Some really useful knowledge about Really Useful Boxes

This is some knowledge about Really Useful Boxes that I have found to be really useful, that is not made clear by Really Useful Products.

Really Useful Boxes are (with the exception of a few nestable models) stackable. One can place many of its boxes fully on top of other boxes, arbitrarily if one is just willing to let the upper box stand on a random part of the lower box's lid, regularly if one wants the specially thickened support struts on the sides of the upper boxes to rest on the support strut parts of the lower boxes.

Although Really Useful Products makes this clear, it does not really tell you how they are stackable, and its 1 illustration of this that it has anywhere is grainy, hard to read, and out of date. Really Useful Boxes are regularly stackable in several families of box sizes.

Some initial notes

Capacities are nominal guides, not exact measure. Really Useful Products names its products in L units, which are nominally litres. They are rough guides to the actual capacities. A 48L box, for example, would really hold 49.78 litres if one multiplies together its interior dimensions; but even that is simplifying things like the not quite perpendicular sides, corner rounding, and the space taken up by internal railings. That the 5L desk tidy fits into a 5L box really drives the point home.

Lids are interchangeable within a family. Where a family has the same plan (length × breadth) dimensions, all of the lids that fit any box in the family will fit all of them. This seems obvious if one considers the manufacturing savings: just make a few types of generic lid, rather than individualized lids for every single box size. But Really Useful Products lays out its catalogue with the clear implication that one can only use the 'XL' and 'XXL' lids with certain specific boxes, and only sells certain combinations of lids and boxes. It is clearer on the point that the various trays fit a set of boxes in a given family; this does go for the lids, too.

U and A are not units. This FGA describes things in a U (up) and A (along) notation, similar to that of desktop computer chassis and rackmount computers. However, unlike EIA RS-310:1965 'Rackmount Units' a 4U is just a depth (up) multiplication factor of 4 and not a formal fixed specific size.

U and A are driven by interior dimensions. How many units deep or long a box is, in this FGA, is usually a function of its interior dimensions, because it is usually a guide to how many trays of the smallest size will fit into the box. Really Useful Products scales its box sizes in a family so that they hold integer numbers of trays. The exterior depth and length adds on the depths and lengths of the box lids, bases, and sides. But each box only has one lid (obviously), so two 1U boxes stacked vertically will actually be deeper than a single 2U box of the same family.

Common types of content

Standard stationery

A4 (and smaller) and foolscap

Several boxes in the catalogue are illustrated with pictures of them holding A4 stationery. Really Useful Boxes will hold A4 paper, and thus smaller paper sizes from A5 downwards; and some will also hold larger foolscap stationery.

The boxes that come with actual internal railings, from which can be hung suspension files, are:

• The 19L has railings along its breadth that take A4 suspension files.

• The 24L has railings along its breadth that take foolscap suspension files.

• The 35L is dual mode, with railings along both its length and breadth.

• The 48L has railings along its length that take A4 suspension files.

• The 64L has railings along its length that take foolscap suspension files.

The 35L can hold A4 suspension files across its breadthwise railings, and foolscap suspension files across its lengthwise railings. Indeed, its exterior size is close enough that it can be placed alongside either a 48L (breadthwise) or a 64L (lengthwise) in a regular arrangement with only a slight unevenness. However, it does not stack entirely regularly on top of either, with the support struts not all lining up, and of course neither can be stacked on top of it. The same goes for a 19L, which can be placed alongside a 48L but does not stack entirely regularly with one, and a 24L, which can be placed alongside a 64L but does not stack entirely regularly with one.

As the catalogue says, there's enough head space under the lid for most lever arch files of the relevant paper size in the 64L and 48L.

One way of working that all this suggests is 48L and 64L to be the main file storage, and 35L, 24L, and 19L used to transport a subset of files as they might be needed. A 48L full of paper, especially if it is just stored as-is (e.g. printer paper still in its wrapper ready for use) and not in suspension files, is quite heavy.

The boxes in the 395 × 255 plan family take A4 paper, and the catalogue illustrates this. However, strictly speaking, that family's inset A4 Lipped Tray takes A4 paper; meaning that the actual boxes, large enough to contain the tray bottom, are slightly over-large for A4.

That said, they are more space-efficient than the 35L, 48L, and 64L when it comes to holding just the paper sheets alone. This is because whilst a 35L might seem to hold a lot more A4 paper than a 25L does, in fact the extra volume accommodates headroom for lever arch files and railing and over-size cross section for suspension files, so the actual gain in terms of the paper storage itself is a mere 2.18L (i.e. a 35mm stack of A4 difference between the 25L being 345 deep and the 35L being 370 long). On the gripping hand, A4 paper stacks vertically in a 25L but horizontally in a 35L/48L, so the inconvenience of only having immediate access to the top of the stack with a 25L is also a factor.

Other sizes

The 25L has railings along its breadth that take 12 inch square suspension files.

Audio–visual and computer storage media

Alas, there are no Really Useful Box sizes that are truly sized for computer floppy discs (be they boxed or no, 5.25 inch or 90 cm), compact audio cassettes, or VHS cassettes (in home recording size sleeves). Various sizes, such as the 18L, 35L, and 84L, will take such things; but there is always either some pressure on the media from the box lid or some wiggle room for the media. The only box that reasonably accomodates VHS cassettes, and only in commercial recording size packaging, is the 22L. Whilst the designers are on record as having designed with paper and vinyl records in mind, I think that they did not give much if any thought to floppy discs, compact audio cassettes, or non‐commercial‐recording‐packaged VHS cassettes.

The same sort of people–do–not–look–for–this thinking led, in the early 2020s, to the discontinuance of Ikea's famous Gnedby shelving system, which was excellent for holding CDs. Fortunately, Really Useful Boxes still come in sizes suitable for CDs. In particular, the 3L, the 6.5L, the 9L, the 18L, and the 22L take CDs and DVDs, in standard cases, either breadthwise or lengthwise with little wiggle room left over and only a small amount of dead unused space between the tops of the CDs/DVDs and the lid.

When it comes to vinyl records, this is clearly the world of the extra sized lids. The 9L with an XL lid and the 18L with an XL lid take 7 inch records, accomodating record‐store‐style dividers with the XXL lid. The 19L with an XL lid takes 12 inch records, accomodating record‐store‐style dividers with the XXL lid. Fancy shaped and gimmicked sleeves make things difficult, of course, but regular sleeves are comparatively trouble-free.

Organizers

Really Useful Products sells several 'organizers' that are mostly combinations of existing trays and boxes. The 0.14L and 0.3L boxes can be placed into 4×4 trays (a Large tray 6 from the 710 × 440 plan family in the case of the latter) to be organizers, the latter embedded into an 11L with an XL lid to be a third organizer. A combination of 0.2L and 0.3L litre boxes fits into the 5L 'desk tidy' tray that in turn fits into the 5L box, making another two organizers.

But this is not the limit. Two organizers made of the 0.3L boxes and the Large tray 6 can be embedded into a 20L. Likewise, a 20L can be filled with a Large tray 16, each of whose compartments can hold a 0.07L and a 0.14L, forming an organizer with 2 'drawers' per 'compartment'.

Stacking families

395 × 255 plan

The 22L is included here because it does almost regularly stack with two 1A boxes from this family on top of it, and it has the same side elevation as the 9L and so can be placed alongside one with no unevenness. However, because of the handles and lid lips, it is significantly longer internally than two 9Ls are, 750mm instead of 670mm, and thus a more efficient use of the same exterior length. This does mean that there's 80mm of lengthwise wiggle room for the 1A trays inside a 22L, which may be either annoying or useful for the odd non‐tray‐compartment‐sized item.

The regular, XL, and XXL lids are thus interchangeable amongst all of the 1A boxes; but do not fit the 22L.

600 × 400 plan

There are only regular and XL lids for this stacking family; no XXL lids; and no trays at all.

710 × 440 plan

This is the stacking family with the widest depth range; albeit that the cutlery tray for long items is less versatile than the range of lipped trays in the 395 × 255 plan family is, and that family (which has XL and XXL lid options) has a greater number of different depths available (across a narrower overall range). There are no XL nor XXL lids for this stacking family.

Really Useful Products gives no indication, apart from the raw measurements in its size table, that the 33L is part of this family, and shares the same lids and will take the same trays.

The amount of dead space between the top of a full complement of trays and the underside of the lid varies from a couple of centimetres in the case of a 50L to a few millimetres in the case of an 84L.

480 × 390 plan

This stacking family takes the same trays as the 710 × 440 plan family. However, the internal dimensions are slightly smaller and so the trays fit slightly more tightly and are more prone to getting airlocked into the box.

465 × 270 plan

There are only regular lids for this stacking family; no XL nor XXL lids; and no trays at all apart from two lipped trays which only fit the 77L.

The inclusion of the 77L in this family might seem rather odd. But its lid is clearly an XXL lid, without which it would be the same depth and breadth as a 24L, and internally three times the length of a 24L.

395 × 330 plan

This stacking family was introduced several years after the others, and would have clashed on some of the names if the volumes had been rounded to integer litre amounts; so all of the boxes have non-integer litre names, which are still approximations though.

Most notable about this stacking family is that it is sized to fit into an Ikea Kallax shelving unit. The Kallax has interior dimensions of 390×335×335, and these boxes project out of its open front by 5mm, which is less than the size of the box handles.

There is an XL lid (but no XXL lid) for this family, which takes the 25.7L box up to 315 internal/335 external. This, by the numbers alone, should fit into a Kallax; but the zero millimetres clearance means that in practice it will not.