A DIY cable organiser for every home

A by-product of our smart, connected life is that we are surrounded all the time by a mishmash of cables, connected or unconnected to power backups and charging heads. Unfortunately, we can never find the one that fits the device currently at hand. It’s much worse when you have children and teenagers around. They can really add to the cable chow. This simple DIY cable organizer is aimed at sorting things out quickly and simply. You can do it, and you can get your kids to do it too for their cables. It takes barely 30 minutes end-to-end, but gives you a neater, nicer home.   

What you will need 
Here is a list of everything needed for this making a cable organiser. All these supplies are usually stocked at home:  

• Shoe box or any similar tough cardboard box  
• Roll of brown paper / coloured chart paper / old wrapping paper  
• Ruler and pencil 
• Glue and scissors  
• Marker pen  

How you will do it 
Your school kid can follow these steps to create her own organiser:  

• Empty and clean the box  
• Put the lid aside and wrap the box with your choice of paper. Aim to make it neat and durable, not decorative. You will need scissors and glue for this  
• Now measure the inside of the box with the ruler 
• Measure three 1-inch strips from the lid which are as long as the box’s width (shorter sides) and cut them out. Make two ½ inch slits at regular distances on the strips 
• Now measure three 1-inch strips which are as long as the box’s length (longer side) form the lid. Make two ½ inch slits on regular distances on these too  
• Place the strips in the box, using the slits to insert the shorter ones on the longer ones and create a grid  
• Get all your cable together, and wind up each of them in neat balls  
• Place each cable in a slot  
• Now write the cable’s use on one side of the strip enclosure holding it. Use the marker pen for this. Keep the labels clear: ‘Mom’s mobile charger’, ‘Rita’s tablet cable’, ‘Mouse connector’ etc.