Home, Sweet Home for My Gizmos

A few years ago, I never would've thought that I'd keep accruing electronic gadgets and gizmos. I still don't have some of the more popular ones, like an iPod, but it should come as no surprise to either me or any of you reading this that I do seem to be gathering together a collection of electronic goodies that help me read and blog.

For the life of me, I can't remember if I was wandering through Tweets or my Facebook timeline when I saw mention of a website called GUS (Great Useful Stuff). I rather liked the item that the person was extolling the virtues of, so I clicked on over to the GUS website and started browsing.

When I started taking a look at the items listed under the "Kangaroo Storage" tab, I saw something that made my eyes light up. Called a Bamboo Multi-Charging Station, it can comfortably house five of your electronic gizmos so that you will always know where the charging plugs are-- and so that you can keep them in one convenient spot instead of having them take over so many flat surfaces of your home.

How do I know this? Because I bought one and put it on the end table by my chair in the family room. That end table sees an awful lot of service. It holds the phone, my beverage of choice, my latest needlepoint project, and my gizmos. Needless to say liquid-filled glassware, unwound yarn, and charger cords do not mix happily in the same space. Now they can!

Here's what mine looks like once I set it up:

Click on photo to view full size.

As you can see, I've got a netbook, tablet, Nook, Kindle, and cell phone housed there. The top half (where all the gadgets are stored) is held onto the bottom (where all the charging cords are routed) by very strong magnets.

How do I like it? I love it! No more snarled mess of cords, and it's helped me reorganize everything on my table so I can get to any item quickly and easily. (The end table has two additional shelves you can't see in the photo.) It's well-made and attractive-- and I'm thrilled that I happened to stumble across it.

Denis liked the looks of it so much that he ordered one for himself. I thought I'd take a photo of his so you can see how it looks with a different assortment of gadgets on it:

Click on photo to view full size.

Here you can see that Denis had no problem at all setting this charging station up for his laptop, tablet, iPod, cell phone, and MP3 player.

Life is so much easier when you have a home, sweet home for all your gizmos. How do you have your gadgets and charging cords organized?

[Note: In case any of you are wondering, GUS isn't paying me one cent for my rave endorsement!]

What's Your Favorite Book Light?

It wasn't until I read a post about book lights on Jenner's blog, Find Your Next Book Here, that I realized that they're one of my favorite gadgets. I wouldn't be without one. Denis has to go to bed even earlier than I do, so many evenings find me reading in bed using a book light. And I definitely have to have one when we travel. I have a bad back that loathes soft mattresses, and we seldom seem to find anything else when we're on the road, so I'll often be sitting in a chair during the wee hours of the morning, reading one of the books I packed. Book lights are essential.

I've run through several models of book lights over the years. When they first came out, book lights were pretty bulky, and those AA batteries just didn't last very long. They can be tricky to attach to the book you're reading, and many only seem to illuminate one page at a time. What a pain!

Well, Denis found one for me that I love. I have no idea what he was looking for when he found it, but I'm glad that he thought of me and ordered one! Currently sold on Amazon for $12.98, it's called the I Sight Mini Task Light.

As you can see, it doesn't clip to the book, you hook it over your ear. When I first saw it, I had my doubts because I don't like things hanging on or over my ears. But I was intrigued and put it on. It's very light weight, and although the light stem isn't adjustable, you can easily change the angle of the light by adjusting the ear piece or by moving the silver part closer to or farther away from your ear. The LED light is nice and bright for reading but not intrusive enough to keep Denis awake. It's also useful for finding your way to the bathroom or out to the kitchen for that drink of water. The batteries last for a long time as well. Yet another thing I like about it is that it's smaller than any of the book lights I've used, so it's very easy to pack in a suitcase, backpack or purse. I wouldn't be without mine! If you want to take a look, just click on the photo to be taken to Amazon.