AC Adapter Plague

NO! The first one you discard, is the next one you need! ... nothing but an original unit will ever connect to some devices (my old HP-34C calculator comes to mind).

Sorting by output voltage, though, would improve the utility of the boxes. And you can paint those boxes in bright colors so they do double duty as decoration...

I have some older Curtis strips with top and two sides with outlets, surge and filtering. The only thing that remotely resembles them is these...

Greg

years ago, i would have taken a mess like that to a hamfest and sold all of it. I currently have about 500 warts & external power supplies, sorted by voltage. I picked up several hundred at one hamfest, from a silent key's widow. I had to come home and get my trailer, to haul off everything I picked up, that day. I used to trash pick after the Dayton hamfest every year and could fill my long wheelbase van with no problem. I'd take damaged or dead equipment that either looked repairable, or was worth salvaging. Once, it was close to a ton of power transformers, for the copper. :)

I spent my first 50 years collecting all that junk. I plan to spend the next 50 years getting rid of it.

Here's my pile in the office:

The boxes to the right are full of more wall warts. There are also two more big boxes in the closet, several boxes of just power cords, and about 5 more boxes of wall warts at home. Time for a purge.

The local recycler clips off the power cords from the wall warts. The transformer and copper windings are classified at "mixed metal waste" for which they get about $175/ton (2000 lbs). The copper cords yield about $65/lb.