Hoarding is a real problem that many of us suffer from—I’m no different! However, I simply won’t accept any criticism of the venerable cable drawer; that spot in your house where all the cables you’ve accumulated over the years live. Like a nest of obsolete snakes that might suddenly have a purpose at any moment.
So if someone’s giving you a hard time because of your cable collection, even if that’s you yourself, I’m here to tell you that it’s OK.
Everyone Has a Drawer of Old Cables
Chances are you have one (or more) of these drawers in your home filled with video, data, power, and all sorts of other cables from old gadgets, or from the last time you needed to buy a cable that one time.
Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
With so many things that have to be connected to other things, it’s no surprise that cables have started piling up over the years. You replace an HDMI with a newer one that’s longer, shorter, or supports a higher standard, but there’s nothing wrong with the one you’re replacing. So why throw it away?
So, over time, these perfectly good cables increase in number, hoping they’ll be needed again.
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I Have Six
Personally, I have six cable drawers, as pictured below. The plan was to have different cables in each drawer, but clearly I need to periodically sort them again so that power cables don’t end up mixed in with USB or HDMI, for example.
Sydney Louw Butler / How-To Geek
Since I am completely unwilling to throw any of these cables away, the compromise was to buy an organizer and at least centralize the chaos. So far, this has worked pretty well, though I’ve been too scared to actually slide any of these tubs open, in case I suddenly get the urge to properly sort it all again.
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piya kunkayan / Shutterstock
Here’s the thing—there’s a pretty decent chance that one of the cables you’ve hoarded will actually save your bacon at some point. I’ve had to retrieve footage from old cameras, charge a visitor’s ancient phone, and, of course, retro gadgets bought online never come with their darn cables. Even when the seller says it does.
So is it really that much to ask that I give up one square foot of floor space on the off chance that I’ll need one of these cables? I don’t think so, and it’s probably fine for you as well, unless you live in Tokyo or New York, where the price per square foot is equal to the annual salary of the person who assembled the smartphone you’re reading this on.
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It’s Better for the Environment if You Just Keep Them. Probably.
Stokkete / Shutterstock.com
Cables can be recycled. At least the conductive materials at the core of them can be. However, you know as well as I do that in most cases the cables you discard will just end up in a landfill somewhere, or tragically end up choking some poor sea turtle. So, honestly, hanging on to your cables is probably better for the environment.
Hey, maybe you can write them into your will, forcing your descendants to preserve your hoard of cables as a condition for inheriting your estate.
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You Can Use Them as Currency After the Apocalypse
Sydney Louw Butler / How-To Geek / GPT-4o
Cables contain valuable metals—mainly copper. If you fell for the hype, you may even own cables that have a little bit of gold plating. This might not seem all that important, but when the apocalypse inevitably comes, you’ll be happy for this hoard of precious metals when you’re trading it for food or medicine.
As Soon as You Throw Them Out, You’ll Need One
I’ve come pretty close to throwing out my cables many times over the years, but inevitably I end up needing one. Even power bricks aren’t immune to this and when my gadgets break, I tend to keep the power bricks, because it’s happened before that something else has the same polarity and voltage as something else that needs a power brick.
The few times I have thrown an old cable away, well wouldn’t you know it I needed that exact cable sooner rather than later. So, hand on to those obscure cables. After all, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
