Unclutterer

1. Posted by Bryan - 04/03/2008

   I had the same issue as Gustav, and while I do not have an organizer (I use an old shoe box for all the batteries), I purchased a cheap battery tester from ebay that works great – I just test all the batteries before putting in the kids’ toys, etc. The tester I bought does not require a battery for power and is very accurate

   http://cgi.ebay.com/M12-New-Ha.....dZViewItem

2. Posted by Lane - 04/03/2008

   I live in a small apartment where I can’t hang two giant (from my perspective) boards full of batteries on the wall. I use these small and handy battery organizers from Container Store and keep them in a drawer. I have two for AA’s and two for AAA’s. I write “charged or new” on one, and “used” on the other. Simple!

3. Posted by jdp - 04/03/2008

   Wow, thats a lot of batteries.

   I guess we maybe don’t use so many batteries but I do keep a little ’system’ for them.

   I just have a little inexpensive charger that charges multiple sizes of batteries. If I have batteries waiting to be charged they are either in the charger or in the tray under the charger. If they’ve been charged they go in a yogurt cup by size hidden in a basket (I worked for a basket place, I have baskets for everything). The basket is just behind where the charger is permanently parked on a shelf under a table.

4. Posted by Adrian - 04/03/2008

   Isn’t a “battery organizer” like this about as close as you can get to the definition of a unitasker?!
   Cutting some foam with slots or holes and keeping it in a box or drawer might do just as well.

5. Posted by Rodan32 - 04/03/2008

   I have a pretty simple arrangement; I have a little three-drawer unit I picked up at Walmart, with each drawer labeled: to be charged, charged, and chargers. When I use them up, they go in the “to be charged” drawer. When I’ve charged them, I stick them in the “charged” drawer and put the chargers in their drawer. Keeps everything neat in my closet that way. I have about 40 AA/AAA batteries that are in rotation (I’m a gadget nerd).

6. Posted by Erin Doland - 04/03/2008

   @Rodan32 — This organizer does only have one use, yes … but as we’ve said before, so does your toilet and your home’s lighting system. Unitaskers are only bad when they lack utility. This baby is high in utility, however. And, it’s incredibly inexpensive …

7. Posted by Bill B - 04/03/2008

   What about a piece of foam, similar to the lining of a gun case, custom cut to hold the number and sizes of batteries you’d need. seems simple and cheap to me

8. Posted by Maria in Iowa - 04/03/2008

   Trouble with sorting them by “charged” and “uncharged” is the fact that rechargeables don’t STAY charged very long if they are stored. That’s why we don’t tend to charge ‘em until we need ‘em.

9. Posted by Erin Doland - 04/03/2008

   My comment earlier should have been for Adrian … sorry … too little caffeine this morning

10. Posted by allen - 04/03/2008

    I would just suggest the old two container trick others have stated here. you could get fancy, and keep two different drawers even! *”Oooo” from crowd*

11. Posted by Julia - 04/03/2008

    I have this battery organizer and I love it. I used to keep all my batteries in a shopping bag hanging in a closet, and apparently I always thought we were out of 9Vs, because there were layers of them when I emptied the bag to load up the organizer. Now that I can actually see what we’ve got, it’s not a problem.

    It inspired me to find a similar storage solution for light bulbs: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....tterer-20/

12. Posted by Meg from All About Appearances - 04/03/2008

    I have a plastic bowl in the closet with one Ziploc bag for charged batteries and one for uncharged batteries.

13. Posted by Heidi - 04/03/2008

    I keep mine in an old glass I didn’t need from the kitchen. One for new and one for old. Bonus – accomplishes some uncluttering in the kitchen.

14. Posted by Kristin - 04/03/2008

    We have this battery organizer and love it. It lives in a drawer that’s bigger than it is. The extra chargers (we have three) live in that drawer. Charged batteries live in the organizer. Batteries that need to be charged live in a little plastic bowl next to the organizer. I try to charge them after I use them and store them in the organizer right away. Some may lose some of their charge, but try telling your antsy toddler that his toy won’t work ‘until the batteries’ are charged. Not so much. Even a litle charge will buy me some time until I can fully charge another set.

15. Posted by Bethany - 04/03/2008

    I’m a big fan of ziplock storage bags for everything. If I had a need to organize batteries, I’d probably just keep one bag for uncharged batteries, and another for charged batteries. I guess if you have many, many kinds of batteries, that might not work.

    Ziplock storage bags are also a great way to hold all of my hair accessories, nail tools, medicines, etc. I used to go through the trouble of buying different containers for items like that, but then I realized how practical and easy the ziplock method is.

16. Posted by to - 04/03/2008

    How organize batteries? I not know.

17. Posted by Erin Doland - 04/03/2008

    @to — It’s common when writing newspaper headlines to leave out words like a, an, the, to, etc. to meet point counts … difficult habit to break … hadn’t even noticed I did it until you pointed it out

18. Posted by Karen - 04/03/2008

    I also live in an apartment, and don’t have room to hang things on the walls. I used a small plastic tool box to organize batteries (both regular and rechargeable). The box has a lift-off tray where I can put my most commonly used batteries (with compartments which you could use for charged, uncharged, etc.), and a bottom area where I store odd-sized batteries and my battery tester and charger. It’s easy to store on a closet shelf, and it was very inexpensive.

    I love having all my batteries, charger, tester, etc. in one compact place.

19. Posted by Jonas - 04/03/2008

    Maybe with a little work, one could do some “organize boxes” out of wood just like the one showed at amazon?
    In german it’s called “Setzkasten”, like the English Letter case, but the pictures in german wikipedia are more pretty:

    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setzkasten

    By the way, none of the european amazon shops (amazon.eu – .co.uk/.fr/.de) does have something like that in stock

20. Posted by Katie - 04/03/2008

    My husband writes programs for calculators so he goes through batteries very fast. The system he uses is a small three drawer unit. The top drawer is charged, the bottom is not charged. The middle drawer is for other stuff he keeps at his desk. I also got him a small battery tester from ThinkGeek that allows for quick sorting when there is a mix up.

    He also has started keeping sets in the freezer since this keeps the charge longer. He has a craft box with compartments so he can separate them in groups of 4 – which is how many he needs for his calculator.

    Our rechargeables are almost all AAA and AA so the box in the display wouldn’t really be practical for us since it would take up a lot of space for only using the AA and AAA slots. Plus, there isn’t enough slots to hold all of them.

21. Posted by Nate - 04/03/2008

    Simple, Cheap, Effective:

    Rubber bands

    Bought a multicolor/multisize pack, and bundle charged batteries in Green/Blue color bands, and depleted ones in Red bands.

    Hope this helps!

22. Posted by Gustav - 04/03/2008

    Everybody, thanks for all the suggestions! I will probably go with boxes or small drawers.

23. Posted by Colin - 04/03/2008

    Usually I read comment threads and shake my head at my relative clutter tolerance – I’m having the opposite reaction now. What on earth would anyone need all those batteries for?

    This isn’t a judgment – I’m genuinely puzzled. I have three things which I routinely recharge – cell phone, iPod, and digital camera – which have dedicated batteries and chargers that live in a drawer. We buy batteries for emergency flashlights and the smoke detectors, neither of which need to be replaced all that often, and the kids have maybe two toys apiece that needs batteries… am I missing something here?

24. Posted by Erin Doland - 04/03/2008

    @Colin — In our home we have rechargeable batteries (AA, AAA, D, etc.) in remote controls for the stereo and our television, flashlights, label maker, alarm clocks, electric razor, hand mixer, etc.

25. Posted by Eric - 04/03/2008

    I have an even simpler system using rubber bands than the one mentioned above.

    The only thing you need to do is put a rubber band on the batteries that are charged, ideally as soon as they come off the charger. Once they are depleted take them out of your device and leave them without a rubber band.

    Now, you can just toss all your batteries in a box or drawer.

26. Posted by Kristin - 04/03/2008

    @ Colin. You must not have children

    Let’s see. Three remote controls (TVs/Cable). At least a dozen toys that take anywhere from two to six AA’s each. Oh, wait, some toys take C’s and some take D’s too. Oh yeah, and the hand things for his video game take AAA’s. The there is the flashlights that my son uses ALL the time that need to have the batteries changed often. The digital camera that uses up 4 AA’s fast so we use rechargeables for that .. four in the camera and four on standby for the camera. Then our electric keyboard takes four D batteries (we keep it unplugged for safety purposes for our boys). Let’s see .. what else. Oh yeah, 9 volts for our radio fence for our dogs .. each of our two collar units takes a 9V. And then there are the wireless speakers. We have six. We typically plug these in when we’re using them but if we have a cookout or something, they’re outside, sans cords, using 6 C’s each.

    This is just off the top of my head.

27. Posted by Kristin - 04/03/2008

    I forgot our label maker, backup batteries in the alarm clocks, the boombox my husband uses in the garage, my husband’s electric razor, pencil sharpener (again to eliminate a power cord/hazard from my kids), the backup battery in the cordless phone, the nightlight on my boys’ nightstand … and whatever else I’ve forgotten.

28. Posted by Stephan F- - 04/03/2008

    We also have a bunch of backup rechargable AAs for our Ham radios which need sets of six. So we need to also transport them.
    I found some battery containers from RPI that are simple and effective. If they are not in the container they are considered depleted, a baggie is good to keep them together. They make it really easy to transport lots of batteries safely.

29. Posted by Cate S. - 04/03/2008

    This is not intended as a judgement, but I find it very interesting that the immediate response for orgainizing something is to purchase something else? Perhaps we need to start thinking about how we can use something we already have rather than purchasing even more “stuff”. I’m just as guilty, but this was eye opening for me today.

30. Posted by Erin Doland - 04/03/2008

    @Cate — At Unclutterer, our motto is a place for everything and everything in its place. In this instance, batteries are small, rolling items that can be a serious pain to locate if not in a proper storage container. Other people’s suggestions for things like rubber bands and zip-top bags are fine, too. I don’t necessarily see rubber bands (which break) and zip-top bags (which can get holes in them) as permanent solutions, which is why I suggested an inexpensive, labeled, plastic organizer. In other situations, I might not make purchased recommendations. Organization often has a lot to do with proper storage solutions.

31. Posted by Chris - 04/03/2008

    I like this way of storing batteries but my wife is deaf but wears hearing aids is there one that has compartments for hearing aid batteries?

32. Posted by Kristin - 04/03/2008

    We have small batteries, similar to the ones used in hearing aides, for a few things around the house … we use two of the 9 volt slots for those. Works well.

    Oh, and I remembered another one … walkie talkies. We go anywhere with the kids and we bring them. They’re easier than cell phones and work when cell phones don’t. We have half a dozen and each takes four AA’s.

33. Posted by Mary - 04/04/2008

    4 AA batteries can fit inside the purple plastic containers from Spree candy.

34. Posted by Cate S. - 04/04/2008

    Eric, sorry if I hit a nerve.

35. Posted by Cate S. - 04/04/2008

    Continuation, since I hit submit prematurely.

    My intent is that perhaps we need to look at different methods of organizing at times. I don’t have huge amounts of disposable income and I’m also becoming increasingly aware of the environment, and so rather than racing out and spending $20 for 2 battery organizers, perhaps I would do myself (and the planet) a better service by looking around at what I DO have – shoe boxes, etc. -to see how I can use them. I can better utilize that $20, even by giving it to a charity.

36. Posted by Erin Doland - 04/04/2008

    @Cate — You didn’t hit a nerve, I was just pointing out that Unclutterer isn’t an anti-consumer blog. We’re not against buying things. We’re against clutter. There is actually a pretty big distinction between the two. My position is that if you’re going to own something (rechargeable batteries), you should take care of it properly (designated storage case). And, I believe in buying quality over quantity. In fact, I would contend that a battery case that will last a lifetime will be better on the environment than plastic zip-top bags you have to replace. Twenty dollars now might also be lighter on your pocketbook in the long run because you won’t lose rechargeable batteries (which are pricey) and you won’t have to replace a lesser quality storage system every two to three years. Ultimately, you might be able to give more to charity over the years if you look at the quality vs. quantity equation with your purchasing.

37. Posted by Raisin - 04/04/2008

    I have two solutions, and they go in my camera bags. The first is:
    http://www.personalbatterycaddy.com/

    The second is zip-lock bags.

38. Posted by Harry - 04/05/2008

    I am an organizing freak but I do not like the battery-specific organizer that Erin suggested. There are two problems with it. The bigger is that it is inflexible – it’s only efficient if you have about the same number and type of batteries that the designers think you will. If you have significantly less it’s a waste of space, if more than the item won’t work. The lesser problem is it takes up a lot of space relative to what it stores.

    I use a combination of battery boxes from Container Store (a different size for each battery size) plus a 2 qt tupperware for the overflow. The only batteries I charge in advance are ones for a musical toy my todder uses incessantly. For the rest I keep a set of batteries in the chargers. I have two chargers, one for AAA & AA, one for C, D and 9V.

    I do need to find a battery tester.

    If you want to use what you have around the house, any sort of small square or rectangular box will work fine: shoe box, tupperware, shipping box.

39. Posted by Melissa - 04/07/2008

    Use ONE battery holder like shown in the photo…flip the positive side up if charged. IFf the negative side is showing you’ll know it’s not charged.

40. Posted by Koselara - 04/16/2008

    I use a very small (maybe 4″ tall) three-drawer dresser that’s the perfect size for batteries, keeping it at my work area near the charger. If you have quite a few batteries, the grocery store usually sells of cheap plastic containers in 4-packs for small leftovers or snacks, and some toddler foods also come in rectangular re-sealable plastic containers.

    Lane: “I live in a small apartment [and use] organizers from Container Store”

    Thanks for posting that link; I had heard about it in passing, but never saw the actual site address before. It looks like it has the kinds of things I need, at good prices.

    Erin: “it’s incredibly inexpensive”

    When you said that, I was expecting to see the cost be a few dollars… For somebody that doesn’t have a decent income, like poor college students, elderly/disabled on SSI, etc. $10 + shipping is actually quite a bit of money. :-/

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