US3515450A - Space saver cabinet - Google Patents

Description

June 2, 1970 w. A. JAECKE SPACE SAVER CABINET Filed May 29, 1968 L 2 J g J z a v 5 a H J 2 8 WM a 2 F n. w Z 11 I 2 1| IA] f a w n 3/ g Z INVENTOR.

WILLIAM A. JAECKE Fri/ 9 :5 BY

%W/%Ww/ H/S ATTORNEYS United States Patent US. Cl. 312245 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A miniature cabinet is provided for mounting in a conventional cabinet or cupboard, such as used for housing medicines and toilet articles. The cabinet is constructed of pieces that may be packaged as a compact unit for storage and shipping purposes, and easily and quickly assembled into a unitary structure for mounting in a conventional cupboard or cabinet. The assembled unit is constructed to provide a practical, useful and space-saving shelf arrangement for horizontally-lying articles, such as tubes of tooth paste, creams, etc. A bottom shelf of the unit has a self-adhesive type of surface for securely-positioning it in a conventional cupboard or cabinet. The unit has shelves that are sloped backwardly to aid in retaining articles thereon; the parts of the construction are interfitting to provide a unit that will retain an assembled relation when supported on a shelf or bottom member.

The invention relates to a new and useful miniature shelf or cabinet unit that is insertable within and usable as an adjunct for a conventional cabinet. A particular phase of the invention deals with a miniature cabinet constructed for secure assembly within a compartment of a conventional cabinet to make possible a more eflicient utilization of space therein and a better and safer storage of articles.

There has been a need for better shelf storage facilities that will be particularly suitable for receiving and positioning normally horizontally-positionable articles, such as a hair brush, comb, tooth paste, shaving and other creams in collapsible tubes, etc. It will be appreciated that certain types of articles are better or more suitably carried in a horizontal, as distinguished from a vertical positioning. Heretofore, tubes as inserted on the shelves of an ordinary cupboard or cabinet have been wasteful of overhead space and have tended to cause adjacent, vertically-positioned articles, such as bottles of medicine, etc., to be knocked over when removing or inserting them and particularly, if the tubes are stacked on the shelf. There has thus been a need for an improved miniature cabinet unit that will be particularly suitable for storing horizontally-extending or tube-like articles and, at the same time, that will save useful space in the cabinet and will make possible a better utilization of the available overhead compartment spacing of a conventional cabinet.

It has been an object of the invention to devise a special, insertable, miniature cabinet unit for use in combination with a conventional cabinet or cupboard to assure a better utilization of overhead space and a proper positioning of collapsible tube articles or articles that should in general be positioned substantially horizontally rather than vertically.

Another object of the invention has been to devise a miniature cabinet that can be made of a group of parts, packaged in a compact relationship for storage and shipment, and assembled as a secure unit for taking care of the storage requirements relative to tube-like or horizon tally-positionable articles such as ordinarily carried in a medicine cabinet and the like.

A further object of the invention has been to develop a space-saving shelf or cabinet construction that is par Patented June 2, 1970 ticularly suitable for use in a portion of the storage compartment of a conventional cabinet and that when installed will provide a better utilization of storage space therein.

A still further object of the invention has been to devise a miniature cabinet or cupboard that will provide an efficient and elfective shelf storage for tube-like or horizontal articles and that will provide a better and more sure positioning of such articles in an easily accessible stored relation.

These and other objects of the invention will appear to those skilled in the art from the illustrated embodiment and the claims.

In the drawings, FIG. 1 is an isometric view in elevation illustrating a storage and shipping package of a cabinet unit having parts constructed in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded isometric view in elevation and partial section illustrating how parts of the cabinet unit may be assembled and disassembled.

And FIG. 3 is a reduced view in elevation illustrating an operative assembled position of a miniature cabinet unit of the invention within compartment spacing or on a support member of a conventional medicine cabinet.

In carrying out the invention, I employ a group of members of substantially planar or flat configuration that may be stored and shipped as a compact unit and that may be assembled in a secure but removable relation within compartment spacing of a conventional cupboard or medicine cabinet such as 10. The backward extent or depth of the members of the unit as assembled in the form of a compact miniature cabinet unit or assembly 20 will preferably be the same depth or backward extent as the compartment spacing of the conventional cabinet 10 within which it is to be positioned. The vertical spacing between the members of the miniature cabinet assembly 20 Will be such as to provide a horizontal, backwardly-extending, single-layer, positioning of articles thereon and therealong. At least shelf members 21 and preferably also a bottom member 24 have a backwardlysloped or declining relation, such that articles positioned thereon will tend to retain their positions and not to accidentally fall out of a supported relation within the miniature cabinet 20.

By way of illustration in the drawings, 10 represents a conventional medicine cabinet having a central compartment space therein, as defined by a rectangular frame structure 12. The cabinet 10 may be of conventional construction and conventionally either mounted on or within an opening in a wall 11 of a building construction. The compartment spacing is divided off by horizontally-positioned, cross-extending shelves 13 which are shown removably-supported on backwardly-extending angle pieces 14 secured to side walls of the compartment. For the purpose of mounting or positioning a miniature assembly 20 of the invention, one of the lower shelves 13 may be removed. This may not be necessary, since it is common to provide a lower compartment spacing in a cabinet of greater height to take care of a few upright articles of considerable extent or height. Although the conventional cabinet 10 may have an open front end, it is preferably provided with a swinging door 15 mounted on hinges 16, a latch 17 on the door, and a keeper 18 on the frame. Thus, the compartment of cabinet 10 can be closed-off for appearance sake and for keeping out dust, etc.

The unit or assembly 20 of the invention, as shown in the drawings, employs a pair of vertically-upright, spacedapart side wall members 22 of the same shape and construction, a top enclosing wall member 23, and a bottom closing wall member 24. The bottom member 24 may incidentally also serve as a bottom shelf in the compartment defined by the unit. The top member 23 and the bottom member 24 are provided at their ends with a pair of inwardly-projecting latching or locking lugs 26 and 27 that are preferably of rectangular section to lock or latch-engage within hollow sockets 25 of the side wall members 22. In this connection, each side Wall member 22 has a pair of spaced-apart sockets 25 located adjacent corners at each of its ends.

After the side wall members 22 and the top member 23 and bottom member 24 have been assembled into a rectangular frame-like structure which is self-supporting, then shelf members 21 may be slid into a position within the compartment defined therewithin. As shown, each shelf 21 is of planar shape and is provided with an outwardly and backwardly extending, end-mounted rail or tongue portion 21a that is adapted to have a cooperating slide-guide fit with an associated backwardly or depthwise extending guide slot or groove portion 22a of each of the side walls 22. Another way of assembling the members of the unit 20 is to, for example, mount the side walls 22 on the bottom member 24, insert the shelves 21 between the side walls 22, and then latch and mount the top member 23- with respect to the side walls 22. In any event, the miniature cabinet 20, as assembled, has a secure and self-supporting, erect cabinet shape. If desired, the unit 20 may have a back wall member, but better utilization of the available depth of the cabinet is accomplished by using its back wall to close-01f the back of the miniature unit.

An appreciable back-ward declination is assured for each shelf 21 by backwardly-dcclining or sloping the guide-slot or groove portions 22a. Also, the bottom member 24 may have a greater thickness extent at its front end or edge and a graduated, thinner thickness towards its back edge to also provide it with a backward declination or slope along its upper surface and to, at the same time, permit the use of its under or bottom surface as a planar support for the unit. The angles of slope or backward declination are represented by a in FIG. 2. In order to securely, but removably and easily mount the miniature cabinet 20 within the compartment spacing of a conventional cabinet 10, the undersurface of the bottom member 24 is provided with a cold-set type of self-sealing adhesive layer 28 which may be retained clean and protected during storage and shipment of the parts by a conventional tear-off paper or cloth cover sheet.

A preferable form of mounted positioning of the unit 20 is illustrated in FIG. 3. The depthwise extent of the unit 20 may be such that the front edges of its parts are flush with the front face of the frame 12, so that the door may be fully closed. It will be noted that the bottom member 24 rests on a bottom portion 19 of the conventional cabinet 10, and that its length or endwise extent is less than the compartment provided therefor in the cabinet 10. This enables the use of the top surface of the top member 23 as a shelf for vertically-positionable articles of medium height within compartment portion A and permits the positioning of relatively tall articles in side compartment portion B.

By way of example and not by way of limitation, the miniature cabinet may have a longitudinal extent of about 8 inches, a height of about 5 inches, with a spacing of about 1 inch between the shelf members 21, with a spacing of about 78 of an inch between a topmost shelf member 21 and the top closure member 23, and with a spacing of about 1 /2 inches between a bottom-most shelf'rnember 21 and the bottom closure member 24. This provides spacing for different sizes of horizontally-positioned articles, including childrens, medium and giant sizes of tubular packaged products, hair brushes, combs, scissors, tweezers 4 and flat, box-like articles and pill containers. The unit 20 will preferably be of resin, wood or metal construction but may be made of any other suitable material. FIG. 1 illustrates how the substantially planar parts or members of the unit 20 may be stored and shipped as a compact unit in a cardboard box C.

The illustrated embodiment embodies the invention, but it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, additions, subtractions and substitutions may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim: a

1. In a multi-part miniature cabinet for substantially horizontal storage of tubular and longitudinally-extending toilet articles and that is adapted to be mounted on the bottom shelf of and Within a conventional cabinet; a pair of interfitting vertical side wall members, top and bottom wall members and shelf members, all of substantialy planar construction for compact storage and shipment packaging; cooperating locking lug and socket portions at corner areas of said top and bottom and side wall members interfitting with each other to provide a rectangularshaped enclosure that has a forwardly and ba-ckwardly open compartment therethrough, said shelf members and said side wall members having cooperating rail and guide slot portions for securely mounting said shelf members within the compartment to extend across between said side wall members in a front to backward declining relation therealong, said shelf members having a vertical spacing between each other and said top and bottom members of a minimum extent sufficient to receive and position the articles in a longitudinally-backwardly-declining positioning thereon.

2. In a miniature cabinet as defined in claim 1, said bottom wall member having a lower side that is complementary with an upper side of the bottom shelf of the conventional cabinet for aligned positioning thereon, and said bottom wall member having an upper side within the compartment that declines backwardly therewithin.

3. In a miniature cabinet as defined in claim 2, said bottom wall having a thickness that decreases from its front towards its back edge to define the backward inclination of the upper side thereof.

4. In a miniature cabinet as defined in claim 1, said side walls having thickened corner portions within which said vertically-extending socket portions are positioned, and said top and bottom walls having said locking lugs projecting adjacent their corners for interfitting within said socket portions.

5. In a miniature cabinet as defined in claim 1, said bottom wall member having an adhesive along its lower side for securing the miniature cabinet on the bottom shelf of the conventional cabinet.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,461,219 2/1949 Lew 312258 2,769,551 11/1956 Just 312333 X 3,008,785 11/1961 Gehrs 312--209 3,295,474 1 1967 Ornstein. 3,298,764 1/ 1967 Goldfarb 3l2245 X 3,43 7,392 4 1969 Hilfinger 3 l225 7 CASMIR A. NUNBERG, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 312209

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