What do I do with the drawer full of old cables and chargers?
Sorting a decade of accumulated cables and power supplies into what to keep, what is genuinely useless, and where each category legally has to go in the UK.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 1 hr
- Read
- 5 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Sort into four piles: cables still matched to a device you own, universal cables worth keeping as spares, chargers whose device is long gone, and anything damaged. Keep two or three good spares of each type you actually use, take the rest to a household waste site or a shop take-back point as small electricals, and never put batteries or battery packs in a bin.
Every household accumulates this drawer, and it persists because each individual item feels like it might be needed. In practice the great majority are for devices that left the house years ago, and a good half of them were never capable of much anyway. The tidy-up is quick once you have a rule, and it is also the moment to get the electrical waste out of the house properly rather than into a bin.
Safety
What you'll need
- A large clear surface
- Four boxes or bags for sorting
- A label maker or masking tape and a pen (optional)
- Cable ties or velcro straps (optional)
Step by step
- Empty the whole drawer out at once.Sorting in place never works, because you cannot see duplicates. One surface, everything on it, and the scale of the duplication becomes obvious immediately.
- Match every power supply to a device you still own.Any brick with a specific barrel plug belongs to one piece of equipment. If that equipment has gone, so should the brick — it will never fit anything else and the voltage is rarely compatible with anything you own.
- Keep universal cables, discard proprietary ones.USB-A to C, C to C, C to Lightning and HDMI are worth keeping as spares. Anything with a manufacturer-specific connector for a device you no longer have is dead weight.
- Test the survivors before you keep them.Plug each keeper into something and confirm it charges and, where relevant, carries data. Half the point of the drawer is that unknown cables are useless; a tested cable is worth keeping and an untested one is not.
- Cap the number of spares.Two or three of each type you genuinely use is plenty for a household. The rest is not a resource, it is a drawer.
- Separate anything with a battery in it.Power banks, old phone batteries, laptop batteries, vapes, cordless tool packs and anything with a cell inside goes in its own pile and must not enter any bin. Check each for swelling or damage while you handle it.
- Set aside anything visibly damaged.Frayed cables, cracked plug housings, chargers that get hot or buzz, and anything that has been chewed by a pet. These are not spares, and a damaged mains lead is a genuine hazard, not a maybe.
- Take the rest for proper electrical recycling.In the UK, cables, chargers and small electricals are covered by the WEEE rules. Household waste and recycling centres take them, many larger retailers must accept small items back whether or not you buy anything, and some councils collect small electricals from the kerbside.
- Label and store what is left so this does not recur.A tag or a wrap of coloured tape on each keeper saying what it is and, where it matters, that it carries data or high power. A shallow box with dividers beats a deep drawer, because a deep drawer is how this started.
Tips
- Charity shops and repair cafes often take good working cables and power supplies. It is worth asking before recycling anything that still works.
- Keep one good long cable of each type. Length is the thing you actually miss, and it is the reason people hoard the short ones for years without using them.
- If a charger came with a device still under warranty, keep it with the box. Sending a device for repair without its original supply occasionally complicates a claim.
Common mistakes
- Putting batteries or battery packs in the bin or the recycling box — Lithium cells ignite when crushed. Fires in refuse lorries and at waste depots are common and are traced directly to this. Batteries have their own collection points and it takes no more effort to use them.
- Keeping unbranded chargers because they still work — Chargers are the item where poor manufacturing is genuinely unsafe, because they connect to the mains and sit unattended. Anything with no markings, no brand and no safety marks is not worth the drawer space.
If it doesn't work
You cannot tell what a cable is for
Cause: Unlabelled and long separated from its device — Fix: If a five-minute test does not identify it, it goes. An unidentifiable cable will never be reached for with confidence.
A charger is warm even with nothing connected
Cause: Normal for a small amount of warmth, but a hot or buzzing supply is failing — Fix: Unplug it and recycle it. Do not open it — a mains power supply holds a charge and there is nothing serviceable inside.
A power bank has swelled
Cause: Internal cell failure — Fix: Stop using and stop charging it immediately, move it outside away from anything flammable, and take it to a household waste site battery point. Never puncture or compress it.
Questions people ask
Can cables go in the household recycling bin?
No. They are electrical waste and need a household waste site, a retailer take-back point, or a council small-electricals collection. The copper in them is genuinely worth recovering, which is part of why the routes exist.
Is a charger from an old phone safe to use on a new one?
Generally yes, if it is a reputable branded one. It may simply charge more slowly because it cannot supply as much power. A charger with no markings or brand is the one to discard.
What about the box of old phones at the back?
Wipe and sign each one out first, then sell, donate or recycle it. Old phones are the single most valuable thing in most of these drawers, and the account sign-out is what makes them usable to anyone else.