A while ago I saw an article on Lifehacker about building your own charge station to reduce clutter of adapter wires. The idea stuck in my head, because I often collect a nest of wires at the floor of my desk. These wires often find themselves becoming tangled around the wheels of my chair causing more headaches over my already cramped office situation. So, I began a little investigation and found the following:
Total cost: $5.50 (+tax)
- Simple surge protector from Fry’s: $3.00
- Simple “tupperware” box (20×13x12 cm) from Daiso: $1.50
- T shape 3 plug power adapter from a local hardware store: $2.00
To build it, you basically cut a hole in the side of the box and jam the surge protector inside. Then you plug in your adapters and the “T” shaped plug (orange in the picture) and cut a hole where it touches the side. This allows you to attach another adapter to the side of the box without needing to open the top and shift around the plug configuration. Then you cut holes in the top and feed the ends of the cables through them. A little duct tape will keep the wires from slipping back into the box in inadvertently.
If you keep the switch on the outside of the box, this allows you to turn off all the current to the adapter, which will help reduce wasted electricity. Those adapters do use up some juice, even when they aren’t charging anything! The only gotcha about my power station is that I bought a surge protector with a cheap switch. There is no LED in the switch, so you can’t tell if it is on or off. If I were to do this again, I would shell out the extra 2 bucks to get a surge protector with a lighted switch.
