...to make a central charging station

...for all of our electronics

We have so. many.  The acquisition of all of these devices happened so accidentally...

About two years ago we had one laptop and the kids had a Chromebook.  My computer started to process slowly.  So then, I needed a new laptop that was more reliable.  So we bought another.  (The kids then got my old one.)  We moved here to Ann Arbor and then Mark started school.  He needed a new laptop for school...he got a new one.

Mark and I have our phone and we have an old one we keep as the home phone.

The handheld devices have multiplied as well.

And then we have the Kindles...three of 'em.

And with all of these electronics we can never ever find the chargers.

Then there was the other little problem of some-children-who-must-not-be-named constantly leaving the electronics anywhere but in their right places.  We would sit on a computer when it was left on the couch, we would nearly step on a Kindle because they it was left on the floor, we would even find the home phone squished between the cushions...

In desperation one afternoon Mark told me to look for a treasure.

Yes, Mark did in fact request that I hunt for some type of map holder or large drawer cabinet to bring home.  Since I love furniture and the quest of treasure finding, I started to search.   While I found many that I loved, they didn't exactly fit my budget.

And then this week I was out running errands and stopped at the recycling center in Ann Arbor.  And I came upon this lovely treasure:

It didn't even need to be refinished!

I took the back off of the cabinet and then Mark organized the cord chaos.  He ordered an extra long cord with a 12 outlet surge protector that he hid in the back of the cabinet on the bottom shelf.

The view from the back:

The view from the front...

he used some 3M cord holders so the cords wouldn't slip back,

and now we are all set up...

The trick will be to get our cherubs to put their devices away!