Hey Everyone! Hope you have had a great week! This week I want to talk about how you recharge your electronics and batteries. It seems like with all of the electronic gadgets that we have ,we have to do a lot of recharging. It could be GoPro batteries or your watch or almost anything else. But how do you do it. Do you just search the house looking for an empty wall socket to plug your stuff into? What about all of the adapters that come with all of your gadgets that you have to recharge? As you may know if you follow my blog I am a organizing freak and I love to have everything just so. So as with my Camera bags everything must have its place. My batteries as well. I have come up with a system for home and travel to help me with this problem.  Too Many Gadgets and not enough sockets. I have created charging stations. I have two in my house one is for my computers and one is for my batteries. They are very simple to make and with no particular way of making them but it gets all of your stuff in one  place.

At home charging station. This can be put anywhere. On top of a counter cabinet or even in an unused drawer. Now I have two charging stations one for my Laptops and iPads. And one for camera batteries. For laptops I have work and personal ones so multiple machines. The first charging station is set up on a plastic shelf that I keep saying I'm going to replace with a more permanent one but I never do.  I use a power strip surge protector that also has USB ports in it. So My LapTop charger can plug into one of the sockets and iPads, Phone (work phone), watches and almost anything else can be charged conveniently beside my workstation which is just a old fold out table made into a desk. I also have a wireless charger for my work phone and ear buds. I try to keep all of the cables wrapped up as neat as possible but they always seem to be spaghetti on a pile on the top of this small shelf.  I would like to get a more permanent cabinet with a drawer that I can put everything in. But for now its this plastic shelf.  I also have a separate charging station for all of my batteries.  This includes camera batteries , of which I have three types . Four if you count the GoPro batteries. So four different chargers. Also have lots of AA rechargeable batteries that I like to keep somewhat charged up . I use these for Flashes and Strobes. I have built this charging station up in the same way I did my iPad charging station with a power strip that has sockets and USB ports for all of my stuff.  I have a big shelf that I keep all of my camera gear on and this power station resides there and on the table beside it that I use for Photography. I can also use the power strip to plug constant LED lights that I have when doing tabletop photography. 

Having these charging stations helps keep my batteries and devices at home charged. If I'm out on a photo shoot when I get home I can go right to the station and take my used up batteries and plug them in without hunting and looking for the correct charger because it is already hooked up to the power strip or is nearby.  Very convenient. The same with my laptop that I use around the house. It stays plugged in until I need it. But what about on the road what do I use?

On the road Charging station. When I travel I take a small power strip it has only 3 sockets on it .  I have two power bricks made by Anker that have 2 USB ports in them. So that will give me 4 USB ports to use for battery charging and phone charging and one port left over for a laptop if I bring one. I only bring the chargers of the electronics that I'm traveling with. All of this is stored in a small bag that I can shove almost anywhere in my luggage.  When I get to a hotel or an Air B&B I make a little charging station that I used to charge batteries and phone or iPad. So just like at home when I get back to the hotel I can take my spent batteries and right away put in a charger so they are ready for the next day. I know this sounds pretty simple but it keeps me from hunting for power sockets when your in a hotel room for all of your different devices and helps you from loosing cords and cables when traveling because they are always in one place.

So what does this all cost? Well that's the cool part. You already have all of the chargers, Cables, batteries and anything else you would need. So just a Surge Suppressor Power Strip is all you need. You may already have one or you can pick one up for 15-20 bucks and assemble your own charging station. If your a neat freak like me you may want to get some sort of wire ties that will keep all of your cords in check. But that's it. Well that's enough for this week until next . So Get out and Shoot!