In the middle of a massive home organization, I went on a shopping spree for plastic boxes. Just last week, I purchased 100 shoe containers, a dozen 66-quart clear totes, another dozen under-the-bed boxes, and eight solid color bins.

The real-life consumer experience has proven to be a valuable addition to my understanding of plastic storage items from covering the International Housewares Show in the past three years.

In my April-13 trend story "Firms thinking inside the box, to make it better," I made a list of characteristics consumers look for in a plastic box: clarity, color, functionality, stackability, modularity, durability, material safety, airtightness, etc.

In reality, when I decided to buy plastic shoe boxes, I immediately thought of a British company I wrote about in 2007: Really Useful Boxes. I remember seeing at their booth shoe boxes with drop-down front opening, a wonderful feature for taking shoes out from high stacks of boxes. However, as I did more research, the company is only selling a handful of office storage items through Office Depot. Its online retail for the U.S. market won't begin until August. I can't wait for my shoes to gather dust in the basement.

As I found out more about front-access shoe boxes, I realized that they are beyond my modest budget - $2 for each women's shoe box and $4 for men's. Due to the large quantity I need, the price point, not functionality or anything else, became the top consideration.

With that in mind, I compared prices from all local stores. Buying plastic boxes from the Internet made little sense, because the shipping can cost an arm and leg, plus, some online reviews complained about product damage.

Long story short, the cheapest shoe boxes available in my region turned out to be at a specialty store (not Wal-Mart, Dollar stores or Big Lots). I was able to save nearly 30 percent of my budget for, oh well, more plastic boxes. The bonus is that, these affordable shoe boxes also have the nicest design of all options I looked at, with clear body and lids, a modern linear shape, and superb stackability. They are designed and made in the USA.

E-mail me if you want to know what that specialty store is.