While looking at a few household cleaning tools, I noticed that many of them have a hole at the top of the handle for hanging them on the wall. However, only a few of the homes I’ve seen are equipped with enough hooks or pegs to accomodate a Swiffer, broom, and all the other hook-laden items. Many of them end up on the floor of a closet, or precariously propped up against a wall.

On the plus side, some of these products are actually designed to stand on their own. My inexpensive vacuum cleaner does just that, although it’s rather bulky when in the standing position. Given that most people probably have a shortage of hooks and other hanging attachments in their homes, I’m surprised that so few products are designed to be stored standing up.

Sure, making a product stand on its own requires an engineering effort and some extra parts. But once you add that feature, it can be a significant selling point — if you promote it properly, that is. The key is to provide messaging on the box, website, etc. that reminds people of the hassle of all the items that end up in a pile in the closet or garage, and then show how a product that stands by itself is the easier, hassle-free choice.

Of course, if such a trend caught on, manufacturers would have to start providing measurements of how much floor space each product takes up while standing, which is something I’ve never seen on a consumer product.