How can I organize my gadgets at home?

January 22, 2007 3:08 PM

I have many gadgets and it's respective chargers and cables, and I hate to have everything around the room. Anyone know a good way to store all the things in a neat way that everything get handly and sorted?
posted by Leech to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

Clear plastic shoeboxes, $1.99 at bed bath & beware, etc. I bought a dozen, labelled the sides, and now finding the right wall wart or power supply for my item is a matter of seconds, instead of weeks.
posted by Aquaman at 3:12 PM on January 22, 2007

This is a little pricey and slightly tacky, but maybe the Ebase charging station? Or maybe something a little smaller?
posted by logic vs love at 3:37 PM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

I use black cable ties religiously. It's incredible how useful they are.
posted by dmd at 3:39 PM on January 22, 2007

One
Two
Three
posted by MsMolly at 3:43 PM on January 22, 2007

solution via Make
posted by -harlequin- at 3:44 PM on January 22, 2007

Response by poster: great.. I now find the most useful solution the Box Charger from MAKE, and the Shoes holder.
I like the idea of have everything in a box, but I want the gadgets inside too, not just the chargers.

Any more ideas?
posted by Leech at 5:16 PM on January 22, 2007

Follow the directions to make the Make box charger.
Put the gadgets inside, too.
(This avoids having to make the holes, doesn't it?)
posted by megatherium at 8:24 PM on January 22, 2007

Try skymall.com - they seem to have lots of intelligent gadget storage solutions, since they distribute items from great places like the Sharper Image.
posted by rmm at 8:32 PM on January 22, 2007

I would just invert the lid of the box charger so that it forms a tray for the devices, and put the holes for the cords along one side of the bottom of the tray. A couple of hinges bolting the upside-down lid the the box (or use tape as hinges) will allow access to the interior while keeping the tray in place.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:13 PM on January 22, 2007

Or perhaps make it out of one those jewerly or tool boxes where you open the lid to see a tray, and the tray is removeable if you want to access the space underneath.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:20 PM on January 22, 2007

One of these days, I am going to modify (or maybe custom-design/build, if I'm feeling very brave) a bedside table and/or desk with a drawer that has a power-strip attached to the back, and some thin wooden dividers to hold various chargers/devices and their cords.

I think this could be done relatively inexpensively by someone with a bit of woodworking experience. Heck, at a very basic level, you could probably make do with cardboard dividers and just shoving everything in the back of a drawer..
posted by Alterscape at 10:54 PM on January 22, 2007

I'm still waiting for Splashpower to have a product for sale.
posted by Plutor at 6:53 AM on January 23, 2007

here's the way i organize all my cables and gadgets:

first i put each cable in its own sandwich-sized ziplock bag. this prevents everything in the box from becoming a tangled mess. the name of the cable and the device it goes with are written on an index card, which also goes in each bag.

i wrap the gadget if necessary and put it in a gallon-sized bag, then put the smaller bags holding the cables inside that.

then the entire thing goes into a suitably-sized clear plastic sterilite box. i have rows of these, all labeled according to device type.

though this would probably be a better long-term solution than it would be for your purposes.
posted by Ziggy Zaga at 9:28 AM on January 24, 2007