Office storage is a calculation, not a guess
In short
Office storage is sized by turning document volume into linear metres, then shelves. Plan on 35 to 45 cm of depth, a 32 to 36 cm shelf pitch, and about 10 to 12 lever arch folders, or 55 to 60 A4 suspension files, per 80 cm shelf, so a full-height five-level cabinet holds up to about fifty folders. Choose melamine for everyday reach-height storage and steel for intensive, lockable or humidity-exposed use. Reserve the 40 to 140 cm zone for daily access, and consider mobile compact shelving, which recovers 40 to 50 % capacity on the same floor area.
In an office, storage is the last thing anyone draws and the first thing to overflow. Six months after moving in, folders pile up on windowsills, archive boxes block a corridor, and no one can find the contract signed last year. The cause is almost never a shortage of furniture: it is a volume miscalculated at the start, on numbers that could have been settled before anything was bought.
What the word storage actually hides
Depth is not a matter of taste. An A4 lever arch folder needs about 32 cm to stand upright, so a cabinet rarely drops below 35 cm and climbs to 45 cm to swallow archive boxes and suspension files. Height follows the same logic: the folder itself sets the shelf pitch. Every centimetre that ignores these two figures is either wasted or unusable.
- Usable depth: an A4 folder fits in 32 cm; a cabinet rarely goes below 35 cm and reaches 45 cm for archive boxes and suspension files.
- Level height: a lever arch folder forces a shelf pitch of 32 to 36 cm; below that, the folder will not stand.
- Adjustment grid: shelves reposition on a 32 mm pitch, which fixes the heights actually available.
- Reference width: the 80 cm body is the standard that structures most ranges and every capacity calculation.
- Overall height: a full-height cabinet with five folder levels stands about 185 to 200 cm.
Sizing office cabinet storage that lasts
Sizing office cabinet storage means translating a volume of documents into linear metres, then into shelves. On an 80 cm width, one shelf holds roughly 10 to 12 lever arch folders, or 8 archive boxes, or 55 to 60 A4 suspension files. A five-level cabinet therefore stores up to about fifty folders: the figure to check against the real inventory before fixing how many cabinets to buy.
- Lever arch folder 70 mm: about 350 to 500 sheets of 80 gsm; the 80 mm version nears 500, up to 700 when overfilled.
- A4 suspension file: 350 mm overall width, 15 mm capacity with a V-bottom, 30 to 50 mm with a square bottom.
- Per 80 cm shelf: 10 to 12 folders, 8 archive boxes, 55 to 60 suspension files.
- Density rule of thumb: count 13 to 14 lever arch folders per linear metre of shelf.
Melamine or steel: two logics of durability
Material is not chosen on looks but on use. Shared storage opened a hundred times a day does not face the same strain as an occasional cabinet. Here is what each family actually withstands.
- High-density coated particle board, 18 to 25 mm; a good volume-to-price ratio.
- Edges and hinges remain the wear points; sensitive to prolonged humidity.
- Blends into an open-plan office, wood or light tones.
- Ideal for everyday storage at reach height.
- Sheet-metal body and doors, often with a roller shutter that needs no front swing.
- Resists knocks, humidity and intensive, shared use.
- Serious locking and fire-rated options for sensitive rooms.
- Heavier, noisier, a more technical look.
- Full-extension drawers for A4 suspension files.
- Instant front access, but a floor footprint as soon as a drawer is open.
- Limited capacity per drawer; multiplying pedestals quickly costs floor area.
- Right beside workstations, not for mass archiving.
Well-sized storage goes unnoticed; it is noticed only when it runs short.
Before ordering a single cabinet, an inventory of the real linear metres stops you buying too much, or too little. The acdesign team quantifies that volume on plan for your commercial spaces. Compare architects in your canton
The access zone decides real-world use
A cabinet can be full and poorly used. What paces the working day is the height at which the things handled daily are kept. Put what is used often in the comfortable reach zone and push the rest away, or every retrieval becomes a stretch.
- Comfortable reach zone: between 40 and 140 cm off the floor, where you store and retrieve without effort.
- Below 40 cm: for heavy, rarely consulted storage, you bend down for it.
- Above 180 cm: rare archives, access with a step, never for daily use.
- Door swing: allow 60 cm clear in front of a hinged door, none in front of a roller shutter or sliding door.
Density, archives and the linear metre
Static storage demands an aisle in front of every unit; in an archive room those aisles absorb nearly 40 % of the area. Mobile compact shelving on rails removes the permanent aisles and recovers 40 to 50 % capacity on the same footprint, at the price of accessing one bay at a time. The linear metre stays the unit of calculation: add up the documents to keep, translate them into metres, then into furniture.
Indicative ranges per unit, excluding installation (CHF)
These ranges set orders of magnitude, excluding installation and assembly. At equal volume, the gap between melamine and steel is justified by lifespan and locking, not by looks. Mobile shelving, counted per linear metre, pays off mainly where floor area is expensive or counted.
Before you order: security and adaptability
Three points are decided before the order, not after. Locking: HR files, contracts and personal data belong in a key-locking cabinet, or a fire-rated model for sensitive rooms. Adaptability: a range on a 32 mm grid with an 80 cm body reconfigures as the team grows, a frozen bespoke unit does not. Load: a shelf full of folders is heavy, and anti-tip wall fixing is not optional.
Design storage with the fit-out, not after it
Storage is calculated alongside workstations, acoustics and circulation, not as a stopgap once the furniture is delivered. acdesign builds the document volume into the plan of your offices across French- and German-speaking Switzerland.
Describe my projectFAQ
35 to 45 cm. An A4 folder fits in 32 cm; 35 cm covers everyday storage, 45 cm takes archive boxes and suspension files. Below 35 cm the folder sticks out.
About 10 to 12 lever arch folders per shelf, so up to about fifty in a full-height five-level cabinet. Count 13 to 14 folders per linear metre to size it.
Melamine for everyday reach-height storage, with a better volume-to-price ratio and visual integration. Steel for intensive use, humidity, serious locking and sensitive rooms. The choice depends on use, not on budget alone.
Between 40 and 140 cm off the floor, the comfortable reach zone. Reserve the bottom for heavy, rarely consulted storage and above 180 cm for rare archives reached with a step.
Mobile compact shelving recovers 40 to 50 % capacity by removing the fixed aisles that absorb nearly 40 % of a static room. It is justified when floor area is expensive; otherwise fixed shelving stays simpler and cheaper.