Organizers

Bags do not lose things. Loose things move to the bottom of a bag and stay there, tangled around each other, until you tip the whole bag out on a hotel bed.

An organizer gives the small items a fixed shape. A charger, two cables and a pair of earphones roll into one piece that goes in and out of a bag as a single object, and you stop packing the same drawer twice.

The cable rolls open flat and carry elastic loops and small leather straps rather than zipped pouches. That is deliberate. A pouch hides what is inside and a flat roll shows you everything at once.

• Straps hold a charging brick without letting it press into the cables.
• Loops take cables coiled loosely, which is what stops the insulation cracking near the plug.
• The roll closes with a wrap rather than a zip, so nothing catches on a cable.

Anyone who owns more than two watch bands has a drawer where the spare ones are getting scratched by each other. The band fold gives each strap its own slot so the connectors are not rubbing together.

It holds three bands, closes flat and travels in a suitcase without taking meaningful space. It also makes the decision easier in the morning, because you can see all three at once instead of feeling around in a drawer.

The larger organizers are made for the two places small items pile up: a desk and a carry-on bag.

On a desk they sit open and hold pens, a phone, a notebook and the things that otherwise migrate under a keyboard. Packed, they close and go in flat against the back panel of a bag. Leather suits this better than fabric because it holds its shape when the bag is only half full.

Coil cables loosely, over and under rather than round and round in one direction, which is what puts a permanent twist into a cable and eventually breaks the wire near the plug.

Put the heaviest item, usually the charging brick, in the middle of the roll so the weight sits in the centre of the bundle. Then roll from the end without the closure. A roll packed that way stays flat in a bag instead of turning into a lump against your back.

Will a laptop charging brick fit? The larger bricks fit the travel roll. The slim phone chargers fit everything here.

Are cables included? No. These hold what you already own.

Does the elastic go slack? It relaxes slightly in the first months and then holds. The loops are stitched into the leather rather than glued, so they can be replaced if one ever gives out.