I just threw another one in the trash. Fourth one this year. Four.
My wife looked at me and said “you know you could just take care of them right?”
And honestly I wanted to be mad but she is right. I treat these things like they are invincible and then I get shocked when they break. Makes no sense when you actually think about it.
I am the guy who yanks the cord out of the wall by the wire. Every single morning. I am rushing. I am late. I just grab and pull.
I am the guy who wraps the cord around my phone and throws it in my pocket. Tight little knot. Looks fine. Whatever.
And then I am the guy sitting at 2% battery holding the cord at a weird angle trying to get it to charge. Wiggling it. Flipping it. Nothing works. The inside is toast.
It is stupid. I know it is stupid. But I keep doing it.
The Wrap Thing
This is where I mess up the most. I watched some guy on YouTube say you should wrap cables around your elbow. Make a neat little coil. So I did that for like a year.
Turns out that guy was wrong. Or maybe he was right for his specific cables but for mine? Nope.
When you wrap something tight around your elbow you are twisting the copper inside. You cannot see it. But it is happening. Those little strands are bending and stretching. Do it enough times and they snap.
Now I make these huge loose loops. Like I am not even trying to make it look neat. Just big circles. They take up more room in my bag but I do not care. At least they work when I need them.
The Yank
I know you do this too. Do not even pretend.
You finish charging your laptop. You grab the cord. You yank it out. Pop. Done.
But that little spot right where the wire meets the plug? That is the weakest part of the whole thing. When you yank, all the stress goes right there. Every single time.
And then one day you look at the cable and the rubber is all split open. You can see the little copper wires poking through. Its over at that point. Might as well just throw it away.
My buddy works in a recording studio. He told me they never ever yank cables. Not ever. They grab the actual connector part. The hard plastic thing that goes into the device. They pull that straight out.
I started doing that. It felt dumb at first. Like I was being too careful. But my cables started lasting longer. Like way longer.
Heat Is The Worst
Nobody talks about this.
I left my headphones in my car on a hot day. Just for a couple hours. Went to lunch. Came back and the wire was all soft and warped. The rubber had melted a little. Not like dripping melted but it got all floppy and weird.
When it cooled down it got stiff and cracked. The sound started cutting in and out. Totally ruined.
Same thing in winter. The cold makes the rubber all hard and brittle. If you bend it when it is freezing cold it can crack right open.
Just bring your stuff inside. Do not leave it in the car. It is not worth it.
Pocket Lint Is Disgusting
This is gross but real.
I had this power bank that would not charge. I would plug my cable in and it felt loose. Like it was not clicking in. I thought the port was broken.
Turns out it was just packed with pocket lint. Little bits of fuzz and dust from my jeans. I took a toothpick and scraped it out. So much junk came out. It was gross.
After I cleaned it, the cable clicked in perfect. Worked fine. I almost threw away a perfectly good power bank because I did not clean it.
Same thing with phone ports. If your charger feels loose, check for lint. Use something wooden like a toothpick. Do not use metal. You will short something out and really break it.
The Earbud Struggle
I used to wrap my earbuds around my phone. Every day. Just wrap them up tight and shove them in my pocket.
They broke all the time. One side would stop working. Or the sound would get crackly. I thought it was just cheap earbuds.
But I bought nice ones once. Expensive ones. And they broke too. Same problem.
The wires inside earbud cables are so thin. Like thinner than hair. When you wrap them tight around your phone, you are stretching those tiny wires. They cannot handle it.
Now I just make a loose bundle and put them in a little pouch. They still get tangled sometimes but they do not break as fast.
The Drawer
You know that drawer. Every house has one. The junk drawer with all the dead cables and random adapters and that one charger you keep meaning to throw away.
Mine was a disaster. Cables everywhere. Tangled up with each other. I would open it and stuff would fall out.
I cleaned it out last week. Threw away so many dead cables. Like ten of them. Some of them I did not even know what they went to. It felt good actually. Like I was clearing out the clutter in my brain.
Storage Helps
We have these units at our place. People use them for all kinds of stuff. Tech equipment, monitors, boxes of cables and computer parts.
It actually helps. When you have a dedicated space for your stuff, you are less likely to just throw things on top of each other and crush them.
Climate control is a big deal too. If you are storing expensive electronics or cables, you want them somewhere that does not get too hot or too cold. Our units are climate controlled for that reason.
Not saying you need to rent a unit just for your chargers. That would be silly. But if you have a bunch of tech gear piling up, it is something to think about.
The Bottom Line
I am still bad at this sometimes. I caught myself yanking the cord yesterday. Old habits are hard to break.
But I am better than I used to be. And my stuff lasts longer now. I am not buying new chargers every couple months. I am not standing at 2% battery wiggling the cord like a crazy person.
It is not hard. Just unplug by the connector. Make loose loops. Keep them out of extreme heat and cold. Put them in a separate pocket or pouch.
That is all I got. Hope it helps. Because honestly I am tired of buying chargers and I bet you are too.
0 Comments