YouCopia is a company that create innovative and resourceful products to help people get organized in and around their kitchen space. Over the course of eight years in the business, kitchen clutter, especially food storage containers, has been the number one challenge that customers face, due to misplacement and/or mismatching. Everyone has plastic food containers in their kitchen, and let’s face it, they are usually a total mess. YouCopia came to Beyond Design to help design a product, called the Drawer StoraStack, that could help tackle the problem of organizing food storage containers in an efficient and effective manner.

Understanding the Problem

Currently, there is no other product on the market that organizes plastic food containers from the grocery store that customers already own. There are systems that include containers, but YouCopia wanted to design an organizer that would fit the containers people already own and use in their kitchens. Our team set out to understand what consumers wanted from their food storage containers and the challenges they face when keeping them organized and easily accessible. A key insight Beyond Design uncovered that drove the design solution was that many people rent their homes or are hesitant to install permanent fixtures. We had to design a way for the Drawer StoraStack to be attached in an non-permanent way that would make users more comfortable using the product.

Space Saving Design

Using that key insight, our team at Beyond Design brainstormed solutions. The solution that the team designed was an extendable arm with a built-in locking handle mechanism that provided users with an easy installation process. This would secure the product in a cabinet drawer without making users worried about ruining the interior. Throughout the design process, the patent-pending clip design that holds and releases the containers, Beyond Design, kept engineering costs in mind, which was important to our client.

Providing Quality

The final product, Drawer StoraStack, has the capability to ideate truly innovative products in the food container storage category, especially being a functional item in product design. Drawer StoraStack provides organization and fluidity in kitchens through functional and innovative designs.