What is the Average Pencil Case Size?

If you’re going to keep a pencil sharpener in your bag, you should place it inside a pencil case. That way, you don’t accidentally cut yourself while fishing blinding inside your bag for school supplies. So, what size do pencil cases come in?

The typical size of a pencil case will be 7 to 10 inches in length, 5 inches wide, and roughly 3 inches thick. However, the exact measurement figures will vastly vary between pencil case models.

Knowing this, does the size of a pencil case really matter? What size should you get? What sort of things can you store safely inside a pencil case? These are just a few of the questions I’ll answer in the following sections.

Why Does Pencil Case Matter?

For the most part, the size of your pencil case should be large enough to store all of your writing tools. So, whether you have a dozen mechanical pencils or just one, alongside a handful of erasable pens and erasers, the pencil case should be large enough to hold them all.

The purpose of a pencil case is to protect your writing tools from becoming damaged during transport. If you’ve ever stuck all of your pencils in the smaller compartment of your backpack, you might’ve found that their lead snapped off during transport or, even worse, the entire pencil snapped in half. A pencil case has a hard outer shell that protects delicate stationery from becoming pulverized while moving from classroom to classroom.

In addition, if you keep a pencil sharpener with you, then you should always keep its exposed blades out of reach whenever it’s not in use. That means stuffing the pencil sharpener inside a pencil case, so you don’t accidentally pierce your skin while fishing around for supplies.

What Pencil Case Sizes Are There?

If you look at a hundred different pencil cases, you might find that they come in a hundred different sizes. The size reflects how many supplies it can hold at a time. So, the “best” pencil case size is one that keeps all your supplies safe from harm.

That said, what size pencil cases are there? The following table will describe the measurements of different pencil cases.

What Pencil Case Size Should I Get?

The “best” pencil case size will store all of your writing tools. Some pencil cases are designed to store only a dozen pencils at once, while others can hold up to 60 unsharpened pencils without issue.

So, is bigger always better? Not necessarily.

You should also be comfortable with your pencil bag since, as a student or artist, you will need to pull it out of the backpack quite often. Lugging around a heavy-duty metal pencil case may be inappropriate if you don’t have much empty space in your bag or if you only keep a handful of supplies on you at any given time.

What Is a Pencil Pouch?

A pencil pouch is a pencil case subtype that doesn’t have hard plastic, wooden, or plastic walls. They typically don’t come with interior frames to give it structure, either. Instead, it’s a simple pouch that’s elongated on one side to accommodate the length of pencils, pens, and other stationery.

Another thing that sets pencil pouches apart from traditional pencil cases is their multi-compartmental designs. They come with at least one additional pocket or sleeve that lets you store certain items apart from the rest. This is a great feature for keeping hard objects, such as sharpeners, away from brittle charcoal crayons.

What Can I Store in a Pencil Case?

As its name suggests, a pencil case is used to store pencils. However, you can also store other writing tools in them, such as pens, markers, highlights, and crayons. Artists might also want a pencil case that can hold blades, pencil sharpeners, different erasers, rulers, protractors, etc.

Other common items you might find inside an artist’s pencil case include scissors, glue sticks, and even a calculator. However, what and how many items you can store inside a pencil case will ultimately depend on how large it is.

Can I Make My Own Pencil Case?

Of course, you can! There’s nothing stopping you from cutting strips of lumber to size, adding hinges to one side, and chiseling out a deep compartment inside the pieces of wood. And if you have some metalworking blood in you, you might want to try creating a metallic pencil case for added protection.

However, it’s easier to make a pencil pouch, especially if you don’t have blocks of wood or metal on hand. All you really need to do is stitch together strips of fabric, add mesh compartments (optional), and add a zipper.

However, if you want a more unique pencil case, you might want to check the variety of playful options out there, including the ZIPIT Monster Pencil Case.

How Do I Keep a Pencil Case Clean?

This is a problem that plagues everyone who has ever owned a pencil case. The case will inevitably have marker, pen, or pencil marks all over the interior walls. If you have a fabric pencil case, you can simply toss it in the washer. To remove ink stains, try applying some rubbing alcohol to the stain using a ball of cotton.

However, if you have a metallic, wooden, or plastic pencil case, you should use a slightly moistened cloth to remove any unsightly marks on the inner walls. But before doing that, use an eraser to get rid of the largest pencil smudges. You can also use rubbing alcohol to loosen ink stains.