Love your shiny new iPhone, but sick of tangling up that darn cord on your earbuds? Grab an old credit card and a pair of scissors. You are about to solve one of life’s least important problems.

1. Snip the card in half

Cut the credit card in half, lengthwise. Want bonus points? Round them corners. Want more bonus points? Use a defunct Baby Bell phone card!

Figure A: The earbud cord wrapper in action

2, Notch away!

At either end, cut two notches on opposing sides. The notches should be angled roughly as shown in the pictures. Take care to make the opening of your notches only slightly wider than the cord is thick (about 1/16th of an inch).

Make the interior of the notch wider than the opening, but narrower than your plug (about 3/16th of inch).

Note: Instructable member Spandox suggests using a hole punch. Great idea!

3. Wrap cord

Insert your plug end into the notch and wrap your cord up neatly. When you get to the buds, tuck them into their notch. Voilà!

4. Usage

You can unwrap the cord on either end to a length that suits your need. I usually keep my iPhone in my shirt pocket, as you can imagine, without this cord wrapper my cord is always in the way.

Jeremy Franklin-Ross (throbbing.org/thejer) is a co-founder of HazardFactory, Seattle’s dangerous arts collective. He is a lifelong artist, hacker, technologist, and entrepreneur. Jeremy writes software for CultureMob.com, an events discovery site that he co-founded. He takes pleasure in making fun of other drivers.