Office Storage: How Much Do You Really Need?

It’s the question that is regularly asked and is difficult to answer because there is no straight answer.

This is because every business is different, has a different set of standards and is run by different people, which is a good thing, right? As this gives each business the variety that is needed, however, the need for office storage is the same and whether you’re looking to go paperless or maybe just need some encouragement to sort through those old filing cabinets you have been avoiding for the last year, hopefully the question as to how much office storage you need can be answered.

If you are looking to move premises or carry out an office fit-out, it’s a good place to start with sorting through the hidden depths of your filing cabinets, because the chances are that you will uncover many files and records that are very much out-of-date and that need to be recycled. In this case, a common theme is that many offices actually require less storage then they initially anticipated, as they continue to sort through the ancient relics of the filing cabinet. This is because without them even realising it, a huge pile of sheets of paper and files build up ‘just in case they are needed’, yet there comes a time when they are not needed as the chance they might have been needed was five years ago! 

Rather than how much do office storage do you really need, the question that should be asked is do we need any at all?

With the world having a united emphasis on increasing the awareness and actions around sustainability, and the growth in the use of technology, many companies are focusing on becoming ‘paperless’ which means using technology for everything so that they do not need to have paper copies of documentation.  This is useful when analysing how much storage you may need because you may find that the amount of storage you require, relies on the work you do, for example, prior to technology, an accountant would require more office storage than the local decorator. However, over time, as the use of technology has increased and programmes and software has been introduced, for example Sage – this means that most of the accounting is done online and that the records are safe on the cloud, meaning that there is no need for paper records to be held. Especially as its so easy for paper records to be lost or thrown away by mistake. Whereas the local decorator could also use the same software for their accounting but would still need storage to store its equipment for the decorating.

Obviously, those that are selling products and need equipment for their job will need a certain amount of storage and space, and this could easily grow if you are looking to grow your business however that should be fairly straightforward for you to predict – and if you’re looking to go paperless, then you shouldn’t need any office storage!