Numbered drawers

Pietro Arosio's many-drawered chests come with small numbers on each drawer. The effect is curiously pleasing, and, one supposes, very handy. Link (via Cribcandy)

[#1 posted by lamarlowe , April 25, 2008 7:41 PM]

They appear to be identically sized, thus interchangeable. I love how much my wife would hate that degree of intentional disorganization!! :)

clutter rules! At least around me it does. How can one be free and happy and commando and joyful amidst so much artificially enforced order.

One can not. At least not this one.

[#2 posted by Jake0748 , April 25, 2008 7:45 PM]

Nifty! I'd still forget which number drawer I put something in though. :)

[#3 posted by Roger Knights , April 25, 2008 7:54 PM]

Color coding would be more memorable and pleasing. Ideally each removable front-sheet would have a different color on back, and spare cover-sheets of lots of colors would also be provided. That way categories could be color-coded and recognized at a glance. Plus the pattern of the fronts would be somewhat interesting--less monotonous, anyway.

Storage lockers could make use of this principle too. Currently, all the lockers in a group (of six or eight or whatever unit the mfgr. sells them in) are all the same color. If each were a different color, then locker-holders could recognize their own cubbyhole from a distance, and without any fretting and hesitating. It would be a selling point. (I've sent this idea, free of charge, to a locker mfgr., but got no response.)

[#4 posted by jonesy , April 25, 2008 8:07 PM]

Assuredly, a product of an oppressive regime. I balk at such drivel!

[#5 posted by jonesy , April 25, 2008 8:09 PM]

Clearly the product of an oppressive regime. Although, it would look nice in teal.

[#6 posted by Jake0748 , April 25, 2008 8:17 PM]

Say it a few more times jonesy, it's not boring enough yet.

Spam much?

[#7 posted by Takuan , April 25, 2008 8:22 PM]

so how many reported so far?

[#8 posted by jimh , April 25, 2008 8:24 PM]

@#1: I thought of the same thing immediately. Disordered drawer anarchy!

@#3: I'd love a wall of gradated color drawers, perhaps a simplified replica of rgb color space with drawers as pixel swatches, hmmmm.

[#9 posted by Antinous , April 25, 2008 8:25 PM]

Jonesy,

Please don't put your URL in your posts. It goes in your profile. Thanks.

PS - Sorry about Ripley.

[#10 posted by Takuan , April 25, 2008 8:31 PM]

"We also know of another superstition of that time: that of the Man of the Book. On some shelf in some hexagon (men reasoned) there must exist a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest: some librarian has gone through it and he is analogous to a god. In the language of this zone vestiges of this remote functionary's cult still persist. Many wandered in search of Him. For a century they have exhausted in vain the most varied areas. How could one locate the venerated and secret hexagon which housed Him? Someone proposed a regressive method: To locate book A, consult first book B which indicates A's position; to locate book B, consult first a book C, and so on to infinity ... In adventures such as these, I have squandered and wasted my years."

[#11 posted by Diatryma , April 25, 2008 8:44 PM]

A couple friends of mine have a surplus card catalog as a very organized stuff-holder. Each drawer holds 'old glasses' 'rubber bands' 'twist ties' 'more glasses' et cetera.

[#12 posted by ROSSINDETROIT , April 25, 2008 8:48 PM]

At last, furniture for OCD sufferers. An underserved population to be sure.

[#13 posted by otherthings , April 25, 2008 8:56 PM]

The perfect gift for the obsessive-compulsive who has everything (and nowhere to put it.)

Am I the only one who wishes there were a "0" drawer?

[#14 posted by ROSSINDETROIT , April 25, 2008 8:58 PM]

zero through 127 would just about cover my needs

[#15 posted by otherthings , April 25, 2008 9:01 PM]

Um, I mean a "zero" drawer. I swear it was the numeral "0" I typed... is boingboing running some kind of disemnumeralizing script?

[#16 posted by EH , April 25, 2008 10:25 PM]

GTD furniture!

[#17 posted by Steven , April 25, 2008 10:27 PM]

when my mom was around, she used to set up an advent calendar for me and my brother made from a little hardware organizer done up with christmas fabric and punch labeler numbers on each drawer.

whether or not it's really practical as an organizational scheme, this still appeals to me greatly.

[#18 posted by Takuan , April 25, 2008 10:40 PM]

Pippi Longstocking's chest of drawers

[#19 posted by Takuan , April 25, 2008 10:41 PM]

and somehow tansu inspired
http://www.geocities.com/roman.jost/CHS-717.jpg

[#20 posted by rabinowitz , April 25, 2008 10:57 PM]

This reminds me of a friend who managed to purchase a classic wooden card catalog from an auction at a library. Since the card catalog is on the internet now, it was useless. He stores it near the kitchen and it's like a 100-drawer junk drawer. Each box is labeled, even if there's only one item.

"Vacuum cleaner bags"
"Extra screws from the dining room chairs"
"Hammers"

An OCD dream.

[#21 posted by ornith , April 25, 2008 11:30 PM]

I've been drooling over surplus library card cabinets and Chinese apothecary chests for a while now; I want one to keep my sewing notions and trims in. I bet they'd be great in a workshop, too.

[#22 posted by I am just a man who uses the internet , April 26, 2008 2:29 AM]

Those drawers would make Monk angry! Why go up to 90 and stop? a nice round 100 is only ten more.

[#23 posted by Frank_in_Virginia , April 26, 2008 5:38 AM]

A Place for Everything.
Everything in its place.

There is a place for everything
In earth, or sky, or sea,
Where it may find its proper use,
And of advantage be.

[#24 posted by GeeksAreMyPeeps , April 26, 2008 5:52 AM]

I'd like to see the design tweaked into a representation of the periodic table of the elements. That I would buy.

[#25 posted by Pipenta , April 26, 2008 7:12 AM]

@12, You mean OCPD sufferers. Folks with OCD would need little sinks and soaps in every room, so they could make like Lady Macbeth and wash their hands over and over and over...

[#26 posted by krex , April 26, 2008 7:22 AM]

@1,
clutter rules! At least around me it does. How can one be free and happy and commando and joyful amidst so much artificially enforced order.

AMEN my BROTHER.

maybe we can start a club or something.

[#27 posted by musicpsych , April 26, 2008 8:37 AM]

This reminds me too much of when I sorted mail at my dorm in college.

[#28 posted by desiredusername , April 26, 2008 9:49 AM]

What's with all the formula racers?

[#29 posted by Simon Bradshaw , April 26, 2008 11:27 AM]

My immediate thought is how cool it would be to put a sample of the appropriately numbered element in each drawer. Of course, if you did this then perhaps it's a good thing that the drawers only go up to 90, as things might get a bit embarrassing if you overloaded drawers 92 or 94...

[#30 posted by Takuan , April 26, 2008 12:11 PM]

thus triggering a flood of posts on the relative toxicity in pure form of all those other elements.

Need a new word, means "pedantic landmine"......

[#31 posted by Frank_in_Virginia , April 26, 2008 12:31 PM]

@24 (GeeksAreMyPeeps)

You are as right as one person can be. Today, you win at the Internets. Excellent Idea!

I would buy that too.

http://www.element-collection.com/html/installations.html

[#32 posted by airship , April 28, 2008 7:24 AM]

Reminds me of all the type drawers in my grandfather's small-town weekly newspaper office.

[#33 posted by eigengrau , April 29, 2008 9:25 AM]

Arg - something about it rubs me the wrong way - it looks like a multiplication chart, and so I expect it to be. There are some interesting patterns, for sure, but still a little bit disappointing.