As most Suburban Zen readers know, I have a love/hate relationship with my TV. I like to watch movies and Survivor with my family, I love the Food Channel, and whenever I come across a Mythbusters or What Not to Wear episode, I’ll watch it. I dislike having to talk over TV, having to compete with it for my family’s attention, and every time my children start arguing over what TV show to watch I hide all the remotes and declare a temporary electronic blackout.

Because of my dysfunctional relationship with my TV, I’m always looking for the perfect media storage solution that looks pretty, hides all our stuff, and has doors that close so I can hide the TV from my family when I want them to pay attention to me.

I’ve come across some pretty great solutions in my quest :

I'm always a fan of the armoire as a solution, because it looks pretty when it's closed and has lots of room inside for all the other stuff I want to hide. I prefer a vintage clothing armoire that's been converted to fit media components, rather than one that's been designed for media storage, as the attention is paid to the design of the face, finish and hardware that's sometimes sacrificed on a piece that's designed purely for function.

Many people are putting their TVs in wall alcoves and covering them with art, photos, mirrors, or a pair of vintage doors.

I've toyed with the idea of painting an unframed canvas and hanging it over my TV.

And if I must look at my TV, this is a pretty cute idea:

But honestly, I'd still rather look at this:

I think I feel a blackout coming on.

The Last Family on Earth Without DVR

We are indeed the last family on earth without DVR. Or On Demand. Aside from a few gadgets in my life, I'm not a huge fan of non-essential technology. It always seems to create as many problems as it solves.

However, I'm finally ready to take the plunge and invest in DVR and On Demand for the simple reason that I can't find a DVD in my house when I want one. We've tried storing them alphabetically, by genre, by rating. No luck. If I want to watch a movie on a friday night, I have to resign myself to watching whatever I can find in the room I'm in.

I estimate that we've invested around $15,000 in our DVD collection over the years, and really just watch Ocean's 11, National Treasure, Iron Man (I do love Tony Stark), and Notting Hill over and over because those are the movies we can all agree on and can find.

Call the cable guy, JP. I'm ready to donate that big DVD collection to the local library and use those cupboards to store my shoes. We will no longer be the last family on earth without DVR. But sorry Jack, we will still be the last family on earth without AirSoft Guns.

Maybe I Need a Backup Plan

In order to secure my retirement, I've been planning to invent a universal charger that works with all rechargeable electronic devices. As retirement grows closer though, I'm realizing that I may not have the mental capacity to invent such an item for the approximately 100 million devices that need charging at any given time in my home. And I've just learned that someone has beat me to it. A new universal adapter is in the works and will be introduced in 2012 -- glory hallelujah.

I'll be first in line in 2012 to get my new universal adapter. Until then, we've got all of the following devices in regular use at all times in the Furber house:

Two Blackberries
One cell phone
Five cameras
Five iPods
One DSLite and one Gameboy (both Jack's)
Various remote control cars, planes and helicopters

And that's not counting all the things that only come out occasionally and therefore are separated from their chargers and become useless after a few months.

In order to keep the chargers at the ready, and keep my house from becoming a jungle of plugs, wires and devices snaking out from every available outlet, I've devised a system that works pretty well:

The big kids each have recharging stations in their rooms with enough plugs to handle all the devices used regularly by that child. Andie has this one for her phone, iPod and camera:

She likes it because she can close the lid and it looks nice on her desk.

Jack has this one for his gameboys, his iPod, and his remote control fleet:

He likes it because he can put pictures of cool cars, or whatever else is his current interest, in the front.

JP and I keep our chargers in our cars so our phones and iPods can be charging while we're driving.

For those things that aren't constantly in use or charging, we have a color coding system that works great: we mark each electronic thing with a sticker, and it's adapter with the same sticker, so we can match them up. We've been known to mark things with valentine stickers, basketball stickers, alphabet stickers. It doesn't really matter what kind we use, as long as we have two of them.

Every once in awhile I have to go through my house and tighten up the screws on our organizational system by unplugging things from random outlets and putting them back where I like them. But for the most part order reigns, and our system will hold us for the next three years until I can sleep on the sidewalk outside Best Buy to get my universal charger when it comes out.