Cable tidy from an empty solder wick reel

I don’t like to see my desk with excess cables mangled or twisted together, namely mouse and keyboard cables, USB extension wire, handphone charger cable, UIC00A USB cable, UC00A rainbow wires and etc. That’s a lot! Not only did it look untidy and is hard to differentiate one cable from another, they also collected a lot of dust.

So i think of applying simple cable management system on my desk. I came across this good looking cable tidy:

It’s designed for use with small cables such as headphone and mouse cables. A convenient and good-looking solution to an ever-increasing problem of excess cabling. However this handy stuff costs more than USD6 in the online store.

Looking at its design reminds me of another item which can be found in my office. It is Pro’s Kit Solder Wick reel. Solder wick is a soldering aid we use to unsolder components from PCB or to absorb excess solder we applied to pad. Whenever we finish the solder wick, the reel is thrown into the rubbish bin. However there’s another useful application for this little ‘trash’ – a cable reel. The photos show one empty reel and another with solder wick inside.

This is a charger for my ancient nokia 3100 cellphone. I don’t need the long cable since I’m charging my phone next to the power socket.

What i do is wind the excess cable on this solder wick reel.

The capacity is not big but it’s enough to store thin cable like this.

With a few turns, excess cables is neatly removed from sight!

It’s not as trendy as the cable tidy i show at the beginning of the post, but it achieves the same outcome!  Isn’t it nice where you don’t need to spend even a cent? Besides you can contribute to the greening of our earth by stopping the disposing of this little rubber solder wick reel too =)

Finally, this little trick has taken the headache out of dealing with frustrating tangled cables on my table. Hope this sharing helps you too. Whether it is your mouse cable or your telephone line, this DIY Wire Reel is perfect for any thin cables. Cable management ensures your valuable time is spent where you want rather than dealing with frustrating cables. Let’s tidy up our tables!