I will say that Vidmar, Lista, and Rousseau make thin drawer cabinets that work well for cables if you have graduated from "big box of cables" to "cabinets full of cables". Also, old map or blueprint drawers work well. Still requires obsessive coiling, but being able to see (semi-random access) all of them in a drawer all at once is a big speed improvement for searches.

I always think the worst thing that can happen to a (mild) hoarder like myself is that one of the things I'm hoarding comes in handy. Using one hoarded thing justifies years' worth of more hoarding.

I purge my box every few years. Do you really need 20 usb cables. I do save the esoteric ones though.

over 30 years of cable collection. rare gems include apple SCSI DB25/CN50/HD50/HD68/HDI-30 cables, apple/NeXT ADB cables, apple localtalk dongles, atari SIO cables, centronics parallel cables, din-8 serial cables, hdi-45, apple adc video cables,DB13W3 video cable, dvi-d video cable, dms-59, firewire 400 and 800 cables, ipod 30-pin cable, ega db9 to vga db15, s-video cables, optical audio toslink cables, component video cables, SCART video cables, micro-dvi/mini-dvi, harddisk IDE/PATA cables, 10base2 BNC cables, miles of rj11, trrs and RCA cables, etc.

All bagged up using ziplock bags and labelled.

Never know when I might need them again...

Literally today my friend asked me if I have a cable for an iPod :P

Empty toilet rolls. That way I can see the connectors and quickly find what cable I need.

This is so strange because I have a big box of cables. And I had a dream about it the other day. Which was more like a nightmare.

I think there was some point in the dream where I was going ape shit because the USB type C ones were missing or I couldn't find them and I was blaming [someone].

I'm not like this when awake FYI.

once i had a break in a sata cable. it caused occasional random bluescreens... some data would corrupt going from disk -> mem.

i throw away all old cables and components now. screw the little sh*ts. into the bin before they cause me that level of misery again.

As an aside, learn to properly care for cables. There are several YouTube videos on this topic, typically from musicians. Most importantly for small molded cables, avoid sharp bends and stress on the wire near the ends. Just a loose coil is much better. And the “over under” method for long cables avoids getting them twisted up.

You never know when you'll need a FireWire 400 cable or a charger cable for a handspring treo, I guess...