This year we’re on a mission to downsize and re-organize everything in our home. As we age we need things to be clean, neat and in their place. We don’t have the time to run around looking for things nor do we want to clean more than we have to. I want to find what I need within seconds.
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First project for me to undertake is downsizing and organizing our Christmas and Holiday decorations. More specifically, the outdoor items. Wife handles putting away all of the inside decor. One thing that I’ve always struggled with is how do I effectively store all of our Christmas lights? Extension cords? Rope Cord Light-Up Pop-Up Outside Trees? In the past everything got tossed into a plastic storage bin and tangled.
From Amazon I purchased the Reusable Fastening Cable Straps and Cable Ties which comes in a pack of 20. You get different sizes within that pack to handle different tasks. All of these cable straps are reusable…year after year after year. You buy them one time and you’re done! On top of that, easy-to-use and affordable.
One of the things I really like about them is their adjustability. I can losen them up or tighten them as needed. They’re strong and well-made. Not the flimsy type you find at the local Dollar Store for a buck each that break in a week. The company has different sized cable straps and packages available depending upon your needs.
How did I use them? Well, I’m going to tell you and show you!
I took the time to untangle EVERYTHING…every light strand, extension cord, holiday garland, etc. I made sure everything was in good condition and working properly before putting it away. You never want to put away damaged items that you’ll forget about next year. If damaged, fix it right away or toss into the trash.
Extension cords can be a nightmare to store. I wound them up and then fastened them together using the cable ties. Several of them then went into the storage bin while others I took out to my work shop and hung up. Yes, you can hang these up once you have them all wound up and secured. I was able to get several extension cords tethered together to save on storage space.
Next up were several Christmas light strands that always get tangled…especially icicle lights. I got those all untangled and wound up. I then secured 2 of them together using the cable ties. Once neatly done you can stack oodles of them together in your plastic storage bin for safe keeping and next year when you take them out…none will be tangled.
Got those light-up Christmas rope trees that you put outside? They’re a real pain to store. I collapsed them down flat and then used three cable ties to secure them together. I can now easily carry them up the steps into our attic to store away for next year. Those trees are weighty and the straps are strong enough to hold everything together. Finally, an easy solution for storing those trees. If you decorate with a lot of holiday garlands you can wind those up and secure them together with a cable tie too.
The Reusable Cable Ties and Fastening Straps have become a hit in our household. So much so that I went back and ordered 2 more sets. Wife wants to use 2 small ones to secure her vacuum cleaner cords to the vacs which are always falling off and a pain to wrap. She’s going to use 2 others to secure the cords to her hair dryer and flat iron which she keeps store underneath the bathroom sink. Those cords are always a mess underneath there. If you have appliances sitting on your kitchen counter with long cords…you can roll them up a little bit and secure with a tie so that they’re not flopping all over the place. Got a hand mixer? That cord is always falling off the unit once wound up. Not anymore! One of the small cable ties can fix that and keep your hand mixer nice & neat. I can think of hundreds of things I can use them for in my garden shed and workshop. Yes, I needed more!
Where can you buy them? Amazon of course! Buy a pack for yourself and a few to give as gifts throughout the year. A great gift-giving idea that helps others to get organized too.
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A near term project is to get my garage cleaned up and organized. I have so many odds and ends stored in there that having something like this would be very handy.
We have some very similar to those. My husband loves them. He likes to keep it all organized.
I like this straps. I got hooked on the velcro strap because of comcast. I picked up a box and all the cables had the straps on them. WHAT A GREAT IDEAL. I used them ever where hair dryer, curling iron, rollers, vacumm cleaner, laptop cords…………………………. they are wonderful but what I have is not as good as what you have. So I am going to order them
I had no idea that these cable straps even existed until I read your post. Boy do I need there and am adding these to my Amazon wish list.