My entire family, even my hubs used to ask me this not at all annoying question every day: “Where’s my charger?” Um, where you left it? So then the hunt would begin. For me. Because not a single person in my family (except me) can ever find anything that’s right in front of their faces. This wastes many hours, by the way. It’s probably one of those absurd statistics like, “Per year the average American family spends 97 hours looking for misplaced chargers”. Or, maybe you fight over a particular outlet in your home. Or your husband steals borrows yours and “accidentally” leaves it at work, where it is in turn stolen borrowed by his co-worker.
Maybe it’s just me, but I have yet to find anything resembling a device charging station (at any store) that would permanently plant our chargers, and most importantly, hide the messy looking cords. So I did what any self-respecting DIYer would do…Manifest MacGyver with some tin foil, a drill bit and a single piece of scotch tape. Well, not exactly but close. I have an easy solution that is quick and looks great too. It starts with a great cheat, a desk organizer like this one: https://amzn.to/3j1TuWX.
The 3 “windows” in the fronts had paper that said, “pens, pencils, and paper.” I took them out and replaced them with pretty wrapping paper. You could also chose to label these with individual names or add photos, whatever you like. The most important part is that it has 2 large slots. One of the slots will be used for your power strip and the other for your various devices. Here are all the tools you will need to solve your device charging dilemma:
Yep, that’s it. A drill: https://amzn.to/2VdoA4O and a 1 1/4″ Spade bit: https://amzn.to/3kJHf1r. It is just the right size to fit a cord plug through and it’s a good investment. I have used it multiple times in the backs of furniture (to use as TV stands, etc.) and even in my kitchen cabinets when I added lighting. You will drill your hole in the back of the desk organizer like so:
The hole will be hard to drill because you are grinding through several layers of pressed particle board disguised as solid wood. Also, the inside of the hole will look super busted, but it doesn’t matter because your power strip and a bazillion cords will hide it.
Once you drill your hole, feed your power strip plug through it. I had to really break a sweat to push mine through because it had an extra large plug, but eventually it reluctantly acquiesced. Here is an aerial view of what I’m talking about:
Now plug in all the chargers you can find in 5 minutes.
I’m a little obsessed with aesthetics, (in case you weren’t aware) so I also tie-wrapped my cords so they would be controlled in the slot and not escaping all over the place like a basket of snakes. Organization is so liberating, don’t you think?
Next, you plug it into the wall and add your devices.
This has the added bonus of all your devices being corralled in one place so you are never hunting for the devices themselves either. Are you feeling Zen yet?
Here is what it looks like when everything is plugged in at once:
Now pat yourself on the back for a job well done, and treat yourself to a daydream about all the things you can do with your extra 97 hours per year.
Leave a Reply