Best Buy Guidebook is a culmination of online publishing lessons learned. From SEO to paid ads, our team has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Our goal now is simple: Arm readers with the most information possible.
The pandemic has made most office junkies out there restless and disorganized. Our brains are naturally in an unsteady state when things are messy, so finding a way to tuck away miscellaneous paperwork may clear up some headspace. A simple and easy way to get things back in order is to become more organized, and a filing cabinet will help you do just that. They don’t only help you store your office documents when you’re not using them, but they also make it easier to access them later when you need them. We have reviewed 5 of our favorite filing cabinets, plus we’re sharing our tips on how to purchase one.
The Space Solutions Mobile Organizer File Cabinet is an ideal choice for organizing your paperwork and keeping your files secure. With its 18-inch wide size, you can easily organize all your documents in an orderly manner and is large enough to accommodate drawer organizers or hanging files. Thanks to its four caster wheels, you can easily move the cabinet anywhere it is needed. The two top drawers are secured with a cam lock so you can store your sensitive information with confidence. Perfect for tax and legal documents as well as regular paperwork and other items, the Space Solutions Mobile Organizer File Cabinet will be your go-to organizational tool. Additionally, it has been chosen as our best choice overall due to its mobility and compact size, perfect for your home office or small business space.
| 18-inch wide size | |
| Two top drawers are secured with a cam lock | |
| Large enough to accommodate drawer organizers or hanging files |
Choose the Laura Davidson 3-Drawer File Cabinet to help you sort out messes. This mobile file cabinet is available in numerous colors and tucks under your desk to keep all your documents close but out of sight. You can match the cabinet you choose to your office decor and furniture’s color. With a pencil tray, drawer divider included, and fully adjustable feet, this file cabinet offers additional organization benefits.
| Modern design with a matte black powder coated finish | |
| Steel file cabinet that fits under most office desks | |
| Three locking drawers with two distinctive keys | |
| Store both letter or legal sized hanging files |
Having all your files, documents, and external storage devices in one place saves you time and space. The way we see it, you have only two options: either you buy the DEVAISE 3-Drawer Mobile File Cabinet, or you continue in your cluttered misery. This file cabinet not only saves you space on your desk, but its stylish appearance also keeps your workspace looking dapper and professional. It is wide enough to safely store and organize letter-size, legal-size, and A4 hanging file folders in any combination.
| Metal file cabinet with three locking drawers | |
| Single lock with two unique keys | |
| Two stationery drawers, a pencil tray, and one file drawer | |
| Features 3 removable hanging bars and five casters |
The Lorell 18-Inch Deep, 2-Drawer File Cabinet is another leading, go-to brand. This lightweight file cabinet has a durable build that is spacious enough to secure legal-size files. One thing that we think sets the Lorell apart from other mobile file cabinet options is that you can stack them on each other and place them by the wall as a vertical cabinet.
| Overall dimensions: 14.3″ x 18″ x 24″ | |
| Includes two drawers with a pull handle and smooth-glide suspension | |
| 18″ depth that fits easily under your office table | |
| Durable steel construction with an enamel finish |
The YITAHOME 3-Drawer Slim File Cabinet is ready to serve under your desk or table if you don’t need that much space. It has an impeccable design with an environmentally friendly finish. Get yours now before it’s sold out again.
| Includes a detachable pencil tray and hanging file bar | |
| Holds letter-size and A4 size documents | |
| Built with heavy-duty steel |
Some time ago, you could leave the office and create a divide between home and work. But for many of us today, work and home may only be separated by a few walls and the kitchen counter. If there’s anything we’ve learned from working from home, it’s that our work-life balance is negatively affected. These cabinets give you a chance to declutter and reset after a long day of work. They are ideal for storage and proper organization of paperwork, equipment, or stationery. These cabinets are available in different sizes and styles, all with a range of features that set them apart from each other. We have offered the help you need to understand your preferred model in this section.
Picking a suitable model is tricky because there are so many different designs on offer. If you are one of the many people struggling to decide which one is best for you, we have prepared some questions that will help ease your decision-making process.
From properly keeping paper documents organized to securely storing disk drives that contain sensitive digital information, there is a host of reasons you may need a filing cabinet. You should consider your needs before even browsing through product categories on the internet. So that your unit meets your requirements, make sure you think carefully about what you’ll need it to do.
As we mentioned earlier, filing cabinets come in different sizes. If you have all the space in the world, you can choose any cabinet size. However, if your home office or real office doesn’t have much square footage to accommodate a large size, you need to go for a smaller size. In summary, assess your floor plan, measure the available space, and choose a filing cabinet with comparable dimensions.
Primarily, a filing cabinet is designed to help you keep whatever you need safe, secure, and organized. But that doesn’t mean it has to look like crap furniture. It might be a good idea to consider design and aesthetics when choosing one. Specifically, you can go for something that blends with your office decor or other furniture you have around. Indeed, this consideration does not affect the quality or features that the cabinet will offer, but it sure will make your office look much better.
Now that you have answered the most critical questions, it’s time to go through some types of cabinets. We will focus on the styles and shapes of filing cabinets so we won’t bore you with the other intricacies. There is enough information here to choose a fitting model for your space, and here are the most popular options and their main features.
The most typical filing cabinet style is the vertical filing cabinet. Its long upright design makes it suitable for situations where you don’t have enough room in the office for a storage unit. Vertical filing cabinets are available in various heights and number of drawers.
These cabinets stretch wide with a horizontal design that makes them ideal for storing and organizing larger-sized papers and documents like blueprints, maps, and planar models. You can easily find a lateral filing cabinet with two drawers in the market. But if you need something with more storage, there are models with three and four compartments.
You may need something tall and slim with shallow drawer sections if all you just need is to store flash disks, hard drives, DVDs, index cards, and some A4 documents. Multi-drawer filing cabinets have a more minimalistic design with five, 10, or 15 shallow drawer compartments ideal for storing and sorting such materials.
Sometimes, a small, mobile, and compact design is just enough to provide the extra storage you need in your home office. Fortunately, mobile filing cabinets have wheeled castors for easy mobility in and out of your workstation. They can easily fit under your desk or in the trunk if you need to move your workstation from office to home.
What features do you need to consider before getting a filing cabinet?
After you’ve decided on the shape, size, and style of unit you need, you must make sure the model you choose has all the right features. This will ensure that you can get the most out of your purchase.
Filing cabinets with a secure locking system are ideal for storing sensitive and confidential documentation and expensive pieces of equipment and tools. They come with locking systems that vary between designs. An example is the key lock system that enables you to lock individual drawer compartments separately. Although most filing cabinets -especially mobile ones- use only one lock to secure the entire unit, other options are available in the market that have electronic or combination locks.
For some of us, ‘safe and secure’ means a filing cabinet with a key lock, and for others, it’s fireproofing. Still, we cannot predict unfortunate incidents like a fire outbreak, so choosing a file cabinet with a fireproof design keeps you prepared. Fireproof filing cabinets typically offer up to one hour of fire protection for paper documents and half an hour for digital media. They also offer resistance to the impact of falling through collapsed buildings.
Everyone wants a cabinet that will maintain its best look for years to come. The rough and textured casing of scratch-resistant filing cabinets can withstand the rigors of office life and still stay in shape for a long time.
You must have seen the term ‘suspension files’ often used when describing many filing cabinet models’ features. It refers to a folder style where hooks suspend files from two parallel runners inside the drawer compartments in each drawer. Suspension files equip you with numerous spaces to slot your documents, and each file has a tab for easy labeling and organization of documents and paperwork.
Do you want your file cabinet toppling over? That’s the real question here because getting a model with an anti-tilt mechanism makes sure you can open a drawer without your storage solution losing its balance and falling forward.
Think of the kind of files, media, or documents you want to store in the cabinet first, and then choose a cabinet that can accommodate it. Ideally, a cabinet with drawers large enough to hold standard A4 files, foolscap documents, and large blueprints should be enough.
If cabinets were cars, castors would be the wheels. This feature becomes especially important when considering mobile cabinets, as you may need to move them from place to place more often. Castors help you roll the cabinets around without any need for heavy lifting.
Best Buy Guidebook is a culmination of online publishing lessons learned. From SEO to paid ads, our team has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Our goal now is simple: Arm readers with the most information possible.