How To Get Rid Of Charger, Cable & Cord Clutter

Today's mission is to declutter chargers, cables and cords around your home to get rid of excess ones that you no longer want or use.


I've designed this mission to be done while we work on the Home Office Organization Challenge here on the site, but you can do it whenever you get so fed up with your cords, cables and wires for your devices that you just can't take it anymore!

Obviously, the idea is not to declutter all the wires, cords and cables you've got around your home that go with various electronics. After all, you still need many of them!

Instead, during today's mission I want you to focus on getting rid of the ones you no longer need or cannot identify and are therefore useless. Those are the ones that have become cord and cable clutter.

Go throughout your house and find all the chargers, cords and cables and if you can identify what it goes to, right now go ahead and label them so you'll still know what it is, in the future. (There are several ideas for labeling, organizing and storing cords and cables here in this article on the site.)

If you know what a cord or cable is, and it doesn't work anymore, or you don't even have that piece of equipment anymore (or the equipment itself is broken) do not keep these types of items in your home any longer.

You'll also inevitably come across cords that you don't know what they go with. First, ask others in your household who may know the answer.

After that, if no one knows, the hard decision comes for those cords that no one can identify. Keep or toss?

If you feel like they've been around for years and years and you've not used them during that time, chances are you can go ahead and get rid of them right now.

If you're undecided about some of them right now I suggest that you at least gather up all the unknown cords, chargers and cables into one location, such as a bag or box, and both label and date the container.

If you find a device that needs such a cord in the next six months you can go straight to the box and hopefully match them up.

If, however, at the end of six months you still have not used those chargers and cables it's time to completely get rid of the box or bag from your home.

Before you throw these items you decide to declutter in the trash though, make sure to check out the information below which has suggestions of the best ways to dispose of cord clutter.

Ideas For How To Dispose Of Cords & Cables When Decluttering

Once you identify which cords, cables and chargers you're going to get out of your home the next thing to decide is what you're going to do with these items.

Your first inclination may be to throw them in the trash, but don't.

These cords and cables are what is called "e-waste" and therefore need to be disposed of in a responsible way so they can be recycled and not pollute landfills.

As always, keep cords and cables, whenever possible, with the original equipment. So if you've decided to donate an electronic go ahead and gather up all the possible chargers and other wires and cords that go with it, if you can, so they stay together.

Further, you may want to check with friends and family to see if they want any of these excess cords. Often the piece you no longer need is exactly what someone else has been searching for.

If friends and family don't want it another idea for disposal is to donate these items to your local charity shop. Even if you don't personally know someone who wants them this is a great way of making them available for someone in need of the exact cable that you find to be clutter.

Of course, as always, only donate items that actually work. That means if the cords are frayed or don't work, please don't give someone your trash.

If you just want to get rid of them, consider recycling them. There are some electronics stores that take these types of items for recycling, including Best Buy, so consider dropping the cords off there.

Finally, if you don't have a Best Buy near you call your waste disposal company and ask them where to drop them off for proper disposal and recycling. You can also look for local e-waste disposal companies in your area that can help you further.

You can also get more ideas for electronics disposal here:

Are You Ready To Declutter Your Old Chargers, Cables & Cords Now?

I hope these tips have gotten you ready to declutter you old chargers, cables and cords now, so you can go ahead and get started.

This decluttering mission is a great step in reducing some of the typical technology headaches you can have in your home when you don't know what you've got, or what it goes to.

Here's a photo from a reader, Dora, who has already done this mission to get you inspired. She sure did get rid of a lot of these items from her house, didn't she?

In addition, make sure to check out the Cable & Cord Storage Ideas & Organization Tips article here on the site for ideas for what to do with the wires, chargers and cords you do decide to keep.

Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!

Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.

The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!

Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.

Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.

In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.

If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!

Get This Home Office & Technology Decluttering Checklist + 32 Other Decluttering Checklists For Your Home

Right now you're decluttering home office and technology items around your home, and there can be a lot of these types of items.

Get your 1 page home office and technology decluttering checklist, plus 32 other decluttering checklists, to help you declutter your entire home here.

I've done the hard work of breaking down these tasks into smaller more manageable steps for you, so you don't get overwhelmed or worry you're forgetting a task, and you can go at the pace you want, whether that's fast or slow.

In addition, you can tackle these decluttering tasks in whatever order you want when you use these checklists!

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Getting Clutter Free 15 Minutes At A Time Hall Of Fame

Getting Rid Of Home Office & Technology Clutter Hall Of Fame

How To Declutter Photography & Video Equipment & Supplies

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