Filing Cabinets, Metal and Wooden Filing Cabinets

Filing Cabinets

Filing our paper work is probably not the most enjoyable chore we have to complete, whether it is in the office or at home. Today we produce an assortment of documents that need to be kept for a variety of reasons. The optimistic but mistaken views of a ‘paperless office’ (see our news item), after the advent of word processing and the internet, has not diminished our need for efficient paper storage facilities in the form of cabinets or boxes of some description.

A Selection of the Best Selling Filing Cabinets

You would think that a filing cabinet is easy to choose but there are a few different things to think about. Hopefully we have provided enough information here to make choosing and using your new filing cabinet an easy and fun task – unlike the filing itself!

What materials are filing cabinets constructed from?

Most of the filing cabinets used in offices today are made of metal. The metal filing cabinets do come in various colours, though these are not usually particularly bright colours and normally vary from silver through to cream and black.
Antique wooden cabinets exist – now mostly in museums – from the early 1900’s, and were beautifully made by master carpenters. Wood of course is prone to rotting or fire damage which is probably the main reason most are made from metal today. Wood or veneered wood type cabinets tend to have a more pleasing aesthetic than metal so if look is important maybe you should start by looking at these first. Of course, then there is a choice of different shades and types of wood, such as beech, mahogany or oak.

What main features would I expect to find on a filing cabinet?

Before filing cabinets were in widespread use documents were stored on open shelving systems; the cabinets we know today have sliding drawers. It is possible to purchase single drawer to usually five drawer cabinets which usually have a mechanism stopping the drawer from being completely pulled out of the unit.
Many filing cabinets also have a built in release mechanism which once pressed allows the drawer to open, as well as a safety anti-tilt mechanism that prevents multiple drawers being opened and the filing cabinet subsequently tipping over.

The fronts of filing cabinet drawers have a handle with which to pull the drawer out and a ticket holder allowing labelling of contents. Stored documents may contain sensitive or important information (see news items) that should not be easily accessed by unauthorised users. It is for this reason many cabinets have a keyed lock mechanism. It is probably advisable to check the type of lock a filing cabinet has built in as there are several different types. Some types of lock do not need a key to be inserted for the cabinet drawer to lock, these are generally known as ‘plunger locks’. There is a time advantage to this as well as the peace of mind of knowing that when the drawer is shut it really is locked.

Some filing cabinets also have a feature which allows the storage length of the drawer to be adjusted, so that if you have a drawer that is not full, the documents remain upright and at the front.

The vertical filing cabinet

The most common type of cabinet in offices is the vertical cabinet. There is some controversy over who actually invented this unit (see news items), and it is usually made of metal but it is possible to purchase wooden cabinets if you want a more pleasing aesthetic look in your office or home. Vertical filing cabinets usually come in single, two, three four and five drawer versions and vary in price quite dramatically. A vertical filing cabinet takes up less wall space but can intrude onto your walk space so try and think about the available space for opening the drawers when you are deciding which type to buy. It would probably be advisable to actually measure the space you have.

The lateral filing cabinet

Lateral filing cabinets may be your preference if the height of your unit is a consideration, these are capable of holding the same sorts of documents as a vertical filing cabinet but take up more floor space as the name would suggest. A lateral filing cabinet holds documents in either a side-to-side or front-to-back format. One advantage of a lateral filing cabinet is the ability to access the files whilst being seated. The drawers on a lateral filing cabinet do not usually extend as far out as with a vertical cabinet either. Again it would probably be advisable to measure your available wall and floor space before deciding which cabinet to purchase.

What types of cabinet are the most secure?

The most expensive filing cabinets are those with the best quality security features and guarantees of fire and water resistance. Of course if you need something to store very valuable objects, cash or documents then it would be advisable to look at safes. Some of the websites we have reviewed supply safes and are usually easy to find when looking at the other filing cabinet options.

What else should I think about?

Filing cabinets are not useful without the accessories that go with them (e.g. hanging files, tabs and labels). These are easy to purchase and can be ordered in the right sizes once you have chosen your cabinet. UK filing cabinets usually hold document sizes A4 (210 × 297 mm), foolscap also known as legal size (432 × 343 mm) and A3 (297 × 420). Check out the dimensions of the filing cabinet of your choice not only for available floor and wall space but also for the types of documents you are likely to be storing.

Summary

There are quite a few things to consider when buying a new cabinet as you can see. But hopefully the following pages with our buyers guide, reviews of the most relevant websites and how to get the best from those sites, along with our news items, will arm you with the best information available at this time, to enable you to browse, purchase and use your new filing cabinet for as long as you need it.