When’s the last time one of your devices died at exactly the wrong moment?
We’d venture to say we’ve all been there. You reach for your phone and it’s at 3%. Your laptop hits zero crubling in mid-presentation. Your watch goes dark somewhere around mile four of a hike. And suddenly you’re either scrambling to fix the situation or choosing to do without until you can find an outlet — neither of which is a great option.
Here’s the thing though: most of that scrambling is avoidable. It just takes a little strategy. It’s an art, really. And like most art, it gets easier once you understand the basics.
The Inventory Problem
It’s astounding, when you stop and think about it, how many things in our daily lives need a charge?
The obvious ones: cell phones, laptops, smartwatches. The ones we reach for without thinking. But then there’s the second tier — portable chargers, wireless earbuds and headphones, personal fans, e-readers, cameras, Kindles, fitness trackers, Bluetooth speakers, remotes for various electronics, or perhaps even a sound machine for some. Did we miss one?
The list keeps going. On any given evening at home, you might have six or eight devices all wanting power at the same time.
Now take that on a trip. Are there enough outlets and USB ports at your destination for everything?Â
Or perhaps the bed and breakfast you’re staying at provides the base equipment, like Iona Stables and Inn, operated by Robert and Linda, or the Private Suite in Hillsboro, operated by Scott and Kim.
If yes — great, you’re done, no problem. But if the answer is no, which it often is in hotels, Airbnbs, and especially older vacation rentals, then you need a plan for what charges first, what can wait, and what you absolutely cannot leave the room without.
On our recent RV trip, one of our group was commenting — “can they <Gary and Dianne of JMO> really spend two hours talking about charging?”
The answer is we can and we did. That very discussion is what prompted this article. And that discussion kept everyone’s gear charged. All four of us, despite not having enough cords for everyone’s gear.
This is where the art comes in.
It’s Not Just a Travel Problem
Before we get to packing lists and power strips, it’s worth noting that the charge problem doesn’t only show up on vacation. It lives at home too — and for some people, it’s more acute there than anywhere else.
Anyone who has lived through a serious storm season knows the drill. A thunderstorm, tornado, or hurricane (hopefully not, but it happens) rolls through and the power goes out — sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. Rolling grid blackouts, increasingly common in areas with aging infrastructure or extreme heat demand, create the same problem without any warning at all. Suddenly your fully-charged portable charger is the most valuable thing you own.
The habit of keeping your devices topped off — not just plugging in when something hits 10%, but building a routine around it — is just as valuable at home as it is on the road. Think of it less like charging and more like keeping the tank full. You don’t wait until your car is on empty to stop for gas.
The Right Gear Makes All the Difference
This is where a little investment pays off significantly. The two pieces of kit that have made the biggest difference for us:
A power strip with built-in USB and USB-C ports. This is the single most useful thing you can bring on a trip. One outlet becomes five or six charging points. Look for a compact travel model — they’re widely available, pack flat, and eliminate the scramble for who gets the outlet by the bed. Some models include surge protection built in, which is worth having, and in particular, when you rent a car for long distances.
Also needing consideration are destinations where power consistency is questionable, or even when you only get 2 hours of electric per day. (For more on how that actually works, check out our How Electricity Works article — it covers voltage, adapters, and what happens when things go wrong.)
A high-capacity portable charger(s). Not the slim little 5,000mAh ones that get your phone through one emergency top-up. We’re talking 20,000mAh or higher — enough to fully charge a phone three or four times, or keep a tablet going through a long travel day. Keep it charged before you travel. Always. Remember, it doesn’t help anyone sitting in a drawer at 0%.
Beyond those two, the rest is cord management. USB-C has largely taken over, but not entirely — you’ll still encounter devices that need Micro-USB or Lightning, and Murphy’s Law guarantees the one you forgot is the one you need. A small cord organizer pouch keeps everything from becoming a knotted disaster at the bottom of your bag.
We use them as a simple set up to organize and keep things separate.
When the Gear Doesn’t Make It
Here’s a scenario that happens more often than anyone likes to admit. You get to your destination, unzip the bag, and something is missing. The laptop charger is sitting on the kitchen counter at home. The USB-C cable you specifically remember packing is nowhere. Or — and this one has a particular sting to it — someone else in your group assumed someone else was bringing the power strip, and now four people are staring at two outlets.
It happens. To everyone. At least once. It just happens.
The immediate instinct is to find a store and replace whatever’s missing. Sometimes that works fine. But it’s not always that simple, or cost effective. Depending on where you are — a small coastal town, a mountain resort, a rural stretch of highway — the right cable or the right adapter may simply not be available locally. And when it is available, you’re often paying a significant premium for the convenience. A $12 USB-C cable at home becomes a $35 cable at a hotel gift shop or a tourist-area pharmacy. A power strip that costs $20 online costs considerably more when you’re buying it out of desperation at a resort sundry shop on a Saturday afternoon. It adds up fast, especially for just a few days of use.
The smarter move — before any of that happens — is to build a quick check into your packing routine. A simple note on your phone, a sticky on the suitcase, whatever works for you. Cords, adapters, power strip, portable charger. Thirty seconds before you zip the bag.
If you’re traveling with others, have a quick group conversation before anyone leaves home. And if you get there and someone someone still forgot, you can still share chargers. (we’re noting here that Gary is usually guilty of the forgetting part, Dianne is pretty much on point to remember.)
Who’s bringing what. It sounds obvious. It is obvious. And yet…
Prioritizing When You Can’t Charge Everything
If you find yourself in a situation where you genuinely can’t charge everything at once — one outlet, five devices, a limited window of time — here’s a simple triage framework:
Phone first. It’s your “life’s blood” of equipment — your map, your boarding pass, your communication, your camera. It goes on charge before anything else. After that, prioritize by the order you’ll need things. Laptop for the morning work session? Charge it overnight. Watch going on a hike tomorrow? Charge it tonight. The personal fan? It can wait.
The portable charger deserves a dedicated slot in the rotation — treat it like a device of its own, because when everything else runs low, it’s your backup plan. Don’t let the backup die. One of our backups is has a solar charger that works pretty well — when it’s sunny. And it’se slightly heavier, adding a bit of extra weight.
For us at JMO? It makes best sense to charge the important things to a certain point, then make sure the backup is charged.
A Simple Habit That Changes Everything
The best charging strategy is the one you don’t have to think about. Build a routine — at home and on the road — where everything goes on charge at the end of the day, before it needs it. Not at 5%. Not when it starts flashing at you. At the end of the day. Every day.
Set it up like a little charging station: power strip out, everything plugged in, done. You wake up with full batteries across the board, and the scramble disappears entirely.
It’s a small thing. But small things, consistently done, are what separate a smooth trip from a stressful one.
Journey Moore Often, because a dead phone at the trailhead is no way to start an adventure.
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