OPERATION GADGET CORD ORGANIZATION

So I’ve mentioned before that gadget cords & accessories are a bit of an organizational pain point in my household. So I vowed to include cord management as one of my “over the holiday break mini-organizing projects.”

I’m happy to report that I did get it done. Here are the photos to prove it:

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The top 2 side drawers in our kitchen desk area have gotten a bit out of control over the past year. They’re basically an extension of the center utility drawer and contain a mish mash of items, including: batteries, playing cards, tape measures, gaming devices, charging cords, plugs, earbuds, and portable battery chargers:

{Top drawer}

 

{Middle drawer}

The cord organization project was a subset of a larger organize the 3 utility drawers project, but I felt it was worthy of its very own post.

STEP 1: GATHER CORDS IN A CENTRAL LOCATION

The first task was to gather up all of the cords into one giant heap on the kitchen island. I then gathered my family members and together, we went through each cord one-by-one and identified what each one belonged to. Although most of the cords were for charging iphones/ipads/ipods, there were also designated chargers for a bunch of electronic kid toys and handheld gaming systems.

To make matters worse, every single one of us received a portable battery charger for Christmas (so that we could stop fighting over who gets to use my husband’s charger when we’re traveling). That alone added 4 more chargers to the mix.

You may have guessed from my previous cord organization post that washi tape would come into play during this organizing project. And you would be correct!

STEP 2: IDENTIFY CORD OWNER VIA WASHI TAPE

Once we knew what each cord was used for, I grouped the cords by who uses/owns it. For example, my daughter’s pile consisted of the charger for her 3DS, her new drone, her Zoomer dog toy, and her new battery pack. I then used washi tape to color code the various household cord owners, then pulled out the trusty label maker and used it to identify the device to which the cord belongs.

In order to keep the cords bundled together, I opted to use regular ol’ binder clips. If I would have had the larger size Bobino Cord Wraps on hand, I could have used those as well, but I was impatient and didn’t want to wait for those to arrive in the mail. As I shared in the Holiday Organizing Gift Guide post, I did purchase several of the small size Bobino Cord Wraps as a stocking stuffer, and we’re using those for earbud organization:

See? I wasn’t lying when I said that we all received a portable battery charger for Christmas. I used washi tape so that we can all easily identify our battery charger and it’s corresponding cord by using a different washi tape color/design for each of us:

My Hubby gets the light blue/white tape:

Ready to check out the drawers now?

In the top drawer, I use a basic interlocking drawer organizer set to keep earbuds, plugs and device chargers separated and organized. This drawer is also used to store the kids’ hand-held gaming devices and games:

Notice how I labeled the various drawer compartments in the hope that everyone will put items away in the right place? Time will tell. Even if they don’t, I can always assign “drawer clean up” as a monthly chore for one of the kids, since they can easily figure out how to reorganize the drawer if need be.

In the 2nd drawer, I used the remaining containers from the drawer organizer set combined with a shoe box and a gift box lid to set up the two main zones: batteries (as in Energizer & Duracell), and portable battery chargers/cords + all other charger cords.

Other items (e.g., card decks, tape measures) that used to live in these drawers were relocated to the central drawer as part of the larger utility drawer organizing project.

This project took about 1.5 hours to complete and it has made such a difference! I do a little happy dance whenever I open these drawers (which is several times a day).

If you struggle with cord chaos, I challenge you to put this organizing project on the front burner. Get it done, then return to this post and tell me how it went and how awesome you feel now that it’s done (and we can do a happy dance together!)