ITEM HOLDER FOR FILE ORGANIZER AND RING BINDER

Abstract

An item holder used within a retaining device, such as a file organizer or a ring binder, and adapted to hold a variety of office supplies. The item holder includes a main body having a front face provided with a first set of pockets, and a rear face joined to the front face and provided with a second set of pockets. The main body includes an upper edge joined to an elongated sleeve that enables removable attachment of the main body to the retaining device.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to an article carrier enabling the storage and retrieval of various objects. More particularly, the present invention relates to an item holder that provides for storage of office or business supplies, and that is useful in different retaining devices or by itself.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The art of providing suitable article carriers for storage of various objects has been pursued extensively for many years. As a result, article carriers are known to retain business or office supplies such as scissors, writing instruments, note pads, file cards and the like in different tray, pocket or pouch arrangements.

However, there remains a need for a more versatile item holder having a common structure for allowing storage and easy accessibility of office supplies in multiple applications. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an item holder that stores office supplies in pockets open at upper ends, and that can be used in more than one different type retaining devices, such as file organizers or ring binders, as well as by itself.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to an item holder adapted to store various supplies in an organized manner. The item holder includes a main body having a front face provided with a first set of pockets, and a rear face joined to the front face and provided with a second set of pockets. The main body includes an upper edge attached to a sleeve extending longitudinally of the upper edge.

The sleeve is provided with a series of spaced apart holes formed transversely therethrough. The holes are bordered by reinforcing grommets. The holes are equally spaced apart along a length of the sleeve. The first set of pockets of the main body includes a plurality of differently sized pockets that are open at upper ends thereof. The second set of pockets on the rear face of the main body may include two pockets that are open at upper ends thereof, and that extend across a width of the rear face. The main body includes a lower edge and a pair of side edges joining with the upper and lower edges. A rigidifying core is interposed between the front and rear faces.

In another aspect of the invention, an item holder is used with a retaining device and adapted to hold a variety of office supplies therein. The combination includes a main body having a front face provided with a first set of pockets, and a rear face joined to the front face and provided with a second set of pockets. The main body includes an upper edge joined to an elongated sleeve that enables removable attachment of the main body to the retaining device. The sleeve is formed with a plurality of spaced apart holes formed transversely through the sleeve. The main body has a generally rectangular periphery. In one application, the sleeve slidably receives a support bar having opposed ends supported on a file support edge of a file organizer defining the retaining device. In another application, the holes of the sleeve receive rings of a ring binder defining the retaining device.

In yet another aspect of the invention, a kit includes a main body having a front face provided with a first set of pockets, and a rear face showing to the front face and provided with a second set of pockets. The main body includes an upper edge attached to a sleeve extending longitudinally of the upper edge. An elongated support bar is capable of slidable insertion in the sleeve such that opposed ends of the bar project beyond opposed ends of the sleeve.

The sleeve is provided with a series of spaced apart holes formed transversely therethrough. The support bar is I-shaped in cross section and has a length which is greater than a length of the main body. The opposed ends of the support bar include support retainers extending upwardly and laterally therefrom. The support bar has an upper edge, a lower edge and series of reinforcing members that join the upper and lower edges. All of the pockets are open at upper ends thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings illustrate the best mode presently contemplated for carrying out the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a file organizer provided with an item holder embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is perspective view of a three-ring binder in an opened position showing a modified form of the item holder of FIG. 1 retained therein;

FIG. 3 is a rear assembled view of the item holder shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a front exploded view of the item holder of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 5.5 of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

One preferred application of an item holder 10 according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 wherein the item holder 10 is removably suspended in an open top file organizer 12 having a series of hanging file folders 14 for storage of records, documents and other information. The file organizer 12 has a storage body 16 for defining an open storage cavity 18. The item holder 10 is positioned within the storage cavity 18 adjacent to the file folders 14 for storing various supplies, such as a spiral notebook 20, a scissors 22, a pen 24, mechanical pencil 26, a calculator 28 and a self-sticking notepad 30. The supplies illustrated are exemplary only and may take other forms as desired.

The storage body 16 is provided with an outer peripheral wall 32 including a pair of opposed sidewalls 34, 36 and a pair of opposed end walls 38, 40 that serve as the respective front and rear walls of the storage body 16. The outer peripheral wall 32 is joined to the edge of a bottom wall 42 that forms the base of the storage body 16.

The outer peripheral wall 32 has an upper end that defines a U-shaped peripheral channel 44. As seen in FIG. 3, the channel 44 includes a base wall 46 that lies generally perpendicular to the outer peripheral wall 32, an outer sidewall 48 that rises generally perpendicular to the base wall 46 and an inner sidewall 50 that rises generally perpendicularly to the base wall and lies parallel to the outer sidewall 48. A receiving cavity 52 is formed between the outer sidewall 48 and the inner sidewall 50. The channel 44 is reinforced by a series of alignment tabs 54 that extend along the length of each of the sidewalls 34, 36 and interconnect base wall 46, outer sidewall 48 and inner sidewall 50. A top edge 56 of inner sidewall 50 lies beneath a top edge 58 of outer sidewall 48, and defines a file support edge for the item holder 10 and the file folders 14.

As is well known, each hanging file folder 14 provides an expandable pocket for receiving and holding various information, documents and objects within the file organizer 12. Each file folder 14 has a hanging rod 60 with opposed ends 62 which are supported on the file support edge 56. In this manner, the storage body 16 is able to support a series of hanging file folders 14 such that their bottom edges are suspended slightly above the bottom wall 42 of the file organizer 12.

The item holder 10 is selectively positionable within the open storage cavity 18 to hold a variety of office supplies such as described above. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the item holder 10 can be positioned at a selected location along the length of each of the sidewalls 34, 36 for enabling convenient storage and retrieval of the office supplies.

Referring to FIGS. 3-5, the item holder 10 includes a double-sided main body 64 having a generally rectangular configuration with a continuous bound periphery 66. The periphery 66 includes an upper edge 68, a lower edge 70, and a pair of side edges 72, 74. The main body 64 has a front face 76, a rear face 78 and a rigidifying core 80 interposed between the front face 76 and the rear face 78. The front face 76, the rear face and the core 80 are joined together by the bound periphery 66.

The front face 76 is provided with a first set of pockets which are open at upper ends thereof, and are variously sized to accommodate different items. In an exemplary application, a left side of the front face 76 includes a first pocket 82 for holding the spiral notebook 20 and the scissors 22. A right side of the front face 76 includes a second pocket 84 like first pocket 82 for holding the mechanical pencil 26 and the calculator 28. Third, fourth and fifth pockets, 86, 88, 90, respectively, and sixth pocket 92 are attached to the second pocket 84. Third pocket 86 is shown holding the pen 24 and along with pockets 88 and 90 is designed to hold other similarly sized items. Sixth pocket 92 is shown holding the self-sticking notepad 30.

The rear face 78 of the main body 64 is provided with a second set of pockets which are also open at an upper end thereof. In the example shown, the second set of pockets is embodied by two pockets 94 and 95 extending across an entire length of the main body 64. The pockets 94 and 95 are sized to hold relatively larger items such as paper documents and the like.

It should be appreciated that the front face 76 and the rear face 78 may be provided with any number and size of pockets as desired. Preferably, the front face 76, the rear face 78 and the pockets 82-95 are constructed of a soft, non-woven material, but other materials may be used, as desired.

The main body 64 of the item holder further includes a sleeve 96 that is attached to and extends upwardly from and across the upper edge 68. The sleeve 96 has a length which is slightly shorter than the length of the main body 64. The sleeve 96 is formed with three equally spaced apart throughholes 98 that are provided with reinforcing grommets 100 attached on opposite sides of the sleeve 96 as illustrated in FIG. 5. The throughholes 98 extend transversely through the opposite sides of the sleeve 96. Sleeve 96 may be formed from a webbing material or the same non-woven material used to create the pockets on the main body 64.

In the application shown in FIGS. 1 and 3-5, a kit is formed by the combination of the item holder 10 and an elongated support bar 102 which is slidably received in the sleeve 96, and used to suspend item holder 10 in the storage cavity 18. As seen best in FIGS. 3 and 4, the support bar 102 has a linear upper edge 104, a linear lower edge 106 and a pair of outwardly flaring end walls 108, 109 that join the upper and lower edges 104 and 106 together. The upper and lower edges 104, 106 are also joined together by a series of reinforcing members 110 that extend alternately upwardly and downwardly at an angle longitudinally of the support bar 102 such that the support bar 102 is I-shaped in cross section (FIG. 5). The support bar 102 has opposed ends 111 including support retainers 112 extending laterally and upwardly therefrom. The support retainers 112 have feet 114 spaced from the end walls 108, 109 by support cavities 116 such that the file support edge 56 contacts walls 118 of the retainers 112 to support the item holder 10 within the storage body 16.

As seen in FIG. 3, the lower edges of feet 114 extend into the receiving cavity 52 past the top edge of the alignment tabs 54 to limit sliding movement of the item holder 10 along sidewalls 34, 36. In this manner, the series of alignment tabs 54 retain the item holder 10 in a desired location within the storage cavity 18.

If it is desired to change the position of the item holder 10, a user must first lift the item holder from within storage cavity 18 until the feet 114 are above the alignment tabs 54. The item holder 10 can then be moved to a new position between the desired pair of alignment tabs 54 and lowered such that the feet 114 are retained between the tabs 54.

The invention contemplates a further application shown in FIG. 2 wherein the item holder 10 is used without the support bar 102. In this application, it should be understood that the throughholes 98 and the sleeve 96 have been equally spaced apart such that the throughholes 98 can be aligned with and receive retaining rings 120 of a conventional three-ring binder 122.

It can therefore be appreciated that the present invention provides a versatile item holder that provides for easy storage and retrieval of a variety of office supply items on front and rear faces thereof. The item holder 10 may be removably retained in a retaining device, such as a file organizer 12 or a ring binder 22, or may be carried by itself.

While the invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will appreciate that certain substitutions, alterations and omissions may be made without departing from the spirit thereof. Accordingly, the foregoing description is meant to be exemplary only and should not be deemed limitative on the scope of the invention set forth with the following claims.

Claims

1. An item holder adapted to store various supplies comprising:

a main body having a front face provided with a first set of pockets, and a rear face joined to the front face and provided with a second set of pockets, the main body including an upper edge joined to a sleeve extending longitudinally of the upper edge.

2. The item holder of claim 1, wherein the sleeve is provided with a series of spaced apart holes formed transversely therethrough.

3. The item holder of claim 2, wherein the holes are bordered by reinforcing grommets.

4. The item holder of claim 2, wherein the holes are equally spaced apart along a length of the sleeve.

5. The item holder of claim 1, wherein the first set of pockets includes a plurality of differently sized pockets that are open at upper ends thereof.

6. The item holder of claim 1, wherein the second set of pockets includes two pockets that are open at an upper ends thereof, and extend across an entire width of the rear face.

7. The item holder of claim 1, wherein the main body includes a lower edge and a pair of side edges joining with the upper and lower edges.

8. The item holder of claim 1, wherein a rigidifying core is interposed between the front and rear faces.

9. An item holder used within a retaining device and adapted to hold a variety of office supplies, the item holder comprising:

a main body having a front face and a rear face joined to the front face, the main body including an upper edge;

an elongated sleeve that enables removable attachment of the main body to the retaining device, the elongated sleeve having a plurality of spaced apart holes; and

a support bar selectively receivable in the elongated sleeve.

10. The combination of claim 9, wherein the sleeve slidably receives the support bar having opposed ends selectively supportable on a file support edge of a file organizer defining the retaining device.

11. The combination of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of spaced apart holes formed in the elongated sleeve is surrounded by a pair of grommets.

12. The combination of claim 9, wherein the holes of the sleeve selectively receive rings of a ring binder defining the retaining device.

13. The combination of claim 9, wherein the main body has a generally rectangular periphery.

14. A kit comprising:

a main body having a front face and a rear face joined to the front face, the main body including an upper edge attached to a sleeve extending longitudinally of the upper edge; and

an elongated support bar capable of slidable insertion in the sleeve such that opposed ends of the support bar project beyond opposed edges of the sleeve.

15. The kit of claim 14, wherein the sleeve is provided with a series of spaced apart holes formed transversely therethrough.

16. The kit of claim 14, wherein the support bar is I-shaped in cross section.

17. The kit of claim 14, wherein the support bar has a length which is greater than a length of the main body.

18. The kit of claim 14, wherein the opposed ends of the support bar include support retainers extending upwardly and laterally thereof.

19. The kit of claim 14, wherein the support bar has an upper edge, a lower edge and a series of reinforcing members joining the upper and lower edges.

20. The kit of claim 14, wherein all of the pockets are open at upper ends thereof.