What Do You Do With Your Filing Cabinet After Going Paperless?

Once you’ve done your huge scan-a-thon and gotten rid of most of your paper, what do you do with all the empty drawers?

The folks over at the ScanSnap Community have a great list of 10 Fun and Creative Uses For Empty Filing Cabinets.

I think my favorite is the healthy snack bar, but maybe that is because I am feeling guilty about eating a chocolate chip cookie as I write this.

For the record, I am currently using my newly-empty drawers to (ironically) store my old Wired magazine issues going back to 1993 while I decide what to do with them.

How about you? Any creative uses for filing cabinet drawers?

(Photo: cwalker71)

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About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 4 comments

safepethaven - September 21, 2013 Reply

My house is extremely small and poorly designed, without adequate storage; i.e. no linen closet, not even medicine cabinets in the two camper-sized bathrooms, and no pantry; bedroom closets are equivalent to one small armoire. So I'd use repurposed file cabinets to house: rescue/foster pet supplies for grooming, separated meds types. Also for storing hobby misc.: yarn-stash for crochet & knitting; sewing accessories, as well as smaller heirloom mementos from grandparents/parents; off-season accessories: shoes, gloves, hats, scarves; backup emergency items: flashlight w/batteries & for smoke detector replacement; shoebox of backup ofc/mailing supplies.

Petra - September 22, 2011 Reply

Take it to a Habitat Restore — there are plenty of businesses still that would love a cheap filing cabinet! (That’s where we found several of ours.)

File Cabinet Ideas - June 15, 2011 Reply

I have seen an idea to remove the file cabinet drawers and paint the outside the color of choice. you then turn the file cabinet on it's back side and instantly have a really cool planter for outside! Just another idea, hope you like it.

Dave - August 15, 2010 Reply

This is an interesting question. I think I can use it to keep my clothes– way better to keep off the molds than my wooden cabinet can do. I wonder how those who are in the filing cabinet business are thriving these days. Still, it's better to reuse, recycle than to throw away too much of a good thing.