147 You Asked: Organizing Cords

A little bird told me that I should do an "Organizing Cords" post.... so happy day because it's here!

However, I didn't always think happy thoughts about cords.  In fact, when Emily mentioned to me that I was getting quite a few questions on the subject, I hung my head a bit....

I knew where my cords were, so I guess I get a point for that, but they really weren't organized. They lived in some stacked media boxes on a shelf by my computer:

But open those boxes and you would see a jumbled mess of cords, all webbed together.  What cord did what?  No one really knew.  I dreaded the day the kids would ask for the battery charger or the hubs would spend multiple minutes looking for his PlayStation controller cord...

So I emptied the contents of the boxes onto the table - I wish this was an exaggeration to make a great before and after story, but it's 100% what I was dealing with!  You know that gross goosebumpy feeling you get when someone puts nails on a chalkboard?  I get that same feeling when looking at pictures like this:

I also gathered all the cords that were around the house that weren't originally in the box, to take inventory and make sure we weren't keeping any that we no longer used or needed.

Since cords can be a bit hard to tame, I turned to these Q Knot Reusable Cable Ties:

SO much better already.  However, there were some cords used more than others, and I wasn't sure that I would want to deal with the cable tie every time we used them {like iPad chargers}, and I feared that eventually they would end up back the way they were originally.  Plus, at first glance, I still didn't know which were which.

Instead of popping them back into the empty media boxes:

We cut down some cardboard pieces to create dividers:

Which I proceeded to cover with pretty scrapbook paper... {because, you know, that's what I do}

Pretty cute eh?

Now, to determine which cords belonged together and give them an identity, I snagged some pretty Martha Stewart file folder labels:

Since they couldn't be fed through my printer {which is always a bit of a bummer for me}, I turned to my label maker paired with clear printing tape to create the labels for each cord type:

I was loving it!  The best part was tossing each cord into it's new "cubby":

A couple of things to note:

• We keep one charging station in our bedroom for our cell phones {we charge them over night, yes, away from our bed/heads}.  We keep another charging station specifically for the kid's DS chargers in our playroom.  Those five chargers will forever remain in their stations in those specific locations, which is why you don't see them here.  
• The two boxes were grouped by type of cord and frequency of use.  The chargers/cords we use often, will stay up on a bookshelf in our living room near our electronics.  The cords used less often or that are related to our computer, will remain down on the shelf next to the computer.   Smart thinking right?

So there you have it!  I no longer have to fear the cord box.  And the system should be super simple to maintain, which makes me all warm and happy inside!

Now it's your turn!  What  is your secret to organizing all those cords?  An over the door pocket organizer?  Toilet paper tubes?  Do share!

UPDATE! We have tweaked our cord organization a bit and you can find those details here!