- Apple's ongoing switch to USB-C charging cords has thrown off my whole charging rig.
- My drawers are full of cords — but, somehow, I never have the one I need.
The other night, I did something regrettable that has become a too-familiar experience for me: I went to bed without charging my phone. Not out of choice, not for some zen mindful practice of not keeping my phone next to my bed. It was because, at some point during the day, my phone's charging cord had been commandeered to some other outlet outside the bedroom to charge some other device.
Not long ago, there was peace in my charging kingdom. I had multiple iPhone chargers in key locations (bedside, couchside, deskside, kitchen counter). A mini-USB was occasionally in the mix for Kindles or other occasional devices. Everything was compatible, convenient, and within arm's reach.
But in the last year, it feels like I've descended into Charging Cord Hell. Cords are constantly being moved around from outlet to outlet, and I find myself scavenging the kitchen cord drawer for something that used to be as plentiful as an iPhone charger — and coming up empty-handed.
There are a few reasons for my hell.
Some of them are my own fault, I'll admit. I had the idea to add a few children to my household. No one tells new parents that one of the biggest changes to their lives will be that their charging cord equilibrium will be completely thrown off. Not only do you have a bunch of new devices (baby monitors, noise machines) that take up charging space, but when they're starting to crawl around, you may find yourself with a chaos agent hellbent on pulling cords out of the wall socket. Rearrangement of your whole charging rig may be necessary.
My kids have exited the baby stage, but now they have their own devices to charge. There are tablets, walkie-talkies, random electronic toys, an AI-powered talking stuffed animal voiced by Grimes that uses USB-C. It is not uncommon that I have found my iPhone charger on the kitchen counter removed, and in its place, charging is a remote-controlled monster truck.
I take personal responsibility for this part of the problem. But it's not just me. The tech companies bear some responsibility, as well as a scapegoat we can all agree to get mad at: European Union regulators.
Let's start there. In 2022, the EU passed a regulation saying that all phones, computers, and cameras must have USB-C chargers by 2025. That meant Apple, which used its Lightning charging cords for iPhones, iPads, and AirPods, would have to concede and start making new USB-C-compliant devices. (The 2023 iPhone 15 was the first iPhone to use USB-C.)
This means a lot of other new devices, like the off-brand Theragun knockoff I bought at T.J. Maxx, now use USB-C for charging.
But everything still isn't so simple. Now, I have cords that are USB-C at one end and go into a regular USB brick. Others are USB-C at both ends and require a USB-C brick. Charging up my new fake Theragun (which I don't recommend; I don't know how much better a real Theragun is, but this knockoff didn't magically soothe my sore hip) caused a complete disruption of my bedside power strip.
This is probably a familiar experience to you: having a device, a cord, and a charging brick, yet not the right combination of those three things. Perhaps you have stormed around your apartment or house, rifling through drawers and pulling out chargers from other sockets (which you'll regret later) or leaving something charging where it shouldn't be charging (which you will forget later).
The other culprit is the tech companies. In 2020, the iPhone 12 was the first to ship without a charging brick, ostensibly to cut down on e-waste. At the time, I wasn't too mad: I was already awash in charging cords and bricks from past purchases. When I'd get a new device, I often wouldn't even bother taking the plastic seal off the new brick and just toss it in a drawer. A decade of iPhone ownership had left me with an overflowing bounty of charging bricks.
But slowly and surely, over the last four years, my charging brick supply has dwindled. I imagine this is what it must've been like to live in the Midwest in the late 1800s, and see the flocks of millions of Passenger Pigeons, so massive they could darken the skies for hours, and then witness the creature go extinct within years.
At some point, my husband purchased a few multi-chargers, a single brick that could handle several cords at once. One of these broke, and we still have an Anker brand multi-charger, but it does have a significant problem — it tends to slip out of the wall (according to The Verge, Anker is redesigning its plug to solve this problem).
Yes, buying new multichargers is the logical answer to my problems. Please don't email me and tell me this. I am aware this is a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it, which is, I suppose, better than a problem that can't be solved at all. But I resent having to buy these — they're not cheap! The multi-charger sitting in my Amazon cart is over $80. That's not a lot to pay for peace of mind, but it's a lot to pay for something I used to get for free.
I know I'm not the only one rotting away in Cord Hell. I know there are other people out there just like me. Maybe you, even. Responsible gadget owners who haven't significantly changed how many devices we use, but suddenly find ourselves searching around for the right plug, quibbling with their partner over who has the lower battery and greater need to charge the plug next to the couch.
I see you. I hear you. You are not alone. We have strength in numbers, we just don't have, uh, power.