When I was much younger, I was deeply inspired by Victor Papanek’s book “Design for the Real World”. And it looks like 20 years after I found the DIY activity, which follows some of the ideas from this book.
As I moved into a new house, I finally have plenty of space. But I also have plenty of hobby-related stuff — drawing supplies, DIY electronics, 3D printing tools, boatwork equipment and spare parts, and so on. And none of it has ever been properly organized. It has mostly lived in boxes, plastic organizers, on random shelves, or basically nowhere.
And that is a problem. When inspiration strikes, finding the necessary tools and materials can take so much time that it kills the whole desire to create. And this has to be solved.
So, I decided to build my own storage system.
It is not the first time I have tried this. But there are several problems that I have faced before and never really managed to solve.
First of all, the amount and variety of stuff — even tiny components — is so large that I would like to have many specialized containers: drawers, boxes, holders for pencils, paints, and so on.
That means that if I choose a ready-made system or elements of it, I will have to spend a lot of money to make it truly convenient and free of compromises, with every item having its own logical place.
There is also no guarantee that such a system will still be available once I want to expand or modify it in the future. I have already encountered this problem multiple times with Ikea and other manufacturers. You buy a nice set of document holders, and two years later, you decide to get two more of the same design — only to discover that they are no longer being produced. And I really dislike visual clutter when everything looks different, when items for one task are taken from one manufacturer, and items for another are taken from another.
At one point, I decided to switch to a DIY modular system and simply 3D-print it. There are many excellent options available already, but that introduces a new problem: 3D printing is sloooooooow. At least with the affordable printers I have owned, and especially when printing drawers and boxes that consist mostly of large flat surfaces. A single medium-sized desktop drawer can easily take more than 24 hours to print.
This is where I gave up several years ago. I need dozens of drawers, and there is usually a need for multiple iterations before I am satisfied with the design. I simply do not have that much patience.
About a year ago, I bought a relatively simple and affordable laser engraver for some boat-related projects. Unfortunately, it does not work particularly well with plywood or MDF sheets of standard thickness, and eventually, I almost forgot that I even had it.
During this iteration of the project, I remembered about it.
Keeping its limitations in mind, I initially considered using relatively thick cardboard (1–3 mm grayboard) as a quick solution. But then I realized that it is surprisingly expensive for what is ultimately a fairly low-quality material — especially when you need dozens of drawers and boxes.
I was close to giving up again. But recently I had to buy some bedroom furniture from Ikea. After assembling the cabinets and dresser, I ended up with a huge pile of corrugated cardboard in the basement that I was planning to take to the local recycling station.
Then I remembered that people have experimented with making furniture from corrugated cardboard, and suddenly the idea seemed promising. A year ago, I had already tried cutting it with the laser, and it worked quite well. There are some caveats, of course — for example, it can catch fire surprisingly easily — but overall it seemed manageable.
And this is my current idea.
I want to try building an entire storage system from this scrap material. I have a feeling that, despite its limitations, it may actually be a good solution to my current problems.
The material certainly has disadvantages. It is not particularly rigid, it does not like moisture, and it will never be mistaken for hardwood. But I still like the idea for several reasons:
- I get plenty of cardboard almost for free every month through deliveries of cat food, groceries, and other purchases.
- I really dislike the routine of preparing paper waste for recycling by removing labels, tape, and other non-paper parts. This way, I can postpone that process a little longer.
- It feels like a sustainable approach that is close to the spirit of many DIY hobbies. And it is certainly more sustainable than printing everything from PETG or similar plastics.
- Cutting is extremely fast, which means I can experiment freely with different formats and approaches and go through many iterations in a short time.
- And, in general, I simply like the idea of finding something aesthetically pleasing in a material that is rarely considered beautiful. Isn’t that an interesting design challenge?
Right now, I am actively experimenting with basic module sizes and different ways of using corrugated cardboard effectively. And I have a strong feeling that this whole idea of sustainable DIY approaches may turn out to be much bigger than just a storage system.
As soon as I have something worth showing, I will share more.