Office Removals: How to Move a Filing Cabinet

So, the time has come to move your office and you are looking forward to a change. Change is good. It, hopefully, provides the grounds for improvement and the foundation for something new and exciting. The process of moving, on the other hand, is rarely associated with positive feelings. It is stressful and expensive and in most cases a very responsible thing to do.

The Essentials of an Office Move

When you are moving homes it’s one thing, but when you are moving your entire office, it is totally different. The removal process disturbs the working process and involves the relocation of important, expensive and often irreplaceable equipment, documents and data.

During an office move it is twice as important to hire professional office removalists with a truck. The reason for that is that if anyone gets hurt during a move, professionals have insurance policies to cover any possible damages. On the contrary, if you ask your employees to move their workstations, you are the one who risks hefty fines if anything goes wrong.

That being said, take seriously your responsibility towards the health and safety of every member of staff involved in the move.

The next thing to consider is the confidentiality of everything you move. Filing cabinets are great for organising important documents, files and classifiers. However, depending on how sensitive the information kept in the filing cabinet is, determines the safety procedures you need to follow.

How To Move Upright File Cabinets?

Upright file cabinet is a cabinet that is taller than it is wider.  In order to move it, you need to:

• Empty the cabinets first. Classify and label (labels, labels, labels) your files and folders so you know later what goes where. This is a very important step. Books and files in large numbers are extremely heavy to carry, so you need to empty your cabinet first. If the information, contained in the filing cabinet is very sensitive, pack it in boxes and take in the car with you. Sensitive information contains the names, and addresses of clients or of offenders/victims, financial statements, diagnoses of patients, notes about their psychological  well-being, the names, addresses, diagnoses of little clients of yours i.e. children and minors.
• If the cabinet itself is smaller and the amount of files inside it is not overwhelming, you might be able to move it without having to empty it first and re-organise it later.
• Lock the cabinet drawers so they don’t open and cause disturbance to the process;
• Get straps and a furniture dolly. Wrap the straps around the filing cabinet and load it on the dolly. Now all you need to do is to wheel it out.

How to Move Lateral File Cabinets?

Lateral file cabinets are wider than they are taller and in most cases they do need to be emptied before they are moved. Because their construction is different, if not emptied they may bend or break under the weight inside.

Simply empty the cabinet and move it using a furniture dolly.

How To Move an Empty File Cabinet?

If the cabinet is empty, there are very few things to look for:

• Make sure the drawers are securely closed and won’t be opening and slamming during the move. This could easily be fixed if you lock them, but if you can’t do that for one reason or another, use moving tape to secure them.
• If the filing cabinets are small in size and empty, you can stack them one on top of the other. You will save time and space.

If you have questions and need assistance with your office relocation, please do not hesitate to give us a call at 03 8566 7514, or use our live chat feature to talk to a member of staff. We will provide free quote and will book a time that suits you best.
Alternatively you can drop us an e-mail: office@paulsremovalsmelbourne.com.au

Image Credit: Pixabay