Jack Johnson

All offices have cabinets to help in storing of documents. According to recent research, 60% of office cabinets are not properly organized.

Filing cabinets is one of the most important things you need to consider when organizing your office. You will cut down on the amount of clutter you have and help in streamlining work flow when you have a well organized filing cabinet. Here are seven important tips you need to consider when in need of a filing cabinet that will make your tasks much easier.

1. Create a Filing System

Having a system will help you store and file your documents and papers. The filing systems can be as general or as details as you would like. The whole idea is to be in a position to find what you need with ease and conveniently. Filing cabinets protects you from having to go through lots of problems. Determine whether you want to have your documents organized numerically, alphabetically, by company, by due date, by customer or client or by name.


2. Avoid Miscellaneous Folders

Try thinking of throwing out all those electronic warranties, treasured birthday cards, menus, instruction manuals into a single and large miscellaneous folder. What if you have all you need in one folder? However, having a miscellaneous folder will do more harm than good especially when it comes to retrieving information easily and quickly. Instead, you should be focused on the item in question and come up with a better solution for filing your documents.


3. Eliminate Clutter

There are chances that your filing cabinet might be containing outdated paperwork that are not of any importance. The first step in organizing your filing cabinets should be to eliminate clutter. Most of the files are not of any importance after two years, with the exception of tax records which you should always maintain for up to seven years. Always shred and discard documents that are older to give you more space.


4. Each of the Drawers Should Have a Purpose

Filing will never be difficult to keep up with if each of your filing cabinet drawers has its own purpose. For example, you can have one drawer for accounts payable, another drawer for receivables and another for payrolls. Ensure you clearly label the front of each cabinet drawer to know which drawer to go to depending on the type of document you want.

There is no right or wrong way of labelling the folders. Label the folders according to what will trigger your memory. In case you are more likely to remember a name, alphabetical filing would be ideal. However, filing by date is much better is you will remember when something happened.


5. Reduce the Large Files

It is important that you reduce the thicker files to make them easy to access. You can achieve this by separating them into two or more file folders that contain specific information. For example, if you have one large customer files, you can decide to categorize the items inside the file into product type of date range.


6. Make it Easy to File and Dispose Documents

Do you have a stack of papers that you need to file? Ensure you have a container, box or basket near your filing cabinet to help in temporarily holding of documents. You can then decide to pile a bunch of items at once instead of a piecemeal.

Never let your filing pile up, it will be much easier to file five pieces of paper in one sitting than filing five hundred!


7. Ensure the Cabinets are Easy to Access

Even if your cabinet is well organized, there are workers who might still put off paperwork filing if it is difficult to access. Ensure your cabinets are placed in an area where accessing them will be much easier.


The above tips will ensure you are able to keep your cabinet files in a neat and organized manner.