Great tangle effort from Michael
How do you deal with earbud tangles?
What do you do with your earbuds when not using them?
If you sport anything with an ‘i’ in front of it, you probably have a set of earbuds that are kept at close quarter– ready for tunes, calls, or a quick YouTube laugh.
But when being stashed, they usually end up tying themselves in knots in a pocket or pouch, ready to frustrate your next effort.
Some of our favourite solutions so far are from Budtrap or Lifehacker, but we reckon there’s an even better way out there… we just can’t find it.
Hadrien's a carry designer, a co-founder of Carryology, and is behind most of the amazing illustrations and info-graphics you see on the site, and will never give a basic review of something – there’s always an insight or three.
Latest posts by Hadrien (see all)
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It seems like a lot of work, but it’s easy:
Hold the plug part of the head phones between your thumb and forefinger. Wrap the rest of the cord around your hand uniformly, but not tightly that you can’t slide it off. When there’s enough length remaining for about one or two more wraps around your hand, slide the loop off of your hand with the other hand keeping the loop in tact. Take the “unlooped” wire and wrap it around the middle of the loop to make it into the shape of the number 8. Do this tightly. Stick the bud parts through one of the two loops you created.
Surprisingly effective. You can throw it in your bag and it won’t become a tangled mess if you wrap it tightly enough.
Thanks Leigh,
that’s a great description.
I’ve tried your number 8 technique for the last couple of days, and found that:
-It seems to work well in my bag (other than a bit of bag lint getting jiggy with the earbuds)
-But bumping around in my pocket for a couple of hours, it’s still found a way to get all late-night Twister on me.
Still, it’s a small step towards headphone bliss. Many thanks for sharing.
My favorite buds are the Griffin TuneBuds. They’re under $30 and most importantly have a braided fabric cover on the cable. This makes them as close to tangle free as one can ever hope for. I don’t know why more makers have not added this feature. I like the halve, then halve again, then tie that into a overhand knot storage method. It’s fast and doesn’t kink the cable or create tight turns.
I hear ya Brandt,
the best solution is to eliminate the problem at the cause.
The braided cords are a good step, or eliminating the cords all together.
And in the meantime, we try simple hacks to get around the issue.
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We have a solution that will not only keep your earbuds un-tangled, it will also hold your portable music player, cellphone, etc….and for only $10US. Check us out…EarbudBaggy.com.
that’s how: http://www.cordctrl.com/
Hold your earbuds between thumb and index finger roll them up over the index and mittel finger – put the roll of wire, jack connector and earbuds in a Codac film container – It works like a charm
you know those small altoids tin cans. my earbuds fit in them. they never tangle, so far
I wrapped my entire cords from plug to earpieces with embrodery floss using half hitches. Looks fantastic and 100% eliminates tangles.
Wow, sounds crazy. Do you have a pic?