iSpaghetti

[donreitz]

iPhones, iPads, iPods, Kindles, laptops, digital cameras, and who knows what else: They all come with battery chargers and associated cordage. Even worse, there’s a good chance that each item has a unique plug so you’ll have a separate charging apparatus for each one. The result? In my case it’s throwing the whole mess into a basket and fishing through the tangles whenever I need a charger, which is pretty often. This isn’t a good situation.

I just know there are clever minds out there that have solved this problem. Sharing your charging solutions would be appreciated.
Don

[cwf]

Don, they sell little dogbones you can wind cables around. My solution is to wind in a circle then weave the cable for the last few raps.

For my family with arthritis I plug in the Chargers into a power strip into a found butter dish, wind up and exit the dish through holes I make. It contains the cords without knots. Also you can unplug and move the whole "mess"'easily.

Since many use USB now, a single charger can serve multiple devices.

[lsbrodsky]

I have a device that has a USB connector on one end and rotates between 3 choices on the other end, micro/mini/Apple. This plus one USB cube gets the job done for anything I have.
Larry

[terryV]

Originally Posted by cwf

Don, they sell little dogbones you can wind cables around. My solution is to wind in a circle then weave the cable for the last few raps.

For my family with arthritis I plug in the Chargers into a power strip into a found butter dish, wind up and exit the dish through holes I make. It contains the cords without knots. Also you can unplug and move the whole "mess"'easily.

Since many use USB now, a single charger can serve multiple devices.

Great ideas Channing. I will use them in the AS.

I need only two types, one for my iPhone / iPad, and one for my Belkin keyboard and hotspot (also fits Joyce's Android). So, in all my vehicles I have two chargers.

When Joyce's phone went dead (with no charger along) on a trip a while back, I pulled out a charger and handed it to her. She thought I was so sweet to have remembered to bring a charger along for her.

[BoldAdventure]

Say what you will, there is a good reason I stay with certain brands across devices.

Our iphones & ipads all share the same mini lighting connector.



What I happen to own is 4 separate Lighting Docks that hold both iphone's and ipad's. (3rd party company) Made from aluminum, they're very nice.



Each one is somewhere plugged in with only the larger 3V 5amp ipad wall connector. The iPhone excepts both.



Laptops, we both have Macbook's and both use the same plug. Problem solved.

My kindle along with our Verizon mifi both use the same micro USB connector. 1 cable is all I need to keep around.

To make life simpler, those are the only electronic devices.

We keep two mini lighting connectors and one micro USB connector in the truck.

No digging for wires here.

Lastly, I own two of these


Called Grid-It and highly convenient. Especially for packing bags.

[donreitz]

Thanks to all for the advice. The dog bone looks like an especially good idea. Will investigate the other suggestions as well. Time to start a Christmas list.
Don

[Skater]

My Asus tablet required not only a special cable, but also a special USB adapter (it had a standard USB plug, but it wouldn't charge off any of the other 30 USB adapters we have around, which includes ones from my Samsung phone, several iPhones, several iPad adapters, other brands, etc.). That tablet died and we replaced it with an iPad, so as was said above we now have lightning cables for everything but my wife's first iPad, and Apple's devices - unlike some other brands - aren't picky about which adapter you use (although the early Firewire based chargers no longer work). Makes life a lot easier.

But we have a basket full of wires at home, too: We have some bluetooth headphones that require special chargers. Chargers for our DSLR batteries. Chargers for Energizer rechargeable batteries (which we don't even use any more). Chargers for one of my work lights. And so on... life in the electronic age, I guess.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by donreitz

iPhones, iPads, iPods, Kindles, laptops, digital cameras, and who knows what else: They all come with battery chargers and associated cordage. Even worse, there’s a good chance that each item has a unique plug so you’ll have a separate charging apparatus for each one. The result? In my case it’s throwing the whole mess into a basket and fishing through the tangles whenever I need a charger, which is pretty often. This isn’t a good situation.

I just know there are clever minds out there that have solved this problem. Sharing your charging solutions would be appreciated.
Don

Each cord goes in a quart-sized Ziploc freezer bag when not in use, each bag labeled with the device the cord goes to. That doesn't eliminate any cords, but it sure does eliminate the tangles and the questions of "What is this cord for?"

[BASE729]

I have one of these, which covers iPad, mini-usb and micro-usb. You just rotate until you get the fitting you need. I have another with lightning and micro-usb. Covers 99% of the usb connections I need to make.

They're on Amazon, search for Innergie

[openroad118]

I tag each cable with white tape and mark which device it serves....easy to see in the pile

[Zil]

Everything i now have uses USB cables. The Magellan end is larger, but phones and cameras are all micro. The various usb plugin chargers have different amp ratings. So i sorted through and kept the one with highest output. That charges all usb stuff. Also using the usb outlet on my jumper pack seems the fastest.