Organizing Your Electronic Gadgets

Tips for Tuesday

If you have teens, pre-teens or college students in your house, you probably have several cell phones, MP3 players, and cameras, all needing to be charged.  In fact, the average household owns about 24 electronic devices.  Walk through your house now, and you'll find a phone in your kitchen, another in the bedroom, another in the laundry room.  What happens when you're ready to walk out the door?  Do you find yourself racing from room to room looking for your phone or camera?

To tame the tangles, designate a central place to charge all your gadgets.  A phone charging station is ideal for this purpose.  They come in a variety of styles to suit your decor and needs, but basically serve the same purpose.  There is a hole in the back of the station for running wires, and individual compartments for holding each of the devices.  Some stations have places to label the compartment.  For those that don't, you should mark them yourself.  A standard label from a label making machine can be folded over the wires, or use one of those plastic tabs that comes on bread wrappers.  Label both the wire and the compartment. 

Finally, corral all the cords in the back with velcro or twist-ties.  Plug your cords into a surge protector, rather than an outlet, to protect them from power outages.

The next time you are running out the door for your workout, you'll know exactly where your MP3 player is.