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Because mine is the traditional "chuck it in the cable drawer ..." which is ... um ... unhelpful, if quick to implement initially.
I changed ISP today, so I needed to configure everything to the new WiFi: fun, fun, fun.
The printer: the WPS button didn't do the job, so I had to manually connect it - except it has no user interface, just ON / OFF, and WPS buttons. So it's "connect via USB" and Samsung software.
Which is fine, if you have any idea where the right USB cable is - "Standard USB"1 one end, and "BST"2 the other. And I had to look at every cable in the drawer to find it. Twice. I found it the third time, because I was expecting it to be black and it was blue. 
Basically, I need a way to organise these damn things so I can find the cable I need (USB, HDMI, mains, CAT5, modem, you know the pile ...) and that isn't going to attract the cat to new playthings ...
Any ideas? I can't be the only one with this problem! 
1 - USB Type A: Piccy[^]
2 - "Big Square Thing" - also known as USB Type B: Piccy[^]
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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OriginalGriff wrote: I was expecting it to be black and it was blue.
Don't organise the cables by colour... 
I just have separate plastic shopping bags for each cable type - earphones, audio cables, HDMI cables (separate bags for full/full, full/mini, full/micro), USB cables (separate bags for A/B, A/mini, A/micro, A/C ...), ... . All the shopping bags are placed in a large box with compartments, grouped according to category - earphones, audio, HDMI, USB, ...
To find a USB A/B cable, I go to the USB compartment, find the USB A/B bag, and voila. If a bag does not exist, I know that I have no such cable (or my wife/daughters have pinched one without telling me  )
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Trouble is that all such bags over here are now biodegradable - they fall apart to dusty fragments in around 6 months ... apart from "bag for life" ones, which seem to last about 7.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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I use ordinary ziplock/etc storage bags of various sizes (sandwich to gallon) depending on what type of cable is in in them; some are probably 15 years old and all are holding up well.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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I have a small chest of drawers full of cables, chargers,adapters,testing equipment - the list is endless
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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That sounds exactly like my current system, but mine is a bureau instead of a chest of drawers.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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Posh that is - him and his bureau 
"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I inherited it from an elderly neighbour - it was made by her father on the Isle of Aran, but when she passed away her family didn't want it (or more likely it wasn't worth enough to move round the country) so I got it as a "thank you".
It sits in a corner of my office and holds stuff - just like it did for Ella!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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More decades than I care to remember of tinkering with machines and peripherals, combined with a reluctance to throw anything on the grounds that it might come in useful one day, have left me with two very large boxes filled with cables.
When I started helping clients to start digitising what were once paper based offices (so full install of machines, network cabling etc) I discovered the joy of the velcro cable tie, which can be obtained in a myriad of colours.
My cable boxes have cables wrapped with different coloured ties (blue = usb, black = power etc etc) and, just because I could, I wrote a small application to keep tracks of them which is linked to the client's office setup tables. When they destroy cables it's pretty easy to establish if I a) have one in a box, and b) what colour velcro tie it will be sporting.
This also has one other small but not to be sneezed at advatage, they stay seperate and untangled!
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We use something like this[^] at work. You can get them a bit deeper, or half drawers.
The boss found them at Bunnings local hardware store.
// TODO: Insert something here Top ten reasons why I'm lazy
1.
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On a scale from 0 to 10 on the WAF, this one would bring me in deep negative values.
But that's what we have at work.
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For me it's a drawer under the bed. The best "system" I can claim is a vaguely "zonal" arrangement i.e. audio over here*, video over there, PC in that bit and mains in the rest.
* That's if you ignore the two holdalls of audio leads in the shed (the middle aged man syndrome of "just in case the band gets back together!!!)
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I have them shoved in a plastic "Bureau". Some go to things that aren't anymore . . . probably anywhere. True packrats worry about acquiring first, sorting later maybe.
On my machines, however, I used electricians number-wrap, one on each end of course. Avoids pulling out the wrong one. Originally I thought this was the type of organization you were considering (i.e., where it actually counts) and intended on being helpful with two solutions: (1) the numbering, and (2) a wire cutter.
Item (2), along with a large garbage pail (a/k/a waste bin) is still applicable. If you try it and it works, let me know how it felt. My plastic drawer is, well, full.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Quote: the cable drawer
THE cable drawer? I have three cable drawers! And two boxes full of cables. 
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Did I give the impression it was a small drawer?
I didn't mean to!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Seriously: I roll each cable (well, most of them) in a round circle and tie it with a zip tie. That helps prevent cable tangles and makes it easier to search for a specific one.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Cp-Coder wrote: I roll each cable (well, most of them) in a round circle and tie it with a zip tie. That helps prevent cable tangles and makes it easier to search for a specific one.
You know those plastic spindles that packs of blank CDs/DVDs come in? I roll cables in those.
Being clear plastic, you can have stacks of those and you can still see the content.
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I use velcro cable ties combined with plastic labels on which I write what the cable is usually attached to.
They all fit neatly in a box.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I use the stick system. I have a large drawer full of cables and I take a stick and stir around in there until I find what I need.
Actually have a cheap plastic set of drawers, 3 large, 4 small. Large drawer for network, large drawer for USB stuff, another for Raspberry pi stuff and so on. Too many times I throw stuff in whatever drawer is open and have to sort as a result.
One small drawer is for my K&E Log Log Duplex Decitrig slide rule, with leather case and manual. My first computer, back in the day. 
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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That sounds a bit too organised. I just chuck everything on an unused desk behind me. Stuff that falls on the floor is periodically moved to the bin, and when that's full, moved to the outdoor bin.
The exception is separate plugs / sockets / adapters (i.e. cable stuff without actual cables). They all go in a single ziplock bag. It's been full for some years, so when I get some new widget that I don't want to throw away but needs to go in the bag, I rummage in the bag with eyes averted, pull out one thing and chuck it (without looking!) to make space for the new thing.
This system generally works well. 99% of the stuff you think you'll need, you never actually need. The other 1% you will have thrown out as of no possible use, regardless of what system you have. I save more time by not spending time "filing" stuff than I waste searching for the stuff I rarely need, so I reckon I earn an extra 20 minutes' coffee / CCC OTD time each week on average.
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TBH with my longer cables I hang them from the coat rack in one of the closets.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: I hang them from the coat rack
This of course begs the question: where do you hang your coats?
(It's turtles all the way down)
Software Zen: delete this;
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Life is too short for coats.
Real programmers use butterflies
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