Small living adjustments

I've been trying to buy things that make my living space intutive and functional.

Over the years, I've accumulated a large collection of cables. I tried separating them by size and later by type by putting them in different boxes. Over time, the boxes would inexplicably move away from each other, become overfilled, and I could never find the cable I needed quickly. The quickest solution was to dump them all in a steel cookie box and place the box in a drawer so that the cables would have somewhere to go in case they overfilled the box. Finding a particular cable meant picking one up at random, inspecting the ends to ensure that it is comptaible with my needs, and rummaging through the box in the drawer if I didn't get lucky the first time.

After watching a TikTok on filling tiny go away pouches for your essentials that you could just "grab and go", I bought these zipper pouches.

The first comment on the product was a guy raving about how useful these pouches were to organize his cables 💡

A collection avoids becoming a heap through organization.

My cable drawer is now organized into 4 pouches (usb-c, lightening, bricks and adaptors, and miscellaneous). It's so much easier to find the exact cable I need.

Organizing begets more organizing. While putting the cables in their bags, I noticed that it was hard to coil them up in neat bundles. I was using metal wires to twist around the cables and when I ran out of those, started using tape. Looked ugly and made the cables super sticky.

So, I got these velcro cable ties. Now, every cable gets its own permanent velcro tie and so that it's easy to stow away, use, and carry for travel.

Sometimes, the smallest tweaks bring the biggest joys. I think every cable should automatically come with a cable tie to stow it away. But that's another topic.

I'm happy with my solution now.