How do you organize your cables?

I bag them, at least the ones I won't be using so much.

DSC_2374 by Larry Madsen, on Flickr

These bags are actually retail packaging bags from the curtains I put in the music room. You could do it with regular zip-lock bags from the store just as well.

It keeps them clean and protected. Also from becoming tangled or sprawling out from being moved around.

Anything I have in "regular rotation" is just coiled on my pedal board or amp or shelf near the amp ... and quite possible in a bag.

The bags just keep them more manageable for me no matter where they are.

velcro ties

Yup. Roadie wrap and velcro ties. If I don't start there everything is a pain in the face. True story: I once spent 2 hours in my living room with 50ft mic cable, learning the roadie wrap. "Over worked, under paid, overworked, underpaid..." over and over, then toss it out down the length of the living room to make sure it unravelled tangle free. Best 2 hours I ever spent

Having been in the live sound business for a number of years I always wrap my cables with the over and under method as mentioned above. I was doing that even before then. Having at least 75 cables to unwind and wind back up, a couple times per week, made it a necessity otherwise the setup time got very time consuming when having to untangle cable spaghetti. With XLR mic cables I would wrap them over and under then run one end through the middle of the coil and wrap it around the cable a few times like a new guitar string when they come out of the wrapper. Then I would plug the connectors together to keep them separated from other cables. I could disconnect the ends, pull one end back through the loop 3 times, hold one end and throw it, and it all unwound perfectly with zero entanglement. I wrapped guitar cables the same way then they didn't require velcro ties. It got to the point where I wouldn't let the band members wrap mic and PA interconnect cables because it was always a mess when they did. I would teach them how to do it but they weren't interested. I told them to unplug their rig from the PA and just leave the cables on the stage. Me and the wife would take it from there. When I stopped the bands from winding cables I very very seldom had any cable failures. A little care goes a long way towards a dependable cable inventory.

In my sound system days I had a large Anvil trunk-type case with a divider in it. Mic cables in one side and miscellaneous cables in the other. For cables needed in the booth I had a separate case for them. For the 100 foot, 38 channel snake and power amp rack AC supply/snake cable, that went from the stage to the booth, I used a 24" bass drum case for storage and transport. I also had a 22" bass drum case for all the PA mains and monitor speaker cables.

Around my studio here at home I have cables in boxes and different cloth gym bags. Mic cables in the black gym bag and guitar cables in the gray one. I still have dozens of mic cables stored in boxes out in my shed if a need arises but I seldom use more than 3 or 4 at a time anymore. I have a large shoe box that some boots came it where I keep patch cables for my old patch bays. I have about 100 of them and they're all 16" long or less. Since the advent of digital audio in the studio I don't need any patch bays anymore.

I have some digital audio fiber optic and 70 ohm coax cables hanging on hooks in the closet in my studio room. They are for interconnections between different pieces of digital audio equipment in my studio. I want to keep them separated from the other cables and treat them gingerly because the fiber optic ones are delicate and if they break I have no way to repair them. I don't need them failing during a creative burst during a session.

I have always taken care of my cables because I didn't want to deal with failures on the gig. I still have some guitar cables from when I was a teenager that still work.

Spent a lot of time with system rentals years ago... the over/under wrapping along with velcro ties is the way to go. The cables last longer, don't develop the weird kinks or go off in weird directions, and you can pile them on top of each other once wrapped and they won't tangle with each other. Also, if you do it right, you can hold one end and toss the other, and it'll go out straight.

If you have a closet in the room, buy or make a 'shaker peg rail' from 16" of 1x4 and three or four shaker pegs (any home center stocks them). Screw it horizontally onto the inside of the door about 36" from the floor. Loop your cables into loose bundles 20" long, secure with a Velcro tie, and hang 'em on the pegs.

The reason you hang it low is if there are hangers in the closet the pegs don't close against things on the hangers.  Also, don't make the rail too long because the loops of cable hang out to the sides a bit and can interfere with the closet door closing smoothly.

If you have a lot of cables, make two rails and mount the 2nd one just below the top of the closet door.

"How do you organize your cables?"

Working/not working

Seriously, though: usually just coil them up in a little cardboard box. I should make one out of wood, which would be easy enough to do and would offer better protection (for the cables) & durability (of the container).

SIDE BAR:

This brand is my current favorite. I have a bunch of them and they've held up really well:

As an update: I decided to add a bit of mid century flair courtesy of a Black Friday special Eames Hang-It-All coat rack: