Probably the most common problem we encounter in today’s office is that there is never enough storage space. Clients often want to cram more staff into the office and forget that more people and more work usually create more filing and there is nowhere to put it. So we need to look at space efficient and creative storage solutions.

The much loved filing cabinet is still in use in many offices but often only because no one has explained the many alternatives available. Filing cabinets have to be the most space inefficient product available for offices and I always do my best to steer clients away from them.

The problem is that at 60cm deep and only around 135cm high, plus allowing another 60cm to open the drawers, filing cabinets take up a huge amount of floor space and are always used as a dumping ground for rubbish.

If you look around your office now there will be piles of paper, used coffee cups and I guarantee, a dying pot plant sat on top of the beloved four drawer! Filing cabinets should be consigned to the skip; there are better options out there.

Side opening tambour cupboards are probably the most flexible and space efficient alternative to the four drawer. Available in sizes from desk height to around 2m tall and in various widths the tambour cupboard offers tremendous flexibility and maximises both the floor space and height of the room.

The two main advantages of the tambour cupboard are that there are no doors opening out into the room, as they slide sideways from the centre of the cupboard and it can be used to store pretty much anything in the office. However it pays to choose carefully as some manufacturers use simple tricks to make you spend more than is necessary.

Most manufacturers will price their cabinets empty and then charge extra for any internal fittings. Furthermore if you decide to use lateral filing they will make you buy a filing frame rather than use a combination shelf. A cupboard that starts off looking cheap can suddenly be quite expensive.

At CH Workspace we have a range of tambour cupboards that offer probably the best value for money on the market. Our steel tambour range is available in widths from 60cm up to 1.6m and a range of heights up to 2m. All our cupboards are priced including shelves and these are designed to accept lateral files hanging from the underside and all are optimised for A4 storage.

In addition to standard shelving we offer a range of internal fittings including pull out filing frames, slotted shelves and various drawer fitments to accommodate card index files, CD’s and even cheque books. There are many variations on this theme but we find that lateral filing and lever arch files used in side opening tambour cupboards offers a cost effective and space efficient storage solution for most people.

In some instances even the tambour cupboard doesn’t provide the best solution and we need to be a little more creative. Mobile storage systems offer the best solution where there is either real pressure on space or high density storage is required. Often used in archive areas where records need to be kept for many years these systems work equally well in offices where we customise the system to make it fit in with the furniture scheme and room decor. But what is mobile storage?

The essence of a mobile storage system is to mount the storage onto a track that allows it to move sideways and means that you only require one corridor for access rather than one for each bay in a static layout. This means that in most case we can increase the storage capacity in an area by 50 – 60% or reduce the floor space required by similar amounts.

The systems can be locked with one key to make the whole thing secure and we can custom make the internal fittings to meet any requirement. Whilst mobile systems are more expensive than their static counterpart they are highly cost effective when you consider the capacity in relation to the floor space used.

In essence there are many alternatives to the humble filing cabinet so be brave, throw them out and make better use of use of your space.