A popular online discussion has revived an old domestic question: the drawer or box of spare cables, adapters and chargers that many people accumulate. The debate is really about repair, obsolescence and how connector standards change.
Key takeaways
- The “big box of cables” is a common household and workplace phenomenon in which people retain spare cables, chargers and adapters long after the devices they came with have been discarded.
- The habit persists because consumer electronics have historically shipped with proprietary or short-lived connectors, so a replacement part may be unavailable when it is eventually needed.
- Arguments in favour of keeping the box rest on repairability, cost avoidance and reduced electronic waste, while arguments against rest on clutter, cable degradation and the growing standardisation of connectors.
- Regulatory moves towards common charging standards in some jurisdictions have reduced the variety of cables shipped with new devices, though older equipment still relies on legacy connectors.
- Discarded cables contain copper and plastics that can be recovered through formal recycling routes, but they are frequently disposed of in general household waste instead.
What exactly is the “big box of cables”?
The phrase describes a container — often a drawer, a shoebox or a plastic crate — holding cables, power supplies, adapters, dongles and connectors accumulated over years. Typical contents include USB cables of several generations, video leads for displays and projectors, telephone and network cables, barrel-jack power bricks, audio leads and small adapters that convert one connector to another.
The box is rarely organised. It grows by accretion: each new device arrives with a cable, the device eventually fails or is replaced, and the cable stays because throwing it away feels wasteful and because it might fit something else. Over time the box becomes a private parts bin, consulted when a lead goes missing, a replacement is needed in a hurry, or an older piece of equipment has to be revived.
It is a domestic version of something that professional environments formalise: IT departments, repair shops, theatres, laboratories and broadcast facilities all keep stocks of interconnects, because the cost of holding a cable is small compared with the cost of a system that cannot be connected when it is needed.
Why is it being discussed now?
The topic surfaced as a widely read and heavily commented item on a technology discussion site. Items of this kind tend to circulate not because anything new has occurred, but because they name an experience that a large number of readers recognise immediately. The comment volume reported alongside the post suggests a discussion rather than a simple endorsement — that is, people arguing about the practice as much as agreeing with it.
Beyond the immediate popularity of one post, the subject sits alongside several longer-running conversations in technology: the right-to-repair movement, growing attention to electronic waste, regulatory pressure towards common charging connectors, and a broader unease about how quickly consumer hardware becomes unusable. The cable box is a small, tangible object that those larger arguments can attach to.
What background does a newcomer need?
Consumer electronics have never had a single universal connector. Different functions — power, data, video, audio, networking — developed their own physical interfaces, and each of those went through generations. Within a single category such as USB, multiple plug shapes have coexisted, along with cables that look identical but differ in what they can carry: some support only charging at a low rate, some carry data at various speeds, some carry video, and some support high-power delivery. Two cables with the same plug may not be interchangeable for a given task.
Manufacturers have also used proprietary connectors for power supplies and accessories, meaning a replacement often had to come from the original maker. When that maker stops supplying a part, or the product line is retired, the surviving cable in a drawer can be the only practical option.
More recently, there has been movement towards consolidation. USB-C has become widespread across phones, laptops, tablets and accessories, and some jurisdictions have introduced requirements for common charging interfaces on certain categories of portable device. This reduces the number of distinct cables shipped with new products, but it does not retroactively change the installed base of older equipment, which continues to need what it has always needed.
Who is affected, and how?
Households are affected most visibly: the box takes up space, and its contents are hard to search. People who repair or maintain their own equipment benefit most from keeping it, since a working spare lead can restore a device that would otherwise be replaced.
Owners of older or specialised equipment — musical instruments, test gear, cameras, industrial controllers, legacy computers — depend on legacy interconnects that may no longer be manufactured in quantity. For them the box is not sentiment but supply.
Small organisations, schools and community venues often run mixed estates of equipment of different ages, and a shared cable stock is a routine part of keeping that equipment usable.
Waste handling is affected too. Cables are mixed-material items: metal conductors, plastic insulation, sometimes shielding and small electronic components in the case of power supplies and active adapters. They fall under electrical and electronic waste rules in many places, which generally means they should go to designated collection points rather than into general refuse. How much of the discarded material is actually recovered varies by country and by collection system, and reliable figures for cables specifically are not something this article can state.
Where do informed people disagree?
The disagreement is genuine and is not simply tidiness versus hoarding.
One side argues that retention is rational under uncertainty. Cables are small, cheap to store and occasionally irreplaceable; the expected cost of keeping one is near zero, while the cost of not having it can be a working device rendered useless. This view aligns with repair-oriented thinking and treats the box as a hedge.
The other side argues that the box is mostly dead weight. Its contents are unsorted and untested, so when something is needed the search may fail anyway. Cables degrade: insulation hardens, connectors corrode, and old power supplies can develop faults, particularly capacitors that deteriorate with age and disuse. Meanwhile many common cables are now cheap and quickly available, so the replacement cost the box guards against has fallen. On this view, keeping everything substitutes the feeling of preparedness for actual preparedness.
A middle position accepts both and proposes curation: keep what is genuinely hard to replace, label it, test power supplies before trusting them to a device, and dispose of duplicates through proper recycling channels rather than accumulating them indefinitely. There is also disagreement about safety, since unbranded or damaged power supplies and charging cables can present a real hazard, and an unlabelled item of unknown origin is difficult to assess.
What are the practical implications?
For an individual, the useful distinction is between cables that are commodity items and cables that are not. Common charging and data leads in current formats are widely sold and rarely worth storing in quantity. Proprietary connectors, device-specific power supplies with particular voltage and polarity requirements, and adapters for obsolete interfaces are the items that justify space, because the replacement market for them is thin or nonexistent.
Testing matters more than volume. A cable that has been in a box for years may be physically intact but electrically unreliable, and a cable that charges a device may still fail to carry data or video. Labelling what a cable does, rather than what it plugs into, avoids repeated rediscovery.
Power supplies deserve separate treatment. Matching voltage, current and connector polarity is necessary, and mismatches can damage equipment. Items with visible damage to the cable or casing should not be used.
For disposal, cables and chargers generally belong in electrical waste collection rather than household refuse, and many retailers and municipalities operate take-back or drop-off schemes. Availability varies by location, and readers should check local arrangements rather than assume a particular scheme exists.
What should readers watch next?
Three developments are worth following. The first is the continuing consolidation of connector standards and how far it extends beyond phones and small portable devices into laptops, peripherals, appliances and specialist equipment. The second is repair policy: rules on spare-part availability, documentation and access to components shape whether keeping old cables remains a necessary workaround or becomes unnecessary. The third is waste collection practice, including how easily small mixed-material items can be recycled and whether reporting on recovery rates improves.
If connectors continue to converge and replacement parts become reliably available, the case for a large undifferentiated box weakens over time. If they do not, the box remains what it has long been: an informal, private response to an ecosystem that does not guarantee the availability of the parts its products need.
Frequently asked questions
Why do so many people keep old cables they never use?
Because the cost of keeping a cable is very low and the cost of lacking one can be high. Consumer electronics have used many different and often proprietary connectors, so a replacement may be hard to find when an older device needs it. Retention is also driven by a reluctance to discard something that still works, and by uncertainty about whether a given cable will turn out to be useful later.
Are all cables with the same plug interchangeable?
No. Cables that share a plug shape can differ substantially in capability. Some carry power only, some carry data at different speeds, some carry video, and some support higher power delivery than others. A cable that charges a device may not transfer data or drive a display. Where capability matters, the specification of the cable matters more than the shape of its connector.
Do old cables and chargers go bad over time?
They can. Insulation and strain reliefs harden and crack, connectors can corrode, and internal conductors can break near the ends. Power supplies contain components that may deteriorate during long periods of storage or disuse. A stored item should be inspected for physical damage before use, and anything with a damaged cable or casing should not be connected to equipment.
How should unwanted cables be disposed of?
Cables and chargers are usually treated as electrical and electronic waste, which in many places means they should go to designated collection points rather than general household refuse. Retailers, recycling centres and municipal schemes often accept them. The specific rules and the availability of collection points vary by country and locality, so it is worth checking the arrangements that apply where you live.
Has standardisation made the cable box unnecessary?
Partly, and only going forward. The spread of USB-C and regulatory moves towards common charging interfaces have reduced the variety of cables shipped with new portable devices. However, the existing stock of older equipment still requires the connectors it was built for, and specialist, industrial and legacy hardware often uses interfaces that were never standardised. The need therefore declines slowly rather than disappearing.
What is worth keeping and what is not?
The practical rule is to keep what is hard to replace and discard what is not. Device-specific power supplies, proprietary connectors and adapters for obsolete interfaces are worth storing, labelled and tested. Common, currently available charging and data cables are cheap to buy and rarely worth stockpiling beyond a small number of spares. Curating and labelling a small set is more useful than retaining everything.
Sources and further reading
- Technology discussion forums, where the topic circulated and where readers debated the practical value of retaining spare interconnects.
- Standards bodies responsible for connector and interface specifications, which publish the technical definitions distinguishing cables that share a plug shape.
- Government and regional regulatory publications on common charging requirements and on electrical and electronic waste handling.
- Consumer and repair organisations, which publish general guidance on spare parts, product longevity and the safe use of power supplies.
Surfaced from the hackernews signal “hoarding spare cables”. AI-assisted draft, editorially reviewed.
