Paper Storage At Last!
As an architect, a theater scenic designer, and a collage artist I desperately needed to store papers safely, neatly, and, if possible... cheaply.
If you do scrapbooking, collage, small design projects, or any other art involving smaller pieces of paper You Have the Same Problem.
Sure there are such things as flat files. Lovely flat files designed expressly to safely house drawings. Sleek steel flat files and rich-looking oak flat files.
But for one thing, these files are usually huge, meant for large format drawings (and I tend to work on smaller scale 11" x 17" sheets). Besides, losing little drawings in big drawers, where in my modest sized house could I fit such a monster? And if I could find house room for one... how could I afford it? Even used and battered flat files cost hundreds of dollars. (Because they're so cool!)
I could, however, afford pizza boxes.
So for years and years my home office was lined with stacks of pizza boxes - labeled by project. It is, I discovered, very important that these be CLEAN pizza boxes. I got very strange looks from the guy behind the pizza store's counter each time I explained that, no, I wanted to buy the BOX from him - not the PIZZA!
For years this was my best solution to the drawing storage problem. It wasn't perfect, because pizzas are, you'll notice, sorta circular - requiring a square box - while my drawings were rectangular. So they slid from side to side in these boxes and one long paper edge had to curl up just the least bit to fit.
This cool box HERE is the idea answer.
A perfectly sized, sturdy, and acid-free! archival box designed to hold papers just like mine or yours. They're not crazy-cheap, but they're sure cheaper and easier to fit into your space than a flat file! I've switched my whole office over to boxes like these.
And love 'em!
Photo Gallery
Click thumbnail to view full-sizeFiguring out not just your storage problems, but exactly what you need your workspace to DO is vital to making your work efficient and pleasant. Read a blog post of mine on Studio Organization to see better pictures of my boxes at work... plus a discussion of the whys and wherefors of planning a studio. Or read this Squidoo lens on Create a Dorm Room Studio for more on art studio planning in (very) small spaces.