Home file cabinets

Our file cabinet dealers currently only offer file cabinets for businesses. Please refer to our helpful content below for information about selecting the right style file cabinet for your home.

Introduction

Despite the rise of electronic documents, file cabinets remain a fixture in a lot of homes. Selecting one involves more than just selecting the number of drawers and whether or not it has a lock and key.

Subtle differences can affect whether you wind up with a neatly organized filing system or mounds of paper stacked all over your home. You’ll want to think about how much space you have for a file cabinet, the sizes and types of bills and documents you store, and quality of construction.

Types of File Cabinets

There are two main types of file cabinets on the market: vertical file cabinets and lateral file cabinets.

Vertical file cabinets typically have two to five drawers each and allow you to store letter and legal documents while facing the front of the doors. A vertical file cabinet is best when you don’t have a lot of space to work with, but if you have a lot of documents to store, you could end up filling it quicker.

With lateral file cabinets, you get a much wider design that’s best for storing files front to back or side to side in the drawers. Lateral file cabinets are larger and let you easily store letter and legal documents in the same drawer, but they don’t provide as much depth as vertical cabinets.

Home file cabinet considerations

• Wood or steel? Wood file cabinets look sleek and give your den or home library a nice appearance, but it’s considerably more expensive. Steel is better suited if you access your drawers often and will subject them to frequent daily abuse, but they aren’t as aesthetically pleasing.
• Quality – Make sure the suspension system that supports the drawers can easily bear heavy files without compromising how the drawers open and close.
• Safety – File cabinets should have a mechanism that prevents the file cabinet from tipping over when multiple drawers are pulled out, either with counterweighted drawers or internal locking devices that allow only one drawer to open at a time.
• Fully tested – Premium metal file cabinets are tested for fire and impact resistance. This ensures your most critical documents and media files will be safe from damage for a certain period of time.
• Open shelving – These shelves are placed side by side and on top of one another to provide you with additional space for documents and other materials you wish to store.

Home file cabinet pricing
Your costs will range greatly depending on the materials used to construct the file cabinet, number of drawers, size, and other features.

Steel vertical file cabinets are the least expensive costing anywhere from $50 to $300. Expect to pay about $200 to $1,000 for steel lateral file cabinets. Fire and impact proof file cabinets will add a few hundred dollars more to your costs.

Most wood file cabinets are only available in vertical configurations and can cost $200 to $500 or more, depending on the wood grade.