Home organization products are an $8.8 billion industry in the U.S., according to the Freedonia Group market research firm. By the end of this decade, they’ll be a $10.5 billion industry. According to Freedonia:
Demand for home organization products in the U.S. is forecast to increase 3.5 percent per year through 2019 to $10.5 billion. Bins, baskets and totes will remain the largest product segment, while modular units will grow the fastest.
But for every newfangled contraption marketed as the latest organizational must-have, there is often a simpler — and cheaper — solution.
The magazine file is one such solution. It lacks novelty but makes up for it with multi-functionality.
Periodicals are just one of dozens of types of items — from kitchen goods to wardrobe accessories — that you can organize with magazine files. Here are seven illustrations:
1. Office supplies
Professional organizer Samantha Pregenzer stores office supplies such as notepads and printer ink in magazine files to free up drawer space. She says:
Not only can they hold a variety of items, they can hold a ton … vertically.
2. Craft supplies
Whatever your household’s preferred crafts may be, chances are a magazine file can help you keep the supplies organized.
In this case, balls of yarn are stored in cardboard magazine files.
3. Paper goods
This magazine file — bought for $1 at Target — keeps paper plates and napkins from flying around inside the cabinet of an RV.
It also saves space, whether the cabinet is in a mobile home or a traditional home.
4. Foil and wrap
To save additional cabinet space, vertically corral rolls of products such as aluminum foil and plastic wrap.
A scrapbook-paper holder can also function like a magazine file.
5. Produce
Magazine files can serve two space-maximizing purposes:
- Providing vertical storage for vegetables inside
- Creating vertical storage for cutting boards outside
6. Accessories
Collectors of accessories such as small handbags or large wallets can both store and display their collections in magazine files.
And yes, the bags stand beside a collection of belts stored and displayed on paper-towel holders.
7. Makeup
Makeup pallets — which contain multiple colors of eye shadow, for example — can save money. The price per color in a palette is usually less than if you had bought a single color of eye shadow on its own.
The size of pallets makes them harder to store than small makeup items, but again, magazine files provide a vertical solution.
What’s your favorite organizational object? Let us know why by commenting below or over on our Facebook page.
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