Having lost count of how many separate chargers - each with its cord wrapped around it - I carry in my briefcase when I travel, I decided to do something about it. IDAPT Charging Station to the rescue.

On the average foreign trip my husband and I carry three cell phones (our home phones plus a Mobal that works anywhere in the world). Of course each of them has a different shape connection tip, so there are three chargers right at the start, each with a plug adaptor to fit non-US outlets. And that’s just the phones.

Then there is the other problem of finding enough outlets in a hotel room to use our laptops and recharge the various camera batteries each night (my husband is a photographer and I use a Flip for recording notes). Sometimes we have to set the alarm for the middle of the night to swap chargers in the few outlets.

Imagine my delight to discover the solution in one single appliance that takes up no more room than all the chargers and weighs the same. The IDAPT Charging Station can charge four devices at once, using interchangeable tips, and it comes equipped with the six most common shapes.

Because these are interchangeable, I only need to carry with me the tips that fit my appliances. If I get a device in the future that doesn’t fit one of these, I can choose from a full range of others. And these are constantly updated to fit newly designed gadgets.

So now, instead of a whole bunch of chargers and cords dangling from the walls (or more likely, waiting their turn for the outlet), I have one neat little box sitting on the desk of my hotel room charging four at once. Each interchangeable tip has a light that turns red to tell me it’s charging and green when it’s fully charged.

One benefit I hadn’t even thought of until we started carrying this handy-dandy device with us on trips, is that it’s always visible, so we don’t leave it behind when we check out. We have several times done this with separate chargers when we needed to use outlets hidden behind furniture or in other obscure locations. But with one central point using only one outlet, everything is in plain view.

Is there a downside to IDAPT? We haven’t found one, although the flexible cover on my cell phone’s recharging socket gets in the way sometimes and pushes the phone up so it doesn’t make a good connection. But when this happens the red light goes off as soon as I take my hand off the phone, so I can pull the cover out of the way and restore the connection.

If I were traveling alone, I might opt for one of the smaller IDAPT units with only two or three charging points. But for two of us, all four points are sometimes in use at once. And when we get home, the IDAPT goes right back to its everyday place, on the table next to the front door, as a handy stand for our phones. We always know where they are when we need them, and if they don’t need charging we can flip the switch to “off” to prevent wasting electricity. We don’t have that option with individual chargers, which continue draining power constantly if we don’t unplug each one when the phones have charged.

Find out more at www.idaptweb.com.