Outlet-Mount Device Charging Pocket

By Sean Michael Ragan
Category: Home, Furniture
Time Required: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Most cellphones are provided with a very basic wall-wart charger, and you usually have to pay extra for a proper charging dock. The bundled charger is often unsightly in use, being just a transformer with a cord strung out to an end table or someplace where the cellphone rests. If you have a cat who likes to chew through cords, as I do, this can be more than just inelegant — it can be totally impractical. It’s also a good project if you just hate, for aesthetic reasons, loose power cords strung out across the furniture.

A similar product is for sale at ThinkGeek, and that’s where I got the idea. The nice thing about my version is that it requires no tools to mount or demount, being suspended by the plug on the charger itself. So you can quickly move it around to whatever outlet you want or take it with you when you travel. Plus it costs all of nothing to build.

Parts
/
Tools

3/8" and 1/2" dia. bits
Drill with 5/16"
Flame
Paint pen
Printer
Scissors
Utility knife

Steps

Step #1: Select a suitable bottle

Obviously, the bottle needs to be plastic or other nonconductive material. If you try this with a metal bottle, you'll destroy everything and probably injure yourself shorting out the wall socket.
The bottle should have a flat back, more or less, so that it easily fits between the charger and the outlet. It needs to be thick and wide enough to hold your device, of course, and long enough to provide clearance below the wall-wart when inserting or removing said device.
The one I made is 6" long and works well for my phone and charger, but your own equipment may of course vary.
Finally, the bottle musn't be too thick, otherwise the force on the plug might obtain a significant "outward" component, which is probably ungood. As long as the force is mainly "down," the limited weight of the phone, pouch, and charger should be easy for the plug to bear.

Conclusion

Instead of drilling a hole in the bottom of the bottle, you might try cutting a slit with a razor just long enough to slip the power connector through. The sides of the slit will grip the cord a bit, and should prevent it falling out when you don't want it to. I haven't had any problems with this, but I've also got an unusually bulky connector on my phone.

Also, if it bothers you, you could splice the cord on your charger way down to eliminate the big hanging coil when the phone is in place. Cover the joint in the cable with black heat-shrink tubing to make an attractive splice, or take the transformer casing apart, make the splice inside, and put it back together. It'll still have to be insulated, of course, but it won't matter so much if it's neat.