Any mental picture of filing cabinets may glint with memories of metal. Sterile and bland, these are items of your past office job perhaps. They do the job, certainly, but when it comes time to finding your own office furniture file cabinets, just know that there are more choices out there.

The simplest models will often cost you less and do the job just fine. If budget is critical, then they are definitely better than cardboard boxes. They also stay clean: just dust them every so often.

Choose a product according to available floor space and amounts of paperwork to file. Width and height vary widely. Metal versions in particular often feature convenient slots of inserting labels without writing on or sticking anything to a drawer.

Your product may be fitted with drawers or not depending on the nature of your work. For example, doctors and dentists frequently opt for open files. Documents easily slot in sideways with names facing outward. Nurse, receptionist or practitioner merely looks for the name and grabs patient records easily. A rotating version of this same system allows offices to store twice the amount of information in the same amount of space.

For a glossier look to your office space take a look at wood cabinets. They resemble drawers really, as though when opened they would reveal spare shirts. Instead of the regular slot handle one simply fits his fingers under to pull open a drawer, these are fitted with more elaborate metal handles.

Some cabinets are built to accommodate irregular-sized documents. For example, schools stock piles of large, colored sheets for students to make posters or maps. These are stack flat in wide but short drawers. In art, graphic design or drafting studios, drawings cannot risk getting smudged, bent or ripped. Then hang in specially built racks behind the door of a tall cabinet that keeps them dust free and safe from curious, dirty hands.

Fill an entire wall with labeled squares that open up to a world of fascinating (or dull) information. Purchase ones that lock should this be sensitive documentation. Also, to allow staff the chance for an office re-arranging party, make sure cabinets (like other furniture) have wheels.