Over and Under

As a little kid “helping” my dad, I probably rolled up my first extension cord before I was five years old. I mentioned that because I recently learned that I have been doing it wrong for over 60 years!

I suspect that, like me, you hold the cord with one hand and use the other to coil it around your elbow.  The problem with that is that you introduce a lot of unwanted twists in the cord – the longer the cord, the more twists you add.  You may end up with a coil shaped like an 0, but when you hang it on a peg, it transforms itself into an 8, and when you try to unroll it, the cord becomes a mare’s nest of kinks and knots.  That’s a real pain, and even worse, it’s very hard on the cable.

The right way to do it is explained in this video.  The guy who recorded it gives a pretty good explanation of how and why it should be done this way, but he is pretty full of himself and likes to hear his own voice, so you might want stop after the first three minutes or so….

There are dozens of “how to” videos out there, including those touting several other methods for coiling cables – the Shepherd’s Knot, for example – but this one actually works and is fairly easy to follow.

This same over and under method (with a minor modification) works great for the hose for your air compressor or even your garden hose.  Just use the over and under flip as you coil the hose as it’s lying on the ground.  Even an old hose that always kinks will uncoil perfectly.