How do you organize all your electronic gadgets/accessories?
I'm in the process of moving apartments, and I'm realizing I don't have an elegant solution to all of the tech gadgets/accessories/junk my hoarding tendencies refuse to let go of.
By electronic accessories I mean all the cables, flash drives, SD cards, dongles, headphones, power bricks, etc. that have I've gathered over the years. There are some larger items like musical instrument cables, wireless speakers, an computer mouse, even an old PS3 I don't really know what to do with. While most don't get used frequently, there have definitely been times where one of these items comes in clutch.
I'm not opposed to getting dedicated furniture like an under-desk cabinet, although I would want to make sure the space is used efficiently, and that it can be sturdy enough to be multipurpose (e.g. my work office cabinets have a cushion that can be used for sitting on top of). I'm in NYC so space is a premium and there's a low likelihood that I'll have extra space in existing drawers/closets, so I'd prefer a standalone solution.
Hoping there might be some clever solutions/suggestions Tilerinos find handy, even if it's accepting that a Marie Kondo-style purge of unused electronics is necessary.
For me the first step was really making sure I only had what was useful. After that, the right solution really depends on how much we are talking about. I found it nice to have a few of those zip binders with pockets for cables and dongles, stored in a backpack, bag, or container.
But really, reducing is the biggest thing. Do you really need old power bricks? Can you replace many random chargers with one universal charger, etc.
Cables get wrapped up individually into loops and thrown into categorized boxes (the generic plastic ones with lids). I have a dedicated shelf for those boxes.
SD cards go in a tiny box. I don't use them for long term storage, so I make no attempt to label or organize them beyond that. When I need one I just grab one and wipe it and throw it back in when I'm done.
It's definitely tough to strike the balance between downsizing aggressively enough to avoid hoarding and not having to re-buy a cable/device that you threw away at some point. There have been at least a couple times when I've thought something like "there's no way I'll need three extra USB-A to micro-USB cables, especially not when things are moving to USB-C" and got burned later. I try to prioritize buying only devices that can use USB-C at this point, but even that is not always possible, ex. I couldn't find any budget USB-C bike lights that fit the bill recently.
I really don't know what the answer is.
I used to hoard old electronic gadgets, adapters, readers, cables, etc like crazy, since I occasionally needed them for doing IT & data recovery work. However, over the years I have gradually gotten rid of most of it since hauling it all from location to location as I moved around for the last few decades has been a PITA, as has finding space for it all, not to mention the wasted time/effort it took to keep it all organized.
So, nowadays my general rule is that if I haven't used a doodad for a few years then I get rid of it come spring cleaning time. Although there are a few exceptions for things I only super rarely use, but that would be expensive or difficult/impossible to replace (e.g. ZIP/Floppy disk readers, CD/DVD/Blu-ray resurfacer, HDD degausser, a few highly specialized cables/adapters/tools, etc).
p.s. "these items comes in clutch" is how I justified my hoarding too... but if something can easily be replaced for <$30, I no longer see the point in keeping it when I haven't had use for it in the last few years, just on the off change I might need it again some time in the years to come. ;)
As for storage, I use an IKEA under-desk cabinet, but with plastic drawer organizer trays and dividers in it, along with Velcro cable ties, to prevent it from becoming a tangled and unorganized mess of stuff. It's sturdy enough, and I like that I can quickly wheel it out from under my desk whenever I need access to anything in it, wheel it back under when I'm done, and wheel it out of the way entirely when I vacuum.
Moving is a great time for culling these things. For things that are olds, I set myself a limit for duplicates. But I kept all the new stuff. I sorted them by type, wrapped them up into coils, and put them in gallon or quart size Ziploc bags. The bags have a label area you can write on with a sharpie, so I labeled each bag. Then I put them all in a bin together. The bags made it much easier for me to root around in the bin to find what I wanted, but they don't take up much space and still allowed me to put a lot in the bin.
My answer: Badly. Very badly.