I assume that at some point that most of Europe and increasingly the rest of the world have owned, used or set their eyes on IKEA’s Expedit/Kallax shelving unit. Picture below to jog the memory of those not familiar with IKEA product names.
This tweet from one of the great Internet Dan’s reminded me of it’s ubiquity
https://twitter.com/iamdanw/status/613334272645140481
A brilliantly insightful wry aside on the potential ubiquity of Elon’s garage destined wall hung battery. What happens when they fit inside the Expedit shelves everyone has? Or something like that. I am not as smart as Dan.
This brought back memory of my recent attempts to find suitable lego storage that would fit inside the Expedit’s hollows. I just wanted to search for something that would allow me to stack two boxes on top of each other and fit nicely in one hole. I searched high and low for boxes of similar dimensions but the semantic web has just not progressed that far to allow me to search for a ‘transparent box with a lid that is less than 33.5 cm wide, 38.5 cm deep and no taller than 34cm’. Also why is the aperture of the Expedit so frustratingly not a perfect cube?
When I first started searching I expected to find a wealth of things already. An ecosystem of Expedites (people who build things to fit inside Expedit’s) as people sought to fill the holes in inventive ways and make nice products others could buy. Aside from clever alterations and Heath Robinsonesque contraptions on IKEA Hacks and Pinterest there really wasn’t much you could actually just buy. I thought maybe there are loads of projects on Kickstarter? I found one.
Eventually after a longer time than I care to admit searching I came across these cake boxes on Lakeland. They fit very well.
So my overwrought reckon is that there is clearly a market for things to fit inside Expedit shelves. IKEA should standardise the size / make more stuff for it than the limited boxes, drawers and a wine rack that they sell today. Build a ecosystem of things around those ubiquitous holes. A real opportunity for people to tag up their existing storage / shelf converting wears with some decent sizes and the badge of honour ‘Fits Expedit Exactly’ or ‘Klearly Kallax Kompatible’ (maybe that latter one needs some work)
Big opportunity for Elon perhaps? Stop all this futuristic reinventing the way we power our homes, fuel our cars and get into space and make a range of clever storage boxes for IKEA’s famous shelving units. I still need some better LEGO storage for my son. If anyone more disciplined or focused wants to do a Kickstarter around a LEGO storage range for Expedit then count me in.
