How to wind up your extension cord without getting a knot

Written by Mike Johnson in Editorial

I was out plumbing on a service call a while back when I watched a home owner struggle to get the knots out of his extension cord. About 20 minutes later he watched me pull out my own cord for some drilling and said “How the heck do you wind these up without getting it knotted up?”. I can unwind my cords perfectly in less than 10 seconds and I will never have a knot. Below is how I do that.

Step 1: Unwind the cord and lay it out. Fold it in half and just grab the two ends just like in the photo below.

Step 2: With your thumb and your pointer finger pinch and hold the two ends and wind up the cord just like you normally do. The difference is you are winding 2 strands at on time. In the photo below you can see how I leave a tail that doesn’t wind around.

Step 3: The tail is used to wrap the bundle. Wrap it 2 times.

Step 4: Shove the tail through the top hole. Let the plug ends just hang. The left over loop, which is exactly half the cord, is also a handy way to hang up a cord.

Step 5: Below is the finished product and this is how I wind up my cords so they never get a knot.

Unwinding the cord: Unwinding the cord is easy, you simply grab both ends with your right hand and unwind the 2 two wraps with the left hand.

This is what it looks like when it’s unwound. You can throw the cord as long as you are holding on to both of the ends. If you wind up a cord this way it will never make a knot.

Mike