Keep it Charged, Keep it On, Keep it with You

Many people buy cell phones for emergency use; i.e. so their kids' schools can reach them in an emergency. A cell phone does you little good if the battery is dead, you turn it off after you make a call, or you leave it in the car while you're somewhere else. Modern phones have very long battery life in standby. Except when you're in a place where the cell phone needs to be completely off (i.e. an airplane), you should leave it on so you can receive emergency calls. When you're in places that you can't have a phone ring, put the phone on vibrate.

Spare chargers are cheap. Keep a car charger for each phone in each car. Keep one AC charger at home and one at work. Frequent travelers should keep a spare set of chargers in their carry-on luggage. USB chargers let you charge your phone from your notebook or desktop PC without the bulk of an AC adapter.

Beware of Alamo rental car company, as they have disconnected the cigarette lighters in some of their 'non-smoking' cars.

If you have a problem with a member of your family not keeping their phone charged, on, and with them, print and cut out the little signs below and tape them all over the house. Put them on doors, shower handles, toilet seats, appliances, etc., until the message sinks in (I can testify that the message does sink in!).