Productivity guru David Allen of GTD fame once said that our minds are for having ideas, not holding them. That’s why many such gurus advise jotting down thoughts as soon as they come so as not to lose them just as quickly. Blank sheets of paper, preferably recycled, are great for this purpose. They encourage free-form notes, are ubiquitous, and are available almost anywhere. Having a stack of such paper on your desk, however, can quickly become an organizational nightmare unless you have dedicated space to keep them within arm’s reach. That’s the exact problem that the UPRIGHT paper and pen holders try to solve in the simplest yet most elegant way, keeping sheets of paper nearby without turning your desk into mayhem.
Designers: Aoki Ryosaku, Haruta Masayuki & Tsunoda Takashi
The designers at idontknow.tokyo are big fans of having a stack of clean paper nearby, ready to receive their inspired musings and sometimes incoherent ramblings, not to mention a phone number or two in an emergency. While that might be great for productivity, an unbridled stack can be a horrific organizing experience when left unchecked. Sheets can fly around, get knocked off the pile, and even curl at the edges. That’s not to mention how they can eat up precious space when laid flat on a desk.
That’s why they designed these minimalist paper holders that try to hit two birds with one stone. It can hold as many as 500 sheets of paper at a time while still leaving space to place a pen or pencil on its foot. The holder’s nearly perfect L shape was precisely designed to be able to hold that many sheets while still making it easy to pull out a single piece from the bundle.
There is an air of beauty in the paper holder’s extreme minimalism. A single sheet of stainless steel is carefully bent to that calculated shape and then powder-coated in black to add a matte texture that offers something to delight your fingertips. Only a small iron rod holds the piece upright, and you can tighten or loosen its screw to adjust its angle. That also makes it effortless to assemble or disassemble the desk accessory when you need to stow it away for transportation.
The paper holder comes in portrait or landscape orientations to fit your preferred working environment or available space. A portrait paper holder is perfect for lists or notes written on pads, while a landscape design is more suited for making diagrams or reading wide-spread material. Although specifically designed to hold A4-sized paper, the sleek holders can be home to almost any paper-based material, from magazines to letters to open books. Whatever it is, it may be able to find a home on your desk with this paper holder.
Clutter begins when things aren’t put in their proper places or, worse, when they don’t have a proper place at all. Having paper nearby to take down notes is one thing, but keeping them from being lost is another. With these minimalist paper holders, you can keep all those notes together, within view and within reach, helping to organize not just your desk but your mind as well.
