How many charging cables have you thrown away because the end frayed and exposed the wires? I went through five iPhone cables in two years before I found a fix that costs basically nothing and takes 10 seconds.

The fraying always happens at the same spot — right where the cable meets the connector. That is the stress point where the cable bends every time you use your phone while it is plugged in.

The Spring from a Click Pen

Take the spring out of a retractable pen — the metal coil that makes the pen click. Wrap it around the end of your charging cable, right where it meets the connector. Start at the rigid plastic housing and spiral it down about an inch onto the cable.

The spring acts as a strain relief. It distributes the bending force across a wider area instead of concentrating it at the weakest point. The cable can still flex but the spring stops it from bending sharply enough to break the internal wires.

I have had the same spring on my bedside charging cable for over a year. The cable looks brand new.

Heat Shrink Tubing (The Cleaner Option)

If you want something that looks more polished, heat shrink tubing from any hardware store does the same job. Slide a piece over the connector end, hit it with a hair dryer for 5 seconds, and it shrinks tight around the cable. It looks almost factory made.

A pack of assorted sizes costs about five dollars and you can do a dozen cables.

Stop Wrapping the Cable Tight

The other thing killing your cables: tight wrapping. When you coil a cable tightly around your hand or the charging brick, you are stressing the internal wires at every loop. Use a loose figure-eight pattern instead, or just let the cable lay naturally.