Grid It!: My New Traveling Partner

by Lori Cunningham

When you travel, do you end up taking a lot of chargers and cords to keep your tech life juiced up?

I’m the first to admit, as a techie, I have more charging gear than the average person.  Nonetheless, as gadgets continue to enhance our lives,( as I like to say), you have more to charge up on a daily/nightly basis.

The picture above is just ONE of the plugs I had in my hotel room at CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, a tradeshow where retailers determine and buy the gadgets to sell at their stores.  Shown are

• two phone chargers
• my Sony Bloggie
• my RCA Audiovox USB wall plug plate
• Sprint battery charger

Another outlet held charging cords for my

• Striiv pedometer
• Intel Aspire One netbook
• iPad 2
• Sony S Tablet
• TP-Link Pocket Router
• mini power strip
• NeatReceipts mini scanner

I’m probably forgetting 1-2 gadgets, but that’s the most of it.  Certainly, having enough plugs is a huge issue and one I haven’t conquered yet.  Though seriously, I think the next tradeshow I’m bringing a full-sized powerstrip…perhaps 2 of them!

When I travel I typically just throw all of my charging gear in one bright yellow Clever Girls bag, making it easy to find all my gear at once.  Unfortunately, the cords all look alike and finding just the cord and charger I’m looking for is a hassle.

I’m assuming you must have a similar issue also when you travel, especially with your family.   You must have a mess of cords and adapters too:

• one for your phone
• one for your husband’s phone
• one for your tablet
• one for your laptop/netbook
• one for each of the kids’ phones/hand-held devices
• one for the portable DVD player
• one for your camera
• one for your camcorder
• …the list goes on!

When I saw the  Grid-IT!* in the Cocoon booth at CES, I knew immediately is was the answer to one of my tech travel issues.   Grid-IT! by Cocoon is the ultimate organizer when you love tech and need to travel.  Grid-IT! features a bunch of rubberized elastic straps going horizontally and vertically to accommodate different sizes of items.  But to look at it this way does not do it justice.  You have to see it in action to believe it.  Look at the pictures below:

Here’s how I used my Grid-IT! when packing to leave Vegas from the CES Show.  I worked great for my camera tripods and car charger as well.

Above is a picture from another time I packed up the Cocoon, ready to travel!

The Grid-IT! actually comes in different sizes.  The one I chose is 9 x 11 inches.  It works well in my soft-sided briefcase or backpack.  You can get the grid with or without a cover.  The one I chose has a cover to keep everything protected.  They come in a variety of colors.  The cover definitely adds to the size and profile of the items on your Grid-IT!, as you can see from the above picture.

For our regular readers, you may remember our mention of the Cocoon Grid-IT! organizer as one of the best products for moms stemming from the CES in January.  There’s just so much you can do with it.  Besides electronics, you could use the Grid-IT! for office supplies, as a first-aid kit, art supplies, or even on the back of your sun visor for things like lipsticks, eye liner, phone chargers, sun glasses, mints, small Kleenex’, name badges, etc.

The most clever way I saw it being used was for make-up.  You can buy a smaller one that fits into your purse and use it for all of your make-up and lipsticks, nail file, pens, medication boxes, and more.  What a great way to find things in your purse easily.  Finally, a way to find things in your bottomless purse pit!

Grid-IT!’s come in all sorts of different sizes and in different organizer formats (laptop cases, backpacks, iPad cases, etc.).  Grid-IT!’s range from $9.99 to $49.99 dependent upon the size and features you want.  Buy Grid-IT! directly from Cocoon from their website.  Grid-IT! is also available from Amazon.com with similar pricing.

*  I was given a Cocoon Grid-IT! Wrap in exchange for my honest review.  All expressed opinions are my own.