Summer clear out - what do you keep?

[SteveB_NI]

Due to major refurb works here over this summer it's a great chance to clear out from classrooms, but especially our IT office.

 

Question is - how much do you keep - for example, of spare VGA cables (we still use a lot of vga monitors), power cables (which seem to breed amongst themselves!), network patch leads etc. I'm uncovering boxes upon boxes of power leads and it's an awful shame to WEEE dispose of them when they have never been used but even still - time to clear out.

 

Finally - what's your storage for the above items like? I'm re-laying out our office soon so ideas would be appreciated... at present I'm decanting down from large box to small box in the hope the next step will be out the door!

 

Thanks

[3s-gtech]

I tend to keep too many, but I’ve thrown away hundreds of power cables and VGA leads. I still keep enough for one whole room.

[Aprice]

For storage we have a few shelves with about 30 A4 paper boxes on. Not ideal but it didn't cost anything.

[elsiegee40]

You just have to be ruthless. I restricted myself to 2 crates of assorted cables as I had to be honest with myself and knew that I hardly ever had to get one from that supply. I’m only allowed 1 crate at home

[SteveB_NI]

For storage we have a few shelves with about 30 A4 paper boxes on. Not ideal but it didn't cost anything.

 

I quite like using these too because they are a decent enough size plus also the lid is handy too!

[dhicks]

Finally - what's your storage for the above items like?

 

Transparent (so you can see what's inside) Gratnells trays, with lids if on a standard shelf or eithout if placed in Gratnells-compatible storage furniture. It's the same system as used in our classrooms, and the tubs are pretty robust. They are a bit more expensive than standard tubs, though, and it does mean classrooms can pinch them if we're not careful.

[icttech]

For storage we have a few shelves with about 30 A4 paper boxes on. Not ideal but it didn't cost anything.

 

It all depends on the size of your stockroom, we also use these A4 paper boxes to store equipment. With changes in inputs, there always comes a time where you have to dispose old connectors, and just keep the minimum.

[pete]

IEC leads we recycle half every year. I've never had to buy any unless I want custom lengths for racks.

 

Storage, I strongly recommend Gratnells racks and trays.

[SamanthaD]

If all your IEC leads are still in the bag it might be worth actually renewing what you're using. I know they last forever but things like fuse rating etc change within them so I feel it's good practise.

 

Storage wise we use Really Useful Boxes with a few shelving racks. The lids are secure (if the box is full and the lid doesn't close you've got too many of that cable type), they're stackable and really robust.

 

As for VGA - I'd be tactical and throw them all out. If a cable goes down then sorry - it's no longer supported or available. Perhaps we should invest in some new monitors....... ;-)

[Andrew_C]

Fuse ratings DON'T change. 3 or 13 is what you're going to find mostly, but an _appropriate_ 10 or 5 isn't an issue.

 

The fuse rating should be appropriate for the cable.

[SteveB_NI]

If all your IEC leads are still in the bag it might be worth actually renewing what you're using.

 

I'm actually thinking of doing that where possible - if anything it means less sticky mess on the new cables which gathers up from PAT stickers over the years lol!!

[Rob_D]

Gradually over the holidays/inset/strike days since the start of the year we've had a complete clear-out/organization of all our storage spaces. For standard ICE power and VGA and HDMI we keep one 33L Really useful box of each. (With non-standard like the M/F cables or Y splitters separate). Most everything else gets a 9L really useful box, apart from network where we have different lengths and colours across a few boxes.

[SamanthaD]

Fuse ratings DON'T change. 3 or 13 is what you're going to find mostly, but an _appropriate_ 10 or 5 isn't an issue.

 

The fuse rating should be appropriate for the cable.

 

And the connector. IEC C13 connectors are only rated to 10A @ 250v, so a 13A fuse is not acceptable and SHOULD fail a PAT test.

 

I've had many blown fuses where clients have used a 3a fused C13 cable on something with a 6 / 7a draw and wonder why it doesn't work.... Hence why I suggest changing the cable with the ones that come with the devices as good practice.

[SteveB_NI]

Thanks for all replies folks - I’ve cleared out a massive amount of cables and reducing myself now to paper box size of storage for some!

 

The room is now painted and refloored and is a complete blank canvas! Also the skip is now rather full 😆😆😆

 

Big thing I’ve noticed - I’ve got far too many boxes filled with monitor bases from when they have been removed for dual monitor mounts. At what stage do you just bite the bullet and get rid of these? Does anyone else have an awkwardly shaped pile of bases sitting around lol

[MoldStandard]

Our awkward pile of bases is in a long forgotten cabinet in the other side of the college. It's basically a small room of them. I've been meaning to clear them all out to store some old desktops in, but those are almost obselete anyway so really I should get rid of both...

 

The real kicker for storage is SMART boards, we have three old broken ones we keep around for parts and they take up so much room for something we've never needed and likely won't either.

[DavR]

The real kicker for storage is SMART boards, we have three old broken ones we keep around for parts and they take up so much room for something we've never needed and likely won't either.

I've got one Promethean board I've been keeping for spares. It's been there so long now, though, that it's been buried by wood offcuts our site manager is keeping for a rainy day. I'll throw it away one day, when a chance comes to fish it out.

 

Power and VGA cables, I've got one heaped Gratnells box of each in my office, and an overflow box in my store room. I should have a clear out, really, the overflow at least I could scrap. Most other cables get a box each.

 

I've stopped keeping new power leads unless they're something special. Sad to say, a lot of the time, as they arrive, they go straight in the WEEE box.

[Dos_Box]

Come on. Who here still has some IDE and floppy cables knocking around 'just in case'!

Bonus points for SCSI cables

[Mako]

No sir, none of those types whatsoever.

 

Absolutely none...

 

[SteveB_NI]

Come on. Who here still has some IDE and floppy cables knocking around 'just in case'!

Bonus points for SCSI cables

 

I found a box of IDE / Floppy cables, and SATA cables too. They have found their way into the WEEE collection lol!!

[robintech]

Getting rid of as much as possible which is about two bags for life so far just in cable terms, anything new like a monitor comes with HDMI and a kettle lead (including VGA and a EU kettle lead) so only keeping a Gratnells worth of each type.

 

Need to pay for touch only Smart boards and a load of used non original toners to be recycled so would really like a WEEE skip that everything can be dumped into

[Davit2005]

Beginning to ask myself If I really need 2 crates of network cables at home now :-)

[jmak]

A colleague picked up a box of VGA cables which collapsed under its own weight and dumped then all over the floor. I helped by scooping them up and transferring straight to WEE. Less than an hour later a user came in asking for 5 VGA cables....

 

That has slowed down my mission to get rid of unnecessary cables [emoji17]

[SteveB_NI]

I’m on bin bag number 20 I think dumped since clear out began…. Bin bags full of CDs from the days of having to have a disk per license lol.

 

I’m actually a bit worried now that my clear room may give people ideas when they realise the actual size of it!

[DavR]

I’m actually a bit worried now that my clear room may give people ideas when they realise the actual size of it!

 

Never concede an empty storage space, as someone will very quickly fill it!

[Davit2005]

Come on. Who here still has some IDE and floppy cables knocking around 'just in case'!

Bonus points for SCSI cables

 

I have some IDE cables and SCSI cables and Adaptec SCSI cards at home, I don't know why as I only have one server that has a PCI card left and one old PC that has IDE ports not used in a number of years :-)

Edited July 27, 2023 by Davit2005