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Cord Organization
With all of the technology these days, you’re bound to have a pile of cords, chargers, and other random cables cluttering up your home. Well, today, I’m going to help you get all of those cords decluttered and organized once and for all – with a little help from my Cricut!
My new favorite project is these cute {and super functional!} DIY cord organizers. These can be customized however you’d like and are the perfect way to master your cord organization. They’re designed to stay on the cord, so even when you undo the cords, you’ll always know where to find the wrap. Make them for your whole family and don’t forget to make a few extras for gifts!
How to Organize Your Cords
Are you ready to tackle that tangled pile of cords and cables? Taking a little time now to get them decluttered and sorted will save you a lot of time in the long run. And probably prevent a lot of headaches and a few arguments too!
Gather everything in one spot.
Those tech cords and cables are likely spread out throughout your house so go on a little hunt and gather than all up! Check purses, desks, bedside tables, your car, and any other spots that those cords tend to accumulate in your home. Get your whole family involved and see how many different cords you can come up with. You might be surprised!
Detangle and sort.
Detangle all of those cords and sort them into categories such as iphone cables/chargers, lap top cords, tablet cords, Android cables/chargers, micro USB chargers, ear buds, etc.
Decide what to keep.
Once all of your charging cords are sorted, make that they’re all in good working order. Discard any that are damaged. Toss {or donate} cords that you no longer need or those that you have an excess number of. I couldn’t believe how many micro cables we had!
Make sure you know what all of the cords are used for and that you still have the devices that they go with. If you have any “mystery” cables that you’re not sure if you’ll need, store them away for a designated amount of time. If they’re not used within that amount of time, chances are you can safely discard them.
Come up with an organization plan.
Now that you know how many cords you have and need to store, it’s time to come up with an organization plan. Depending on the number of cords you have, you may want to have a central storage place for extra cords or universal cords that the whole family may use. In addition, you could keep a small cord storage in various rooms depending on your needs and where you tend to charge your devices. This is our main cord storage area where we keep the majority of our cords and chargers.
DIY Cord Organizer
I’ve tried a number of different cord wraps over the years, but I think this DIY cord organizer that I made with my Cricut is my favorite one yet. I just takes as few minutes to make, but will save you hours of frustration!
Materials
DIY Cord Organizer File
Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore Air
Cricut metallic rose gold leather {alternatively you could use the pebbled faux leather, however, this is not as thick}
Deep cut blade {If using faux leather you can just use the premium fine point blade that comes with the cutting machine}
snap fasteners. This kit that I got from Amazon comes with all of the pieces and tools needed to assemble them. You can find these at craft stores as well.
hammer
If you want to customize your cord organizers, you will also need:
Everyday Iron-on vinyl. I used metallic gold for more of a tone-on-tone subtle labelling for some of the cord organizers and black for a darker label.
EasyPress. I used my 9×9 EasyPress for this project but the EasyPress Mini would work great for this.
EasyPress mat
parchment paper
weeding tool
scissors
To Make
STEP 1: Customize your design in Cricut Design Space.
Open the DIY cord organizer cut file in Cricut Design Space. If you’d like to adjust the size you can unlock it and alter the length and/or width to meet you specific needs. If you don’t need as many cord organizers, just delete the ones you don’t want. Change the text to whatever names or labels you would like. You can always alter the font and font size if you wish as well. If you don’t want to customize your cord organizers, just delete the text and go to step 3.
STEP 2: Cut the Iron-On Materials.
Once you’re happy with your design, click “make it” and follow the prompts on the screen. Be sure to mirror the images before cutting.
Select your iron-on material from the “Browse All Materials” and ensure that the premium fine-point blade is loaded into your Cricut. Place the iron-on sheet face down {shiny side down} onto the green standard grip mat and load it into the Cricut and hit the cut button.
STEP 3: Cut the Leather.
Once you’ve cut the iron-on materials, it’s time to cut that leather! When prompted, select Metallic Leather from the “Browse All Materials” option. You will then need to load the Deep-Point Blade {black housing} into the cutting machine. {NOTE: If you need instructions on how to change the blade click HERE} Slide the small white “stars” on the Cricut roller all the way over to the right so they don’t leave any indentations on your leather material.
Adhere the leather face down {smooth side down} onto the strong grip {purple} cutting mat. It’s important that it’s adhered quite well so it doesn’t slip around during cutting. If your mat is older and you need a little extra adherence, roll over the leather with a brayer or place masking tape around the edges of the leather to hold it in place. Load the mat into your cutting machine and follow the on-screen prompts to complete cutting.
Step 4: Weed the iron-on.
Trim down the excess vinyl away from the words so it’s easier to work with. Weed away the negative space using the weeding tool. You should be left with the words stuck on the clear liner. Using scissors, carefully separate the words.
STEP 5: Iron-on the labels.
Pre-heat the EasyPress to 280F {140C}. {NOTE: I always refer to the Cricut heat guide when I’m using iron-on materials. Since there wasn’t a leather option listed, I used the same settings as the faux leather and tested it first on a scrap piece of leather}. Place the leather strips on the Cricut EasyPress mat and cover with parchment paper to protect the leather. To speed up the process, you can do a few cord organizers at a time.
Lightly press the Easy Press over the parchment/leather for 5 seconds to preheat the leather. Remove the parchment and place the labels where you would them on the cord wraps. Recover the leather with the parchment and press the EasyPress in place for 30 seconds. Allow to cool slightly and carefully remove the clear backing. Repeat for all of your cord organizers.
STEP 6: Add the snap fasteners.
Gather up the supplies needed to attach the snaps. You’ll need a solid surface to work on – either a self-healing mat or an old cutting board work best.
Take one of the caps from the snaps and press it into the cord wrap where you want it to sit. This will leave a mark so you’ll know exactly where to put the hole.
Using the hole setter and a hammer, make a hole for one side of the snap.
Once you have the first hole, fold the organizer in half and place the hole setter through the first hole to mark the second hole.
Add the cap and socket to the front side of the cord organizer in the following order: cap, leather, socket. To avoid denting the cap, place the cap in the silver base before hammering. Place the smaller nose head tool into the socket and hammer in place.
Add the stud and post to the back side of the cord organizer. Use the wider based tool to hammer them together.
STEP 7: Wrap up your cords.
Now’s the best part – it’s time to wrap your cords! My favorite thing about these cord organizers is that you can slip the cord through the slits so the organizer will always stay on the cord – even when unwrapped.
You can also use the wraps to shorten up your laptop cords so you don’t have extra cord falling down from behind your desk. Just plug it in and wrap up any excess.
For the cords with larger plugs, you can wrap the cord around the plug if you prefer and then just secure the cord with the smaller cord organizer.
If you don’t want to take the time to add the labels to the cord organizers, you could use a labeller to just add a label directly to the cord itself.
Tips to Cut Cricut Genuine Leather
You can cut Cricut brand genuine and metallic leather on both the Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore Air. I’ve had my Maker for more than 2 years now and can’t believe that it took me this long to try out the leather! I’m always nervous to try new materials, but it was so easy. Here are a few tips for getting the best cuts out of the Cricut leather materials…
Place the leather face down onto the cutting mat. This will help to preserve your mat as this side has less “fuzz” on it.
Since you’re placing your leather face side down, you will need to mirror your image if it is not symmetrical {i.e. letters or any other design that is not symmetrical if you flip it over front to back}.
Use the purple {strong grip} cutting mat. If the leather is still not sticking well, roll a brayer {or rolling pin} over the leather to adhere.
Move the star wheels all the way to the right to avoid leaving any indentations in the leather.
You will need to use the deep cut blade for cutting genuine leather. This comes in a black housing. {NOTE: If you don’t want to purchase an additional cutting blade you can use faux leather with the fine point blade that comes with the Maker or Explore}
Check the material to ensure that it’s cut all the way through before unloading the mat.
If you are using non-Cricut brand leathers such as garment leather or tooling leather you will need to use a knife blade. You can find the specific recommendations for these leathers HERE.
I hope you find these cord organizers as helpful as I do. I’d love to see your creations! If you have any questions, just let me know.
More Organization Projects
For more organization ideas, check out these posts…
DIY Laundry Labels
Spice Organization Ideas
Under Kitchen Sink Organization
The post DIY Cord Organizers {With Cricut Maker} appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.
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