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3/16/2000
Get
It Together
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by Liz Kelley Kerstens, CGRS
This
columns is posted on the Clooz.com Web site with
permission of
MyFamily.com. The
column was originally posted on the Ancestry.com
Web site.
Buying a File Cabinet
File cabinets come in many sizes, styles, colors, and
their quality ranges from poor to outstanding. Since file
cabinets can last for many years, it is important to
purchase a good quality cabinet that will fit your needs
now and in the future. If you have a business and need to
purchase a file cabinet, the cost of the file cabinet can
be depreciated over seven years on your business tax
return.
So what do you look for in a good filing cabinet? One
of the most important items that separates good quality
from bad quality is full-suspension drawers. These drawers
are distinctive in that the suspension system rolls on
ball-bearings and the drawers will pull all the way out so
you can see all of the contents in a drawer. Better
cabinets will also only allow you to pull out one drawer
at a time for stability.
You can choose between vertical and lateral file
cabinets, depending on your space requirements. Both types
come with different numbers of drawers and can be
purchased to compliment your decor. If you only have a
small amount of wall space available, the vertical file
cabinet will be your better choice. These cabinets
typically come in two widths: letter and legal. Legal-size
cabinets will naturally cost more than their letter-size
counterparts, but for a genealogist a legal-size cabinet
is probably worth the investment. Many genealogical
documents are printed on legal-size paper, including wills
and deeds. Purchasing the right width cabinet will not
only preserve your documents from crease lines, but will
give you more space because less paper will be folded. All
but one of my file cabinets are now legal size, a decision
I made many years ago to accommodate the types of
documents I planned to file. The one file cabinet that is
letter-sized is fire proof and is used to store hanging
binders of documents that are letter-sized.
Lateral file cabinets, although wider, are generally
more versatile than vertical file cabinets. This is
because a lateral file cabinet drawer can be set up to
accommodate two rows of letter-sized files that can be
read head-on or one long row of legal-sized files that can
be read from the side.
Don’t forget that the surface of your file cabinets
can be used to store your equipment, so you should take
that space into consideration when deciding which type of
cabinet to buy. If you are short of work space but long on
wall space, a short lateral file might be the answer. Or,
if you want to purchase a four-drawer lateral file, you
can use the top of the cabinet to store lesser-used office
equipment.
Fire-proof file cabinets should be considered when you’re
investigating your next purchase. These cabinets are much
more expensive than their counterparts, but will protect
your valuable documents in the case of a fire. The
important consideration when researching fire-proof
cabinets is how long the cabinets are rated to protect
your documents. Some are listed at one hour, some two
hours, and some are called only "fire
resistant." I was fortunate enough to inherit two
fire-proof file cabinets: one is a Remington Rand
Safe-File that is filled with concrete; the other is a
York Insulated Record Container, rated by Underwriters
Laboratory at one hour. You may be able to find reasonable
prices on old fire-proof cabinets like I have by doing
searches on the Internet. I did a quick search at
Dogpile
and found a couple listings for the Remington Rand
Safe-File included in excess lots at a Navy base.
If protecting your valuable documents is crucial to
you, you should consider investing in a fire-proof file
cabinet. These cabinets are not infallible, however, and
certainly won’t keep computer disks and CDs from melting
during a fire. That’s why it is always recommended that
you store backups of your computer files off-site in
addition to in your home.
Elizabeth Kelley
Kerstens, CGRS,
is the managing editor of Genealogical Computing,
editor of the Board for Certification of Genealogists’
newsletter OnBoard, the creator of Clooz—the
electronic filing cabinet for genealogical records, and a
frequent contributor to Ancestry. She can be
reached via e-mail at liz@ancestordetective.com.
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