have none of you learned the law!!?? The act of throwing the cable away is what created the need for that cable. The cable gods MUST be appeased. (Also applies to adapters and random hardware.)
Amateur radio checking-in: the cables and adapters are just the beginning. There is no "box"—it's simply "storage"
I continue to carry a box (well, currently it's in three shoeboxes, technically) of cables, some of which are roughly as old as I am
Hallelujah Jesus name
Label and bind cables, throw them into a big plastic bin with lid, label the lid with contents. Repeat as necessary.
Once every few years, take them out and test them with appliance. If it's a USB cable, put it into three categories:
- Dead
- Charges
- Charges + Data
Keep the dead ones. They are very strong cables you can use to tie things together.
- Need to hang a picture? Dead cable.
- Need to pool some plastic bags together? Dead cable
- Want to read a good comic book? Deadpool and Cable
My spouse the other night: "Where is the camera?"
Me: "In your phone?".
Apparently we have a digital camera, which I'm sure we have no way to connect to our current computers, and he is convinced someone stole it even though it's from like 2004.
2004 is like five years ago... oh wait.
This was me. A few months ago, I threw out a cable I thought was for a 20 year old flipphone that I'll never use again, but it was a charger for something else and I wanted it last week for a relative. Now we need to buy new hardware. Don't do it, kids, horde those cables. Horde them like you don't fancy spending an unnecessary 30 smackers next year.
I got around this by keeping several USB-C to USB-C cables around, and buying female USB-C to male whatever adapters. Doesn't cover everything, but enough that I got rid of a small crate full of cables and only have to keep a half-dozen or so other cables.
I have a pair of Bluetooth headphones with a USB C port, that won't charge unless the other end of the cable is USB A. So no USB C to C cables. Every time I have to charge them I want to report AKG to like, the EU parliament, or something
I could probably get rid of some of the cables in my cable box, but that damn thing came with my on my sudden cross country move and was almost immediately useful so no one will ever convince me to throw it all away.
I can hear the phaser on overload sound.
I threw away my weird cables when I moved two years ago. How fucked is future me?
The further into your future you go, the more likely you're gonna get fucked by that bold maneuver. May glob have mercy on your soul
Thank you.
It’s settled then. The VGA cable stays.
For servers VGA is still like the standard. I always make sure to have a VGA monitor.
You just NEVER know!!
The cable knot must grow.
Just when I was summoning the courage to throw mine out!
Don't you dare
I feel like I’ve had a warning now from the future!
Tip: Organize the cords into ziplock bags so they can't tangle. The freezer bags are thick enough to handle the prongs on power bricks.
You can also label and date the bags so if you decide to go against all the wisdom of the gods and do a purge of old cables.
My box of cables shall be passed down through the generations!
Look at this USB to USB-c cable Geempa Cody left to us from before the Water Wars, it's got skin residue on it!
I bet we can harvest enough retro-antirecombinant DNA shards to mollyprnt a feed dependant slave unit!
Still got mine
It'll be a cold day in hell before I give up my cable box.
I'll need this LPT cable eventually, then you'll see. You'll all see.
Firewire will come back
I hope so, my camcorder is FireWire and I've still got my FireWire PCI card and all the cables :P
I have 30 years of cables and adapters in a box. I needed a cable in that box, it is in my storage unit that is an inconvenient 45 minute round-trip away. I still need that cable weeks later.
The box should never be thrown away or be located further than a short jaunt. Such is the law of the random cables and adapter box.
My cable needs aren't so obscure yet that monoprice doesn't work. Of course, maybe monoprice is just that good, IDK.
I regularly go into my cable bin. It's a big ole Rubbermaid that is sort of organized but also not
Even old broken USB cables get kept for electronics projects
My box of cables is with my ex. I hope to retrieve it one day.
At this point I think that I'm probably safe to get rid of my old cat3 cable, but I'm keeping everything else.
I am Smaug, and I will slumber in my mountain atop unfathomable cable riches.
Trim it down to one of each cable. You don't need a half-dozen patch cables. That weird wall-wart with the proprietary DIN plug for the laptop you no longer have, or the voltage- and milliamp-specific application you'll never need. The 4 SATA cables...etc.
Pare it down in order of likely need. You might need a couple USB cables and maybe a couple SATA cables, but you don't need 3 34-pin floppy drive ribbon cables.
I threw out about a dozen DC adapters last month (2 replaced in use adapters, another ~10 in "the box") after finding these USB C PD to various voltage and amp DC barrel plugs on Amazon:
There's tons of kinds, and they're probably a fire hazard, but I can buy a USB-C PD power strip and some short 6, 8, and 12 inch USB-C cables to power my dsl router, wifi AP, raspberry pi, and NUC, all with one wall outlet and none of the cable mess.
Yes. The correct approach is to get rid of all the cables that are not needed, and to keep the few cables that might come in handy. Throwing away a collection in bulk is risky.
And what if you find out you needed one you threw out? If we knew what cables we'd need tomorrow, we'd not have a box of cables today!
Hasn’t happened. I do know what cables I might need, and I don’t have a box of cables.
I took the middle road: use cable zip ties to bundle them and put all in a bag. Since finding a cable is infrequent, you don't need to optimize for that case.
I have plenty of duplicate cables. Pretty sure I don't need all of them so I can throw out most of them and just keep one of each.
Pretty sure I don't need a SCART to VGA cable but doesn't take that much space up.
