BRING ORDER TO WIRE AND CABLE CHAOS
HERE’S another of those tasks that we all put off for ever, but that when you finally tackle you feel like a proper superhero.
Everyone’s got that wire drawer, or wire cupboard, where you keep all your electrical stuff — chargers, leads, computer bits and TV cables — and it can easily get to be a bit of a tip.
First, do not panic: just start as we always do, and take every single wire out of that drawer.
Once you’ve got it all out and had a look through, sort the wires into piles: what you actually use and want to keep; what you don’t use and are going to get rid of (and, if there’s any you need but haven’t got, make a note so you can pick some up later).
Anything you are not sure about, you can stick in a Maybe pile — but it should be fairly easy to know if it’s for the Keep pile or not, once you’ve worked out if you still use it.
You’ll probably find loads of wires for things that you don’t even own anymore. When I did mine, I found chargers for an iPhone 1, my first ever iPhone — I haven’t even seen one of them in about 15 years so why did I still have the charger?
And there were SCART leads in there, cables which link your TV to your devices — which I didn’t need, because my telly was already set up and working. We end up holding on to unnecessary wires just because they came in the packet with something, and we worry that we might need them one day. You can get rid of them responsibly — check with your local authority or a campaign called recycle yourelectricals.org.uk to see the options near you.
So, if you look at a wire and think, I’ve got no idea what that’s for, so I’d better keep it, I say, it’s time to get rid.
And if you do happen to come across something that you suddenly need a wire for, it’s so easy these days to find that wire through an online search and have it arrive in the post within a day or two.