winding up extension cords or hoses can
be an absolute mess especially when they
get tangled and have knots and all that
fun stuff I'm going to show you a couple
of easy ways to work with these now what
I learned when I was younger and this is
how I had done it for most of my younger
life was you put it in your hand and you
wrap it around your elbow like this and
on you go
so you do that and then you plug these
together but then what happens is you go
to use the thing and you see
if I throw it out here for example so as
I come to bring this out I'm bringing
chunks of cord like this and hopefully
they eventually work themselves out and
then this thing just stays in a big knot
and just doesn't want to doesn't want to
work I end up with this when I was in
college I was taking some classes that
taught me what these key grips used when
they were wrapping up their audio and
video cables on set this works for
concerts as well where you have these
huge spools of wire and you need to feed
it to the musician or you need to follow
around the camera and you don't want
everything to get tangled up so the over
under technique is pretty simple the
idea is you do one of the first Loops
over for example like this so I'm using
my dominant hand to do the wrapping my
non-dominant hand as a shelf a holder
here so I've got one just a regular Loop
but the next one I'm going to go under
so I'm actually bringing this one and
I'm twisting my wrist under so your
forearm is underneath the loop so I do
it like that and then I pull it out and
let it hang grab another arm length and
then I'm going to put put this next one
over like this one just a regular one
next one again is going to go under so
you see I kind of do a little a little
toss like this to get my Loop going and
I end up with my forearm under I hook it
onto my left hand my non-dominant hand
and then pull out and then grab my over
now if need be I can feel the twist in
this so I can twist it or untwist it
really to get it nice and straight
that's really what we're going after
here is to make sure that none of these
are twisted up and having these little
kinks or bends or bows in them so that
wasn't over so I'm going to go to an
under now
like that
and then an over and again on that one I
had to twist it I felt like I could feel
that if I go like this see what it's
doing it's fighting me on that so I want
to relax the chord as best I can and in
this case what I need to do is twist it
this way because it was about 180
degrees Twisted the wrong direction now
I can grab my next one and go under
over
under
over and so on so on that one I need a
little twist on there so I'm going to go
like that then like this
and so on now when I'm done I've got a
couple of things going on one I like to
always keep these little velcro twisty
ties on here and they're just it's just
a velcro strap that's got hooks on one
side loops on the other and then I can
wrap it up
and then tie it off like that so this
thing's ready to hang up throw in the
back of your truck whatever you need to
do ideally you want to keep one side to
where it left off so I ended off with
the female side in the front and the
male side in the back here so I want to
make sure I keep those in order as best
I can and that's what your twisty tie
here will do your Velcro so now if I
want go to use this on a job site or
somewhere else in the house then I'm
going to just twist this off like this
the velcro just leave it on the cord
then I can leave I can take this part
for example let's say I've got it
plugged in over here check this out
you can set that down and as I walk away
from this it's going to unloop itself
pretty much perfectly every time
just nice and flat no twists no Kinks
no problems look at that would you look
at that now to show that in more of a
real time here's what this is going to
look like over under over under
over
under
over
under and I'm kind of feeling this out
as I go to make sure that there's no
twists or Loops in there but the cool
part is once you do it once unless
something Tangles it outside of what
your you know your wrapping process it's
going to kind of stay in place and there
we go the other cool part is check this
out if I grab both ends and toss this
it's not going to be Tangled At All
look at that I mean just get a look at
that just lays out nice and flat just
like we want it
no issues when you're working with a
hose the over under technique is the
ideal way to go so I'm going to start
with one end
wrap it like this now this one I don't
even remember how this was wrapped up
last time so we're going to just kind of
handle it as it comes so far so good
this one you have to really keep an open
hand here especially if it's a longer
hose I believe this is a 50 footer at
least and then
sit it on top like that so you might
need to stack it a little bit for a hose
just to give yourself enough room to
hold it so that was an under so I'm
going to twist it so I can do the next
over and then grab my next under so you
kind of have to Wrangle it a little bit
if it hasn't been done properly in the
past
there we go so I'm just gonna
keep wrapping it around like this almost
done
I'm running out of hands
all right
and then our last over so now we've got
a nice coil here and the cool part is
this coil is going to be so easy to work
with now as I unwind this this thing's
just going to come totally free nice and
easy with no issues and I can take as
much of this as I want it's just going
to come right out just the way we want
it the entire time
all the way down to the end so that's
why the over under technique is the
perfect technique to use for hoses the
second technique that is totally
different from the first one and it kind
of looks like a mess but works really
well I call it the chain technique and
it works also really well but for a
different purpose you wouldn't use this
with a hose but for an extension cord
this works super well again we've got a
50 foot cord here I just did this with a
hundred foot cord it works great but
what I'll do is I'm going to start by
taking the two ends and then plugging
them into each other and then I'm going
to follow it along whoops kind of fist
over fist here until I get to the end
the halfway point right here once we've
got our halfway mark like this we're
just going to take that Loop that we
created and I'll call this part over
here the tail we're going to feed the
tail up through the loop
and then we end up with the tail again
and then our Loop so I'm going to feed
the tail through the loop I'm going to
keep these into fairly small sections
like this and all I'm doing is every
time I make a new loop I end up with a
new tail and I put that through it like
so
and I just keep those oops keep those
tail pieces together
and it's kind of twisting in my hands
that's okay
and then just keep feeding it through
like this
so just to kind of show this real slow
I've got the one in my hand I've got the
bottom tail piece and I'm just going to
push it through and make that Loop which
creates a new loop on top over and over
until I get to the end now when I get to
the end like this
I can either store it like this and then
I've just got my chain right here and
that works out great this is really
durable in fact I can take this thing
and wad it up I can toss it onto the
ground put it under the seat whatever
you need and then you just grab the
female and male ends here and you're
good to go now the cool part is you
don't need to unravel the whole thing to
use it let's say I have a 10 or 15 foot
span I need to run I can then just pull
these through both ends pull it through
once and then Watch What Happens so as I
start to go through here it's going to
untangle itself and I can release as
much as I want or as little as I want
let's say I just need this much so I'm
going to leave this chain part intact
and then run this way one way and this
one the other way and I'm good to go
then I don't have to redo the whole
thing in fact let me plug these back
into each other because I like doing
that
and also protects the prongs on here
from getting stepped on then you
remember I ended up with this here so
I'm just going to pick up where I left
off
Loop it through Loop it through Loop it
through
and then I'm done
and then I've got it ready to go for
next time and if you need to you can in
fact just undo the entire thing just by
pulling on it like this so it will all
come all the way down
right down to the end nothing's tangled
up and you're ready to go for next time
so that's another way you can keep
things totally tidy and in order and
avoid undoing too much getting twists
and Knots and Tangles and all those
things that plague us with extension
cords audio cables hoses and everything
else I don't recommend the chain method
for hoses because they're usually not
quite as pliable as an extension cord an
HDMI cable that sort of thing so keep
that in mind but hopefully you found
this helpful I'm Nils with learn to DIY
thanks for watching