How to store paracord?

Tangled paracord is frustrating.  It takes precious time to sort out. Find effective ways of storing it and prevent those annoying tangles!

When I began my paracording days, I ordered a ton of cordage. I threw it all in a bag and to this day, I still have a tangled mess I sometimes attack when I have paracord withdrawal issues.
After a while I realized that just like with anything in life, having a system is a pretty good idea. And a storage system for parachute cord is an essential part of your overall performance. It saves times, frustration and makes your inventory a lot more transparent and easy to manage. In the following article I will show you how to store paracord in a manner that will suit you. There are many custom options people use and I will show you some of the most innovative, fun and practical ones.

Winders

The winder is a very practical way of storing your cord by simply winding it up. It is fast and works great.
You can get professional paracord winders. These look unique and usually come with integrated cord cutters and lighter holder.
If you want something easier for your budget I have these cool tips:
– You can get cardboard cord winders in any store that sells rope.
– You can make your own cord winder out of wood or hard cardboard
– You can buy the cheaper cord winders made for winding cables and cords (these can be bought in bulk for cheap). It does take a bit of search though!

Spools

Image kindly provided by Jack Scocchio.

Cord spools are the default storage for longer pieces of rope or cord. If you order the 300 feet of cord you get it on a spool. It is an easy and convenient way to store paracord. It is on the other hand quite annoying to transport large spools. So this is a stationary solution you can use in your workspace, but for travel, a winder or a paracord donut will prove to be useful because of their compact design. Spools are a very cost effective way of gaining more storage space. They also take up a lot less space than having paracord lying around. The added bonus is that paracord rests neatly on the spools without the cord twisting.

Paracord donut

The paracord donut is not edible to normal humans. It is however a nice way to store paracord using a quick deploy method, which makes it very practical. You can just remove the paracord you need and have the rest still neatly stored. It is a version of storage well suited to travel and as storage in your emergency/camping pack. It takes up almost no space and holds a lot of cord. The downside is that, just like anything made, it takes some time to make. Learn how to make a paracord donut using our tutorial.

The paracord donut is free to make, needs no supplies to be made. As such it is a very cost effective way for you to store up smaller sizes of paracord.

Hanging shoe organizer

This innovative idea was provided by Jackie Sattler Hernandez.

Hanks of paracord can cheaply and easily be stored in hanging shoe organizers. This method of storage is very cost effective, takes almost no time to set up and takes up a minimum amount of space. Another big plus is that you can store quite a few hanks of different color in this way. I can just see the many hanks of 100 foot paracord stuffed in the pockets!

The downsides are, that the shoe organizer does not store cord as neatly as a spool or a winder would and the fact that this method is not well suited for travel.

You can find these shoe organizers in many stores, as well as on Amazon for a very reasonable price.

As you can see, you can hang the shoe organizer into a closet, on a door or a wall. As such it is a good method of saving some space as well as having a neatly organized storage for paracord.

 Plastic bottles

Plastic bottles, jars or any other item that can be closed, can serve as a way to store paracord. Just take a bottle, make a hole in the cap and put some cord in the bottle. You can pull the cord out through the hole in an efficient way.

This way of storing paracord is quite easy to establish, costs almost nothing and is fairly travel friendly. Not as much as a donut or a winder, but still acceptable. Definitely a great way to store paracord.

 Zip up freezer bags

Ed Law showed off how to store paracord in a neat, easy and cheap way. He uses zip up freezer bags that are used to package various foods into the freezer. You can push the air out, zip them up and keep the cord from being tangled.

As listed, this is a cheap, hassle free method of keeping paracord stored away for future use. This is also a really nice way of keeping paracord during travel. Definitely worth considering!

 In conclusion

I hope this article gave you a few ideas on how to store paracord. Please, do share your favorite way of storing paracord!