I see and handle them 40 hours a week. They’re quite interesting, complex electronics in a thin metal strip tacked onto a plastic box. Their designs are unique and their shapes suggestive. I frequently wish some could make better use of them once their productive life is over.

Faith Pearson has realized my imagination. She literally saw outside the box. Here are some shots of her assemblages, courtesy of Make: Online.

And yes, I can name every cartridge in each of those constructions.

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That post addresses a box of keys. Many people have them; a box of keys from ages past that no one has any idea which locks they go to.  When I first conceived this tip I was thinking of the many chargers we accumulate as we add more and more electronic gadgets to our lives.

How many of these things are floating around your house? I must have ten or more. The worst thing is that they are all far too similar. The only differentiating factor is the tip, and that usually doesn’t suggest a specific piece of electronics. Does it go to my old PDA or my new cordless razor?

They often don’t have a name brand on them, that would be helpful. And you can’t simply plug them into the wall then into a gadget to see if it powers up. Get the polarity wrong and you could fry a valuable device.

So whether you have a box of miscellaneous keys or a dozen no-name chargers, here’s a simple and inexpensive way to keep track of where all these things go and what they belong to.

The metallic silver, fine point Sharpie.

On every charger in my house is written the device it goes to in silver Sharpie. Even chargers that carry an identifying brand I write the exact device it powers. You may have to write small, especially on keys, and you may have to renew the label every so often, but seeing a charger with “SamCellPhone” written in silver on the plug-in means I don’t have to try and read the “Samsung” embossed on the side.

Silver Sharpies are great for writing on any dark object. Just please, don’t be tempted to use it to write your universal password on the bottom of your laptop for easy reference.