File cabinet placement

Filing documents in my home has become a terrible chore that my wife and I loathe. The big problem is our filing cabinet. It is a beast of twisted metal and needs to be replaced as soon as possible. We have yet to get around to replacing it, but we would also like to relocate the file cabinet to a spot where we will actually use it and take advantage of its storage capabilities.

Currently, our file cabinet resides in our laundry room right next to the cat litter. Its not exactly the most welcoming place to do filing and organizing. So, we would like to get a new file cabinet that can be placed somewhere in our home, but doesn’t look like a file cabinet. With the new location we should utilize our file cabinet much more often and the piles on my desk and in the kitchen will hopefully be a thing of the past.

Where is your file cabinet? If it resides in a unpleasant or out of the way spot in your home, this may explain why you never utilize yours. Try and place it in a central locale where you can actually use the thing for filing instead of loathing the process altogether.

Posted by Matt on Nov 10, 2007 | Comments

39 comments posted

  1. Posted by AJ - 11/10/2007

    I built a nice L-shaped desk that is pretty high. I have a 2-drawer filing cabinet that sits under the desk. It’s only a half-spin away when I’m in my chair.

  2. Posted by Holly - 11/10/2007

    My file cabinet resides right next to the compute (where we pay our bills and whatnot). It’s a nice piece of oak furniture. We dig it.

  3. Posted by st - 11/10/2007

    My filing cabinet is in my laptop. Thanks to my fujitsu scansnap! ;-)

  4. Posted by Tubin - 11/10/2007

    We scan everything possible, or store things in archive folders in plastic bins that can be tucked into out-of-the-way corners of attic or whatever.

    But for active paper files we found a nice wood (veneer) cabinet that sits at the end of our couch. It serves as storage and also as an end table. It’s right in the same public area where we tend to sit, watch TV, read mail, etc… so if something needs filing, we can just tuck it away immediately without missing out on ordinary life.

  5. Posted by jt in the army - 11/10/2007

    I have 3 individual filing drawers that are stackable.
    In my current apartment one is a bedside table between the bed and the radiator and the other two are between another radiator and the back of the couch acting as a sofa-table.

  6. Posted by Kirk Roberts - 11/10/2007

    My desk is actually two two-drawer filing cabinets about three feet apart with a couple of old shower doors laying across the top to form the work surface. I don’t know if everyone would dig the aesthetics, but it’s pretty great to have such easy access to four drawers of files without moving or turning.

  7. Posted by DomoDomo - 11/10/2007

    Per ‘The David’, I have a file cabinet within arms reach at all desks I work at (one at home and one at the office). I use nice looking milk crates at work, and a built-in file cabinet at home.

    I prefer the milk crates by far. I like them because it keeps the barrier to usage very low. Little things like the whine produced when you slide open a file cabinet door really can affect how often you use your filing system. It may not seem very “unclutterer” to have your files in plain view, but I actually like how my files look. Bright blue Pendaflex brand, all consistently labelled with an auto-labeler.

  8. Posted by twosandalz - 11/10/2007

    Location is definitely key to to staying on top of the filing. I used to go months without filing before I moved my filing cabinet right by my desk. It is a drab, office metal cabinet I got at a used office supply store. An unused table cloth draped over the sides makes it look much better.

  9. Posted by BusyME - 11/10/2007

    I’m totally craving one of these. It would double as a buffet in my dining room.

    http://www.homedecorators.com/.....nsole/540/

  10. Posted by JW - 11/10/2007

    We have a two-drawer lateral filing cabinet that we got for a ridiculously low price from a university that was doing their own uncluttering. It’s in perfect condition, but an ugly industrial beige color. One drawer for my stuff, one for his. It’s tucked into an out-of-the-way corner of our loft. We’ve used it as a buffet, too–just cover with some pretty fabric.

  11. Posted by Arjun Muralidharan - 11/10/2007

    I file whatever I won’t need physically using the computer. I can’t afford a Fujitsu ScanSnap, so scanning my documents is quite a chore at the moment, but I’ll survive it until I can get that ScanSnap.

    For other things, which I want to or need to store physically, I have a set of file hangers in a box that can accomodate them, no drawers.

    Minimize the mechanics. I’ll post a picture on my blog once I get back home.

    The file hangers are A-Z, and each item gets it’s manila folder and goes into the right file hanger.

  12. Posted by Michael - 11/10/2007

    I keep my filing cabinet inside my office closet. Out of site when I don’t need it; convenient when I do.

  13. Posted by Jacki Hollywood Brown - 11/10/2007

    I have seen ugly filing cabinets covered in wallpaper, painted and covered in fabric to help them blend into the room. The Bombay Company sold a beautiful piece of furniture that hid a filing cabinet inside (they have recently filed for bankruptcy).

    Personally, I use a small filing box under my desk for the stuff I file during the current year. Everything else goes into archives in more plastic filing boxes in a storage area. Being a military family, we move often and having a HUGE filing cabinet was a major pain so we moved all our paperwork to filing boxes.

    Filing boxes can stack in one space or be split up and stored separately in smaller spaces. This is a big plus when you don’t have any idea of what your next house is going to look like!

  14. Posted by Rebecca - 11/10/2007

    Mine is under my Printer – it is a wooden piece that serves as a printer stand in my office, next to my desk.

  15. Posted by Stephanie - 11/10/2007

    I don’t currently have an actual filing cabinet, I just have a filing drawer (the file size deep draw of my desk). I don’t spend too much time at my desk, but I do know I can sort stuff out on it beforehand. Part of my filing ritual involves putting my files into a shoebox near the filing cabinet during the week, then filing everything away on the weekend.

  16. Posted by hunter - 11/10/2007

    I use an old waterfall style hope chest for my school filing. It holds two of those plastic filing boxes perfectly.

    A more modern (and more intentionally sized) option is something like this: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....s/80062701 from ikea.

  17. Posted by bekah - 11/10/2007

    We have a huge, ugly fireproof filing cabinet in our living room near to the computer, but in a corner. We then put a decorative bamboo screen/room divider in front of it.
    Our living room has a vague oriental feel, helped out by the large screen.
    It really helps with keeping the paper piles at bay.

  18. Posted by Kerry - 11/10/2007

    I’ve got an awesome filing cabinet from Ikea. It looks great and functions even better. Plus with the new line of filing cabinets there you can choose your own knobs to use (not to mention finishes), making it look even less like a filing cabinet!

  19. Posted by Cynthia Friedlob, The Thoughtful Consumer - 11/10/2007

    Um . . . “filing cabinet” . . . singular?

    We need several to contain everything in our household, but that’s probably because there are two work-at-home writers, one who is also an artist (me). I like to stash all kinds of supplies in the cabinets in addition to papers; someday a ScanSnap will help with those.

    We have three adjacent two-drawer cabinets that create a useful sideboard in the dining room and two others do double-duty as a serving area in a corner on the opposite wall. In the center of the room is a big, old Mexican ranch dining table where the mail gets sorted and papers get shuffled. Works for us!

  20. Posted by lana - 11/10/2007

    I love the idea of the Fujitsu ScanSnap, but at $400.00, that sucker is just too expensive for such a one-trick pony. Instead, I use a regular flatbed scanner and Yep:

    http://www.yepsoftware.com/yep/index.html

    Anything that needs a hard copy gets filed into color coded folders in my rolling mini chest:

    http://tinyurl.com/39hjsd

    This way, I’m able to multitask and file while I’m watching tv or returning phone calls, (makes it seem less unpleasant).

  21. Posted by Jen - 11/11/2007

    What the heck are you guys all filing? I can only think of one–maybe two categories of stuff I have that could justify a file cabinet. Is there some sort of secret set of papers I’m missing out on?

  22. Posted by Zora - 11/11/2007

    There’s a two drawer cabinet to the left of my computer desk. The bottom drawer is a file drawer, with hanging files (all neatly labeled). The top drawer holds check carbons, bank receipts, envelopes, stamps, etc.

    On a shelf underneath my desk, three small plastic tubs for credit and debit card receipts. (All the bottom-most check carbons and debit/credit receipts get shredded and thrown out when the containers start to overflow; those are the old transactions that have already been entered in the computer and reconciled with the bank statements.

    To the right of my computer desk is a rolling cart that holds the scanner, some reference books, and binders for bank statements. All my filing is right at hand. I don’t need to get up from my desk to file, or consult files.

    I try (but often fail) to enter the day’s financial transactions in Quicken every evening. I enter all old transactions, pay bills, reconcile bank statements, and reconcile the cash account once a week.

    Friends say I’m obsessive, but it only takes me an hour to do my annual taxes. So there!

    I have folders full of older transactions stored in a few drawers close by. I purge them periodically. I don’t keep documents indefinitely, excepting things like school transcripts, deeds, wills, etc.

  23. Posted by Cynthia Friedlob, The Thoughtful Consumer - 11/11/2007

    Don’t worry, Jen, there are no “secret” papers and we’re not totally nuts! We’re just two people with limited storage space and filing cabinets serve that purpose well for us.

    So, in addition to the usual personal and household files that we each have, our cabinets also contain all of our other office supplies.

    The cabinets also hold many art supplies like mat boards, drawing tablets, card stock, photo printing paper, slide holders, framing supplies, and even some finished artwork.

    Much as we’d like to believe that everything can be handled on computers, writers often still rely on research that’s quicker or easier to keep on paper, especially if it’s only kept temporarily. We generate a lot of printed material that needs to stay in printed form for at least awhile (awaiting comments, proofreading, etc.). And we always have multiple projects going on.

    Also, I do like the file drawers containing papers to have some breathing room in them. Trying to pull out that last file in the back of a packed drawer is really annoying!

  24. Posted by adora - 11/11/2007

    I got mine at IKEA, it’s right next to me right now. All papers are dealt with by my computer. Pay my bills here, do my mails here and file all the papers right here. It’s the only way I can stay organized.

    I have a white ERIK from IKEA. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....s/70112914
    It still looks like a file cabinet, but the simple design works well with my decor. I like the metal because I can attached my DYMO labeler on it with its magnet pocket.

    If you prefer more horizontal look, try ASPVIK with sliding door. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/cata.....s/10114614
    It’s super sleek.

  25. Posted by Peggy Thayer - 11/11/2007

    We designed MyVitalFiles so you could have one file box that is stored conveniently where you open your mail. I hope you’ll check it out at http://www.MyVitalFiles.com!

  26. Posted by Matt - 11/11/2007

    I scan everything into the automatic document feeder at work, which emails the files to me as PDFs, which are then stored on my personal space on a secure, backed-up network drive. I shred the papers immediately, unless I need to retain an original copy. Anything hard copies I save go into the file drawer in my desk at home.

    For the digital files, I organize the files first by purpose (banking, home/car, legal) and then by date. I clear out files when they’re no longer needed (e.g. I only keep the most recent copy of a given bank account’s statement), generally. After half a year of this method, the total size is only 80 megabytes.

    It’s really convenient because I can print a copy or I need it, or email/fax it directly to the recipient with a few clicks.

  27. Posted by ifyoucanreadthis - 11/11/2007

    My filing cabinet is immediately inside a storage closet. When I need something or to file something, I just open the closet and do it. It’s out of sight!

  28. Posted by trademark registration - 11/11/2007

    I scan all documents, and then back up the files twice. This tends to get rid of a lot of unnecessary papers. At least, it has worked thus far…

  29. Posted by Jasi - 11/11/2007

    I only keep a plastic file box and a small fire box. One years bills, bill pay things and 7 years tax summaries go in file box, very important papers in fire box. Fire box in the bedroom closet, file box beneath laptop in desk.

  30. Posted by jgodsey - 11/11/2007

    a file cabinet is just organized clutter, i tried getting rid of it completely. which didn’t work, i ended up with a lot of ‘vertical’ file boxes and it took up way too much room. i found i need ONE large file box – under the desk. at the end of the year/tax season, everything for that year gets boxed and goes in the basement, every so often the oldest box gets trashed. i keep stuff like receipts for big purchases and their manuals in the file box until the object is gone.

  31. Posted by Arlene - 11/11/2007

    The filing system is two rows of stackable file boxes neatly labeled and concealed in a otherwise empty closet.

    How to achieve this zen state of simplicity:

    1) Start with a shredder….
    2) Thin out what remains at least once a year at a fixed time, like after tax season
    3) Repeat

    I learned these lessons the hard way. Several moves ago, I woke up to the fact that I was lugging around a paperwork museum of life’s dullest minutiae from state to state over a period of decades.

    Now that I’ve reformed, it’s true that I’ll never be able to put my hands on the calculations I used for my 1977 child care deduction…but I don’t care. Free at last!

  32. Posted by stef - 11/11/2007

    we have a fireproof filing cabinet but it is always a chore to file paper – you need to find the time and keep the commitment otherwise, it gets out of hand. we recently decluttered and organized the office and came up with the idea of scanning our papers. We scan then as PDF documents and save them to our hard drive so they can be looked up easily on our computer. a good alternative to Fujitsu Scansnap since we already have a scanner.

  33. Posted by kelley - 11/12/2007

    Matt, Your system sounds great to me. but I thought that email wasn’t secure. Aren’t you concerned about the security of your documents?

  34. Posted by Kris - 11/12/2007

    We scan everything that can be scanned. The few things we need hard copies of live in something like this:

    http://www.neimanmarcus.com/st.....rod7640045

    Pottery Barn sells something similar.

  35. Posted by Tim - 11/12/2007

    When we last went through and organized/cleaned out, we bought some nice satiny cloth to match our living room colors, stuck both of our 2 drawer filing cabinents back to back, draped the cloth over them to cover the “seam” between them, then put that arrangement behind our sofa as a console table, put a lamp and the little vertical mail holder divider thing on top. Very nice solution for us, optimal space use, hides the back of the sofa, and gave us a new useful surface.

  36. Posted by McNee - 11/12/2007

    I had an HP all in one that had a flat-bed scanner, that died. We had purchased a Brother MFC240 for one of our work sites, and I was impressed by the software, and so found one on clearance for myself.

    The document feeder holds up to 10 pages, scans right to PDF and is good quality. It comes with Paperport software as well.

    http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc.....ID=MFC240C

    Also, for things like user manuals and such, search online, you can usually find PDFs on the manufacturer site, I tossed a 3-ring binder full of manuals I no longer needed and felt were too large to try and scan.

    For online purchases, rather than printing receipts, either print to PDF (there are tons of free PDF drivers available – PDF995 is good), or to a screencapture, (FSCapture is a great capture program or there’s the Pearl Crescent Page Saver FireFox extension that captures screens with one click).

  37. Posted by thedesktop - 11/12/2007

    I have a desk with a file cabinet drawer that I keep all my stuff in.

    If you really want to get rid of the file cabinet, scan everything you can, and keep the important stuff that has to be on a hard copy in an accordion folder.

  38. Posted by Red - 11/13/2007

    We have a 2-drawer filing cabinet that sits between our desks. The printer sits on top. Bottom drawer is for filing papers, top drawer is where we stash things like extra reams of paper, headphones (we’re gamers), usb devices, etc. I also have an expanding file that is reused depending on the situation. Right now it holds previous year taxes as well as a few other important documents that we rarely need to get at (it sits in one of the cubbies on my desk). It’s so nice to have it all in one easy place. We lived together all of 6 months before I demanded a proper filing cabinet and system in our office/spare bedroom/storage area.

  39. Posted by jordan fowler - 11/16/2007

    File cabinets are for wussies. Get rid of all but one drawer with one of these. A Fujitsu Scansnap 510.

    I just completely emptied two cabinets worth…fast!
    I am now officially paperless.

    For my experiences with it check http://www.worshiptrench.com/?p=231

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