I was thinking about this because we have quite the assortment of "charging

stuff" going on our kitchen counter. We have tried to organize it but it's just a bit of a mess.

I was thinking about having something in a cabinet or drawer as I am also going to be doing a bit of a kitchen reno .... and I think I would go withe amazon shelf thing. A big part of my rationale is that I suspect that technology will continue to change and maybe in 3 years a charging station drawer will be so unnecessary. (we can hope). I think the shelf for $40 sounds like a deal to me.

I have a shelf similar to that and it works well when we use it. But we don't. My husband pulled all the slack out of two cords for his watch and phone, so he can plug 'em and lay 'em on the counter.

We're about to break ground on our new build, and I considered a drawer plug. But I'm too paranoid with fires. I don't know of any being hazards, but I'm not comfortable with three or four electronics actively charging in a closed environment.

I’ve never understood why one would give up storage, for charging various devices. Must they all be charged in one area? Don’t your other rooms have outlets? Do all your devices get charged at the same time? Is it so aesthetically awful to see one or two phones charging on a counter?

We have a variety of iPhones, iPads and laptops. Never are they charging at the same time. Rarely are they ever being used in the same room at the same time.

I will say, @callgirl, that charging organizer is pretty neat...I mean that both ways...cool, and we’ll, neat. :-)

I wouldn't commit to a drawer because devices and charging are constantly changing. I set up a charging station on a shelf under an end table in our living room, and now it gets no use -- spouse and I charge from our laptops or plug into the USB ports in our bedside lamps at night; kid uses her iPad while charging continuously on a 90-degree plug. We have lots of car and travel chargers. We're just not shelving our devices in a designated spot for long stretches.

NOBODY in the family will hide any devise in a drawer. It's pointless I assure you. Plug in a ten port and deal with it, or find another locale in a mud entry and do same. But you are forewarned : ) Or TRY the idea above, but honestly, it WILL be hanging open.

Just an FYI, we have that exact charging station and it is always a mess. I’d love a drawer with a built in power option closer to the kitchen or mudroom. I have a charging pull out shelf/drawer in my office and love it. It was originally intended to hide a printer, but now it hides my iPad, phone, etc. But my husband prefers his stuff in the kitchen so hence the mess.

I was considering adding USB ports to the side of our bed when we were building but decided the best thing was to keep it simple since who knows how we'd be charging our devices in 10 years.

Being that we don't even have a house phone anymore, we keep our phones by the bed and charge them at night by our nightstand.

We all charge our stuff in bedrooms we have international students with all sorts of stuff and my husband is blind so has extra stuff he uses there is no way all of that could go on one charging station so bedrooms it is if is a must we use a plug in the kitchen. I can’t see any of us using a drawer.

"I was considering adding USB ports to the side of our bed when we were building but decided the best thing was to keep it simple since who knows how we'd be charging our devices in 10 years." < Exactly this. I wouldn't.

I just built. Have a charging drawer which is also very wide enough to use for other things. Use it daily and it’s extremely convenient.

When one of my friends remodeled her kitchen around 3 years ago, she set up one of these charging drawers. It doesn't get used at all for its original purpose and now serves as her junk drawer. She has 2 teenagers, like me, and they charge their things wherever they are at the time. My son will charge his laptop or iPad in the basement, in his room, in the family room or in the car. My daughter does the same. My husband works from home a lot so he usually charges his items in the home office or next to the couch as he's watching tv. I tried setting up a station similar to the Amazon one on my desk which is in the family room right next to our kitchen table and I'm the only one that uses it. It's a battle I'm never going to win.

I do have part of a drawer though reserved for extra chargers because someone is always losing one. It has a small bin and helps keeps the cords organized.

I used the receptacles with USB charging ports in an area of open shelving under a slant ceiling in the master bedroom. Mostly we charge our devices on the main floor, but I like having the option to plug in my devices in the bedroom. Yes, it is possible we won't use that technology forever, but I think 5 years of convenience for spending $20 is a deal. If I don't want it anymore, it is easy to just put in a new receptacle, couple dollars and a few minutes of time and it is done.

We have a charging station in our living room, and we use it all the time. It's good for our family to have one station, near the front door, although sometimes things do get plugged in in bedrooms. When a kid is running out the door and realizes he doesn't have his chromebook, I'd much rather he quickly grab it from 5 feet away than tromp upstairs in shoes. It's also handy to have most in one place because it helps us keep track of the charging cables. Ours is super not fancy. It's a lidded basket I bought at Michaels, with a hole cut in the back for a power strip cord. We charge 3 chromebooks and 2 macbooks there regularly, plus a phone here and there, husband's running watch, etc.

I would have liked one in the kitchen, but ours is small enough that I didn't want to give up the space. I am just commenting about ours to say that charging stations do work for some families. Do they work the way they are supposed to? Not always, lol, but they can work.

Ours turned into the junk drawer, but it is an available place to stuff the cords that aren't attached to their device, if we're motivated.

Take a little survey of how/when you all charge devices and then ask yourself if those current charging habits fit well with a drawer scenario.

I changed one of our outlets in the kitchen so that it has 2 usb and 2 regular outlets. If usb ever goes away I can change the outlet or just leave it. Cost $20 at a big box store. Devices get stacked on the counter next to the wall when charging.

We put in a charging drawer and iI do not like it. The drawer only opens half way. So the outlets are in the back of the drawer and not very accessible.

I don’t see the point now that we all have several devices and we use them everywhere in the house and they all need charging at different times

I have a charging drawer and I love it. I hated phones and iPads on my counters. Storage was not an issue so well worth it to me.

You could set up a drawer to be a "charging station" and see if you use it. If not, just don't use it for that and use it for storage instead.

We have a station similar to what you posted and while it was used initially for a few months, we stopped using it for the very reason people stated above.

Phones...We charge overnight on the nightstand or in the car (especially if using Waze!) No one wants to charge their phone out of sight (drawer). It's rare that I need to charge during the day. I have noticed that my DH and DD do need to recharge (iPhones), but when they do it's usually plugged in next to where they are, not far away. My DH does charge his tablet on the counter, but he has it in a stand where he eats breakfast and just leaves it plugged in there since that's the only time he really uses it (the rest of the time he uses his phone).

Regarding drawers opening only half-way...full-extension drawers are a must for function. Soft-close is nice, but not a must.

Gorgeous in Germantown · More Info

The single 12“ deep cabinet on the right hand side of the peninsula houses several outlets for all kinds of charging. The cordless drills go in the shelf below, the cordless phone goes in the middle shelf, and the USB chargers for the phones, tablets, etc, are on the upper shelf. It’s easy to reach from the kitchen table without getting in the way.

The outlets above counter also have a USB port, as do the ones in the desk area. Changing out the guts of an outlet isn’t a big deal down the road if the wiring is there.

Gorgeous in Germantown · More Info

Thank you everyone! I think we're going to skip the drawer, but get some USB outlets. I'm glad I asked!

I have never quite understood the interest of a charging drawer/station, but it may be due to how we use our mobiles. we have USB/electrical plugs next to the beds and an additional one in the living room. We keep cables attached to the ones in the bedrooms and have one in a drawer in the living room when we need to. When we will redo our kitchen, we will have USB plugs there as well. But drawers are too precious for that.

We did a receptacle on the counter that has two USB ports in case I want to plug in my ipad while I'm cooking, but a lot depends on the location of the room within the house. We'd never plug our phones in there for very long because it's just not central enough. Do you currently charge your devices in that room? If not, I wouldn't assume a drawer would be enough to make you start.

We don't currently charge there, though our renovation has taken so long that I don't really remember what it's like to have a fully functioning kitchen!

$20 and done.

I just got a new car, and it came with a wireless charging pad. Just set the phone down to charge, in a small well where the ashtray used to be in cars, no cords/cables needed. I expect this will be commonplace in homes soon. These kinds of changes seem to happen so quickly to our devices. So if you get that drawer, you'd have to retrofit it in a few years.

Cook's Kitchen, it never occurred to me to plan for a place to put cordless drills in the kitchen. In my house, everyone would love that as we use cordless drills regularly for all sorts of things!