I’ve just read a great post on Wired, entitled Ten Reasons To Throw Away Your Cellphone (via Digg).

It’s fairly succinct, but does touch on a few interesting points:

1. Cellular Phones are a LOT more expensive than people realize.
2. Cell phone use can be a social hazard – Driving whilst using a mobile phone is stupid and dangerous and has already casued several tragic fatalities.
3. Being always available sounds nice in theory, but constant interruptions at all hours are actually very tiresome. Think about what else you could get done if you didn’t have to worry about your mobile all the time.

I’ve spent several brief periods of my life phone-less and dependent on landlines, and despite feeling a bit out of sorts at the time, I was probably better off. No crises went by without me knowing; I didn’t lose any money; my friends and family could still reach me if needed…

On the flip-side, I was less distracted and more productive; a little lighter on my feet and ultimately happier and more relaxed.

Makes you think.

Being a confirmed geek, technophile and all round lover of gadgets, I have a LOT of chargers – iPod, Phone, BlackBerry, Camera and laptop used daily, with a dozen others (including electric toothbrush, shaver) which are charged weekly. Consequently, I have a lot of cable clutter which is very frequently spread from place to place, as I spend several nights a week at my girlfriends and travel home regularly.

I wanted to come up with a simple solution to this problem, which had to fulfill several criteria:

• Simple, cheap and easy to use
• Avoid having multiple chargers plugged in at once, or leaving chargers plugged in
• Be portable, so I could take relevant chargers to work or my girlfriends flat
• Be organized, so that my charger use was simple and controlled
• Be understandable, so others could charge stuff easily using my kit

My charging solution

The solution I came up with is one I have been using for several years, and has worked perfectly for me – combining all the factors above, and probably costing me only a few pounds to set-up.

1. Store your Chargers – Get a shoe box, basket or other open container that you can keep all your chargers in – dig them all out of their various hiding places and stick them in the box.
2. Bag your Chargers – This is the clincher, and takes this solution from simple to sorted. Grab a bunch of Ziploc bags (or resealable sandwich bags) and put each charger into its own bag, with it’s own mess of cable. No more spaghetti junction.
3. Label your Chargers – Label each charger so you know what it goes with, either by sticking half and index card in the bag with the device details on, or by printing or writing a sticky label and affixing to the charger itself – It really does help to know what goes with what, and it helps others to use your charging kit.

This system is very easy to use, very easy to implement and can help you keep your charger chaos under control!

[Update 05/06/07: Those of you who found this article interesting, but who are looking for a more high-tech solution might like this post on Unclutterer, about finding the perfect charging station.]