Drinking Straw Wire Organizer

Like any body who's into electronics, my desk always has a clutter of jumper wires mostly used for breadboard prototypes. I wanted to store my jumper wires in an organized way, separating the male-male, female-male, female-female wires from each other. I also wanted to make them portable and accessible at any time. There are many tips and tricks out in the Webs in storing jumper wires but all of them weren't suited to my needs. So I decided to try some things on my own. The first thing that I tried using to organize the jumper wires were slipper hangers but I eventually gave up on it because the wires either kept falling out or they get bent. After a while of letting my jumper wires gather dust, a thought struck me on using drinking straws to organize the wires. So I bought a pack of drinking straws and started using them to organize my wires. You can see them in the Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. The straws.

I trimmed a straw up to the length of the wires just allowing the pin casings to show. Then I cut the straw along its length to make removing and inserting wires easier. That's it!

I'm quite satisfied with this setup. I chose red straws for male-female wires, white straws for male-male wires, and yellow straws for female-female straws. Here's a closer look.

Figure 2. A closer look.

The only gripe that I have is that the straws that I have can only accommodate 4 wires comfortably. I might look for and get some bigger straws in the future. But these will do for now. Try them if you want. Enjoy!