Many of the ones I’ve found in stores don’t really suit my taste, so I have been thinking about making my own DIY charging station. Here are some great tutorials for charging stations that I’ve found in my search.

Ryan over at the Weekly Geek created a fabulous charging station with some historic flair! He gives a nice tutorial with lots of in-progress photos. He pulled the whole thing off with about $25 in materials, too. I love the look of this one! My house is more modern/clean lines/minimalist (er… ok, so it’s not, but I’m working my way there, ok?) but I might try something like this! I love that it has a lid, so that it can hide the items from view! I think this looks nicer than having them all just sit on top.
Photo by Ryan at WeeklyGeek.

Here’s one with a nice twist: switches to turn the individual chargers on and off so they are not all sucking power while you charge one device. PROD posted this tutorial on Instructables, so it has lots of nice pictures and instructions. I’ll be honest, though. I don’t know enough about wiring to be confident in trying something like this myself, but if you’re better at playing with electricity than I am, you might want to give this a try!
Photo by PROD.

Two Loose Teeth built herself a neat crafty charging station. [Found via Lifehacker]
It’s a nice take on a crafty/scrapbooking style. The bookplates make the holes in the box look much classier than if they’d just been left plain, and also provide some protection for the cardboard box if the cords are tugged.
Photo by Lisa on Two Loose Teeth.

Instructables goes one step further and makes his charging station a truly decorative piece. You’d hardly guess it was functional!
This is another one I’ll avoid trying myself, since it involves drilling through glass (Michael went to a glass store and got professional help to do this step!) but the end result is very different from other charging stations I’ve seen. I’m not personally fond of big orange fake flowers, but this is so versatile you could put almost anything that suits your own decor in the top. I would advise against putting anything too fancy there (a tray of candles, several small figurines, etc.) as having to take several things off and put several things back on would make it annoying to actually use. If you don’t actually use it, it becomes clutter, no matter how cute it is or how much work you put into it.
Photo by Michael Pap.

Have you made a great DIY charging station yourself? I’d love to see pics! Email me at caitlin [AT] cluttercubed[dot]com, or just add them to the ClutterCubed Flickr Pool!

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DIY Charging Stations

Right now, I carry around my cell phone, my work Blackberry, and my iPod almost everywhere I go. Three different devices to perform three slightly different tasks in my life. Three things that fill up my bag or pockets all the time. Sometimes I add a camera to the mix. That’s a lot of single-purpose things to carry around!

My iPod is about 4 years old now (20GB 4th Generation) and the battery is losing it’s ability to hold a charge. I used to be able to charge it once a week and listen to my music on my walks to and from work each day. Now I have to charge it every day or every other day for the same usage.
I want to replace it. I love the new style iPod Nano (so adorable!) and would really like to get the red one, but while I was pricing them I realized that instead of simply replacing my mp3 player, I could condense the number of devices I carry around while I’m at it. It would also greatly reduce my need to get a proper charging station.
If I get a “smartphone” type cell phone plan, then one single device could act as my cell phone, my work-email link, and my music player! I could go from carrying three separate devices to carrying only one and still retain all of the functionality! Sweet!

Of course, this plan is slightly flawed by virtue of the fact that I live in Canada. Not only are our phone and data packages outrageously expensive compared to similar American plans, we don’t even have access to some of the major players in the smartphone game, such as the iPhone. Though Rogers has recently announced a deal with Apple that will allow the iPhone to come to Canada “later this year”, that doesn’t really help me now unless they give a more concrete time frame. Last time they said this, it never happened.

My husband has a Blackberry Curve 8300 for his job and he uses it for email, phone, and music. It also acts as a decent 2MP backup camera when I don’t have my good
Canon PowerShot SD800 IS with me. I think that would work nicely for me, since I will have to do email for work on it, and I need the full QWERTY keyboard for that. I hate typing on a numeric keypad!

I will have to talk to my boss and see if she would be willing to cover some of the cost of a personal Blackberry, as the company currently covers the full cost of my (ancient) business Blackberry 7520, if I put my work email on it. Hopefully she’ll go for it!

It would be so nice to reduce the number of electronic devices I carry around!

How many do you carry on a daily basis? Do you have a cell phone? A PDA? Do you carry your laptop everywhere? Let us know!

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Techno Clutter

I found this video of a new cable decluttering product that looks interesting. Or rather, a new product, based on an old design, with a new feature added that makes it a bit different!

Sorry about the video ; it’s more like a low-budget commercial rather than an informational clip, but it shows the nifty part toward the end.

It’s one of those cable-holding tubes, but with a small twist. Those have been around for a while, but this one has a nifty attachment that makes it easier to insert the cables into the tube. I’ve thought about getting this type of system before (though now I plan on using a different idea to tame my office cables after the move!) but when I’ve seen them in stores it’s just the tube thing, and carefully feeding all the cables through always seemed tedious. This attachment could make this system easier to implement!

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The Cable-It

If you’re like me, you have a small army of tech gadgets, all of which need to be charged at some point. I have a little mound of chargers and cables around my power bar. I originally tried to keep them neatly wound up when not in use, but I don’t always remember to wind up the cable when I’m done charging the device. At best, the neat pile would last a few days. At worst, I have to run around looking for where I left my cell phone because one day I happened to charge it in another room.

A good solution would be to use a charging station to keep everything organized and in one location. I found this charging station at KangaRoom Storage (I love that name!).

KangaRoom Cell Phone Charging Station

Back View

It features four compartments where you can charge your individual devices (cell phone, iPod, Blackberry, etc.) and keeps the cords out of the way. Just slide a power strip behind it and tuck the whole unit neatly on your desk. A removable key tray at the top allows easy access to the cords, and adds yet another use to this compact charging station.
If you have multiple similar gadgets, or want to use it as a charging station for the family, it comes with little labels so you can tell at a glance which plug is which.

Do you use a charging station to keep your cables in order? If so, please tell me about it! Bonus points if you made your own instead of buying one! EDITED TO ADD: Here are some great examples of do-it-yourself charging stations.

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Clear Your Desk with a Charging Station

Cable clutter is a big issue these days. We all have more and more gadgets, and these gadgets tend to have cables. This is the first in a series of posts on how to beat cable clutter in various areas of your home and office.

Here’s a handy tip I came across today. Simply use those big black binder clips (found in any office supply store for less than 50 cents each) to tame those cables. You can pop one of the little metal handles off the clip, put a cord through it, and pop it back into the clip. The clip can then be attached to the edge of your desk, keeping the cords neatly out of your way.

If you try out this method, take a photo and submit it to the Clutter Cubed Flickr Pool!

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Clear Out Cable Clutter (1)