Desperately seeking a decent battery caddy

I want a battery caddy. I know initially it seems like a bizarre thing to want, or maybe it is difficult to even determine what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks I’m talking about.

I have several items in my office that take AA or AAA batteries (for example, my Wireless Keyboard, Magic Trackpad and QC15s).

When one of the devices gets a low battery, I run scrambling for fresh batteries. Sometimes I end up with batteries that were charged long ago, and they either don’t work out of the gate or they last for a very short period of time. So I start charging them again while I grab more. On multiple occasions it’s taken me several tries before I have success, and then the noise of chargers running around me is unsettling.

Yes this is partly due to my own inability to organize “stuff” – and in fact I do have a Tupperware container where I keep freshly charged batteries. But this system has a weakness: there is no inherent organization; it is just a pile. Every time I grab batteries out of there, I may be grabbing the newest batteries I’ve charged, and the ones that have been waiting the longest to be re-used get to stay idle once again. I am sure I am burning out one set of batteries and completely wasting several other sets. While I am careful to only pair identical batteries together (I use both Rayovac Hybrids and Energizers of various mAh ratings, depending on when/where purchased), I do not keep track of which batteries were charged more recently than others.

Here is where a battery caddy would come in handy (well, two, but I’ll start with just one for AAs). It would function like a paper towel dispenser – you fill it up from the top, and the towels you put in first come out first, while the “newest” towels come out last. See, I knew I’d have some opportunity to use the concept of First-In First-Out FIFO)!

From http://www.flickr.com/photos/maisonbisson/3066135678/

So now imagine a container with similar functionality but the width of a battery. Ideally it would hold about 20-24 batteries (I’d produce a diagram but my Photoshop-fu is weak today). When I charge my first set of batteries, I slide them into the top and they drop to the bottom, ready to be used. I charge another set, and they go to the top, but won’t be used next. No more round-robin battery selection; three cheers for FIFO!

I’ve searched around but I can’t find anything like this. If you know of anything, please let me know! It’s not a huge deal, but it is a minor annoyance for which I have to think there should be a better solution. If you don’t know of anything, but would find such a thing useful, you can let me know that too. If I find something (or just create it myself), I’ll let you know!