As I mentioned in my last post, we’re running out of shelf space for our growing manga collection. I might grumble about Chris’s Blu-rays, but I knew that it was time for me to clean out the magazine boxes under the TV stand. Fortunately, I got a very exciting Christmas gift to help me out: a pair of KVISSLE magazine racks.

Assembly and Application

Other than having to break up some of the paint coating when clipping the racks together, assembly was pretty easy.

Last March, right when quarantine started, I sorted my books, zines, and floppies into keep, donate, and trash piles. Now, ten months later, it was time to decide how to shelve my keepers.

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My inner librarian wanted to categorize them somehow. By publisher? By creator? By theme? And then I remembered that the reason I got these racks in the first place was so I could see my collection. Their function is aesthetic, not organizational. I threw the whole categorization idea out and have since been playing around with arrangements that support visibility.

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Assessment

The rack pockets are a bit deeper than I’d like. Some of my zines are only just barely visible, and the gaps at the bottom mean some floppies have to be balance in a very specific way. But for their price, durability, and volume, I’m happy with them. These racks emptied both magazine boxes, and there’s still plenty of room left for all the stuff on my small press wishlist.

Next Steps

My smaller zines still need a home.

Most of them have been hidden in a box for the last three years, and I feel pretty bad about it. I do adore the pattern on the magazine boxes, so I’m going to try using the cardboard to make a little shelving attachment. And if that fails miserably, I can always repurpose some other IKEA desk organizer.