Introduction: Clean Up the Basement--Confessions of a Cord Horder.

By diyMATT.tv
About: Alton Brown taught me how to cook, now I want to tackle diy projects.

Like a lot of computer geeks I have a lot of extra "stuff" in boxes, closets, garages, corners, drawers and wherever. Most of the time that works out just fine as long it's out of site, out of mind.

Cables however are never easy to store in boxes. It was time for me to get the cables out of the boxes and off the floor, and this was what I did.

Step 1: The Look

Ok, I have a few boxes of cords and cables on the floor.

Step 2: The Location

Hey look, there is a blank spot in the basement. I need to take advantage of it and fill it full of my crap.

Step 3: Haphazardly Hang Closet Rod

I had a closet rod handy, and this looked like a perfect use for it.

Screw one side recklessly into some wood that is also precariously screwed into other wood.

(while there....look at items you never use anymore due to growing up--like snowboard boots and youthful ignorance)

Step 4: Side 2

Attach the other side. Make sure you mount the other side in a completely different and totally weird way as well.

Why start being consistent now?

Step 5: Break Time

"Whew"

It's been like ten whole minutes away from my computer chair and I am exhausted. How do people do this manual labor stuff all day?

It's Miller time.

Step 6: Mount Them Up

Grab a handful of cords and commence hanging them over the rod.

This is the hardest part becasue as we all know from pulling Christmas lights out of hibernation, the cords are a tangled mess.

Untagle your cords one by and attempt to hang them in some sort of order before the 8 1/2 beers you had during Miller time start to really kick in.

Step 7: Ummmm, Gotta Fix That.

Notice about mid way through that the rod is bending ever so slightly.

Due to watching the Discovery channel for virtually 18 hours at a sit, your keen intellect provides you with enough forward thinking to realise the bar ain't gonna hold all the crap you intend to hang.

Screw a large, weird shaped hook into the wall, bend it under the closet rod, and continue to think those schmucks who build bridges ain't all that.

Engineers? Whatever.

Step 8: Hang More Shiz

Continue the mind numbing joy that is:

-Dig through box for a cord that isn't spun 30 times arount 40 other cords.

-Hang cord in one spot until you realise you have more in another.

-Pull useless old objects out of boxes you will never use but continue to keep until they are totally unsellable on eBay.

-Curse yourself for not buiding a Keg-er-a-ter yet.

-Wash, rinse, repeat.

Step 9: What the Hell Is This?

Oh yeah, it's the floor.

I lost it about 3 months ago when I moved in and forgot what it looked like.

All done. Time to get back to doing stupid stuff with the internet, like posting here.

Step 10: TADAAA !!! THE ARISTOCRATS!!!!



In all seriousness, this took about 2 hours. The pole is terribly solid, and the hook was just there and I forgot to pull it down. I figured with all the weight of the cables it couldn't hurt anything. 90% of the time spent was to de-spaghetti-ing the wires. If your cables and cords are neater this could go much faster. Then again, if your cords and cables are not a mess, then you don't need to do this I imagine.

This isn't my personal idea by any stretch. I have seen this trick in many homes and copied it to work for me. In my last home I did the same thing in a old closet that wasn't used much. Its not a clever trick or anything, but I found it a helpful method to store cables in some sort of organised fashion.