You do not have to get a steel file cabinet for your office. These days you can easily get cabinets made of wood or plastic or a combination of materials. Sometimes, these two alternative materials for more work to your advantage. Wood is certainly more attractive than steel, while plastic is much cheaper. Steel Filing however, is not likely to disappear in the near future. This is because the steel has some advantages.

Steel cabinets are, above all, very strong and durable. Unlike wood, steel does not buckle down with scratches, stains and moisture. Some units of steel, it can even withstand impact and rough, constant use. By its very nature a steel file cabinet can withstand the test of time and may never need to get a new unit for the coming years.

Another advantage of steel units is that they often carry a number of special features. These include lock, locking system, nylon rollers, suspension drawer full, counter and more.

The only major disadvantage of steel is its appearance. Although some are already more vibrant colors and unique designs, most steel cabinets have been limited to gray, black, white or putty. Those who do not have very attractive designs can look gray or rigid. This can be very desirable if necessary to establish an environment more hospitable to his office.

A steel file cabinet is definitely a good buy. It should be ensured that if you can at least get a unit well designed if you want to contribute to a better player office.

Having spent much of my career in education, I had never heard of a tickler file. It wasn’t until I began organizing that I found out such a thing existed.

The word tickler actually means to “tickle” your memory. I have created and used a tickler file for a few years now and I find that it functions as a place to hold dated information that I need to keep for a short time. Some examples would be flyers to events, invitations, online internet orders, and client folders placed in the day that I meet with them.

• To create a tickler file, you need 31 hanging folders for the days of the month, 12 hanging folders for the months of the year, and a few extra hanging folders for files such as pending or next year.

• Begin by numbering the tabs of the 31 folders according to the days of the month. Write the months of the year on the 12 folders. It is nice to use a different color for these folders to set them apart from the days of the month.

• Use the extra folders for things such as pending or next year. Pending refers to things that you are waiting for some action on from someone other than yourself. Such an example would be waiting for an internet order to come in. Next year might be a conference that is scheduled the following year.

• Find a container to put all of the hanging folders in. The one in the picture can be found at Office Depot or Staples. It is a free-standing, black wire frame. You can also put the hanging folders in a plastic box-like file or a filing cabinet. I would recommend keeping the files out on a desk or countertop to make sure that you go through them daily.

Follow these steps to begin using the tickler file.

1. Begin to place papers in the days of the month as you use them. For example, if you receive a flyer for a conference you want to attend, register for the conference, and then print out the flyer and place it in the date of the conference. On the day of the conference, pull out the paper and take it with you for date, time, and directions. Then you can discard it.

2. Continue to fill the days of the month with papers as you use them, removing them from the file when they expire. This is a temporary file system and most days should be empty.

3. As you finish with each day’s hanging folder, move it to the back of the file so that the new day is showing in the front. When you finish the current month, remove it and have the next month showing.

4. If the file gets too crowded to house all 31 day folders and 12 month folders plus some extras only store a few months’ folders there and keep the rest nearby.

5. You may want to keep a calendar on the front of the system to reference when deciding on what date to put some papers. This system could be used to make notes to yourself about following up with someone on a particular date or as a reminder for yourself to complete a certain task.

With all of the paper that is generated these days, the tickler file is a great way to manage temporary things. It frees your memory for other important things.

For the manager of the Building Records unit at a major west coast public University, the document storage problems were critical. The problem wasnt justifying budget for more space. There was no more space to be had.

The Facilities Management Department must preserve and keep accessible more than 40,000 original plans and drawings. Many of the documents date from the Universitys founding and were hand drawn by Architects and Engineers long gone. These include architectural, structural, civil, mechanical, plumbing, electrical and other drawings for site development, infrastructure, landscape, utilities, buildings, additions and renovations.

The 3,300-cubic-foot room holding the essentially irreplaceable documents was crammed seven feet high with flat files whose more than 150 drawers were filled to the top with originals. Clamped sacrificials—copies used to protect originals—are in a second room. Large E-size drawings were the most difficult to store and retrieve. Since the drawers had run out of space and the University was still adding buildings and completing renovation projects, rolls of drawings were stacked everywhere.

The lowest files directly on the floor; bending and lifting risked minor injuries. Leaving bottom drawers open presented a tripping hazard. Top drawers were stacked so high that staff could not see into them without stools or short ladders. And the aging drawers required frequent repairs.

The manager said: Our filing structure had evolved over time and had no rhyme or reason, so documents were prone to misfiling or not being filed. But the managers biggest concern was document longevity. Every use of an original abrades its clarity, he points out. Even sitting unused, drawings lying flat in the drawings rub each other when a truck shakes the building.

Electronic Storage Costly and Uncertain:

The manager was unconvinced about fully electronic storage. Nobodys going to provide more than $4 million to convert these documents to AutoCAD at $100 apiece, he observes. And you cant predict which documents can be in cheaper graphics files versus those that must be in AutoCAD because youll someday need to manipulate them.

No electronic medium is as permanent and accessible as a document. Today, you cant play your old 8-track audiotapes. In a few years, you wont find VCRs. And Ive seen my CDs and DVDs wear. Every ten years, a new storage method will take over, so youll migrate your documents several times during your career. Each conversion costs money and opens the door to losing files or corrupted data.

Properly stored, high-quality ink on Mylar has a functionally unlimited lifespan, he points out. Yet theyre subject to abrasion, misfiling, fire, and water. You need physical safety for your documents and electronic storage.

A new physical storage system had to let us grow, protect these documents far better, and offer a logical filing structure, says the manager. In 17 years with other units within the University, he has developed cost-based methods of justifying projects. We selected a vertical file storage system because it met our criteria at an affordable price. It was easy to work with, conversion was do-able, and it would eliminate injury dangers. Transitioning to a new filing system also provided an opportunity to implement a logical numbering system that the staff had developed but had not yet implemented”.

We calculated that vertical file storage systems were three times more cost-effective than flat files, says the manager. We save space, our drawings hang without touching, finding documents is intuitive, and re-filing is easy so it gets done more regularly.

The University projects faster document retrievals during renovation projects and especially during an emergency. “Over-sized drawings were a pain,” the University manager says, “but now we maintain them in vertical file storage systems. One pleasant surprise was that, even fully loaded, staff can easily push the cabinets around on the carpeted floor, enabling fast cabinet rearrangement as needs change.

Brad Barrett