Keep Power Cords Neat And Organized With One Simple Dollar Tree Solution

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

If you're like most people, you've wrestled with a tangled pile of cords at least once in your life, though honestly, that's probably a conservative estimate. Keeping your power cords neat and organized is something that most of us struggle with from time to time. And while it can seem like one needs a Master's in electrical engineering to keep those cords knot-free, all that's really required is a simple item from Dollar Tree's home and garden aisle.

Dollar Tree carries a Four-Grip Plastic Rotating Hook in a two-pack, featuring a hook on the top, which you hang on the bar in your closet, and four hooks on the bottom. When used as intended, it's the thing you need to organize all of your belts, a few purses with long straps, and your collection of scarves. When you take it out of the closet and bring it into your garage or video gaming area, it becomes the thing that keeps your cords from coiling up like a bunch of rattlesnakes engaged in a fight.

You may want some additional supplies to keep the cords bound tightly together, particularly if some of the cords don't have a clipping mechanism on their heads. Under normal circumstances, you'd clip the head of the cord to another spot on the cord via this feature. In place of this, have a couple of heavy-duty Sunmns 6-Inch Metallic Twist Cable Cord Wire Ties on hand to bind the cords together once you coil them up for storage.

You'll need to make space for the cords in a utility closet in your home. If you have long cords, make sure there's enough clearance for them so that they don't get tangled in items at the bottom of the closet. Additionally, some extension cords can also be quite heavy — up to 14 pounds or more. In light of this, test the strength of the grip hook before adding more cords to it. Otherwise, the plastic hooks may break. The results of your weight tests may prompt you to buy additional hooks to ensure that you have enough hooks to safely organize all of your electrical cords.

There's another challenge you may run into: Some locations in your home, like the garage, may not have a closet with a bar feature that you can hang the Dollar Tree grip hook on. However, if this is the case, don't fret. Fasten an MKO Towel Bar for Bathroom on the wall near your power tools and work station. Be sure to find a wall stud before you hang the towel bar, since the setup could get quite heavy due to the weight of the cords.

Finally, you may want to come up with a system to help you identify your cords at a glance. Sorting your items by color would help, and some colored electrical tape would kick things up a notch. For example, USB cables could get a spot of yellow tape. Extension cords are coded with blue tape. And cords that are longer than 12 feet would get purple or red tape.