Cheap and efficient cardboard storage/organization solutions for makerspaces

[David Palange]

Hello fellow maker educators,

I am looking for a DIY and/or economical solution to storing all of the cardboard in our makerspace, a very important prototyping material. When doing a search on furniture already built to do this, I only came across industrial equipment that costs hundreds of dollars (ex. https://www.grainger.com/product/PRO-LINE-Cardboard-Storage-Stand-33VC37 and http://www.cartsbinsmats.com/carton-storage1.html). Can you share some solutions your labs and spaces have used to organize and store cardboard efficiently? Pictures are highly encouraged! Thanks in advance for your support.

Thanks,
David Palange

Director of STEM Education, K-8 and Coordinator of the Laboratory for Inquiry and Creativity (LInC)

Bentley School

Oakland, CA

[woodshopcowboy .]

David, 

I used carts similar to this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=plywood+cart+woodworking&rlz=1C1EJFA_enUS668US668&espv=2&biw=1097&bih=541&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin2MSu97rOAhVJziYKHcyQCRIQ_AUIBygC

to store plywood, cardboard, acrylic, wood, etc. in shops before.  Just size the various pockets to hold what you need.

Get a set of big castors though, they get heavy fast.

PW

Patrick Waters,

Educator, Writer, Maker

www.woodshopcowboy.com

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[Ann Boes]

We put large sheets upright behind a shelving unit that's next to the wall. They aren't in any kind of storage container. They are just sitting on the floor held up between the wall and the shelves. We put all the smaller cardboard pieces in a very large and tall cardboard box. FREE and it works great.

Ann

[Problem-based Science]

Call me crazy but my favorite storage for cardboard is this cool technology called the cardboard box....

[Lindsey Own]

I've been using the stored-in-larger-boxes-under-the-table method, and I don't love it... We have SO much cardboard, and it's hard to find a right piece when needed.

(Couldn't insert picture directly, so here's tweeted picture: https://twitter.com/lindseyown/status/764514830099230720)

I've been thinking about getting a wall sorter like this for that lightweight cereal box cardboard: http://www.containerstore.com/s/office/paper-file-storage/wall-pockets/white-3-tier-mesh-wall-sorter/123d?productId=10037500

We built a bigger lumber rack like this one ( http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/graphics4/shopnotes-rolling-wood-storage.jpg) that we keep large flat cardboard sheets for the laser cutter in, but it doesn't stay neat easily. That's more a problem with our systems than with the rack itself though. :-)

Looking forward to seeing more people's solutions!

- Lindsey

[Maggie]

We built a custom storage unit with wood that you can see in my post here: http://www.innovatemyschool.com/ideas/building-an-idea-studio-and-becoming-a-gardener It was a bit too deep but worked very well otherwise. 

- Maggie 

On Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 10:19:04 PM UTC-4, David Palange wrote:

[David Palange]

Thanks everyone for sharing your ideas! All of these ideas got me thinking and I think I found a solution. Today, I decided to upcycle an old wire cart into a cardboard storage organizer. I bought the cart originally on Amazon for less than $100 and found that if I flipped it on its side I had a nice mechanism to store cardboard. Sometimes the solution is right before our very eyes.