Filing Cabinets in 2026: Yes, Paper Is Still a Thing

Every office I deal with says it is paperless. Then you ask where the signed contracts are. Or the HR files. Or the delivery notes from the supplier who still posts them. There is always a drawer, and it is usually the wrong drawer. Office filing cabinets are not exciting, but a good one saves the ten minutes a day someone spends hunting, and it keeps the things that matter locked. Here is what I check before I order one.

Drawer depth, and what foolscap means

UK filing is foolscap. That is the suspension file size that takes A4 paper with room to spare, and it is what every filing cabinet on our site is built for. Check the drawer is a filing drawer and not a box drawer. A filing drawer has rails for suspension files. A box drawer is a shelf with sides. The spec table on each product says which is which, and how many of each.

Then the depth. The Qube by Bisley two drawer steel filing cabinet has an internal drawer depth of 53.5cm, which is a lot of files before it is full. Deeper drawers hold more, but the cabinet stands further from the wall. It is 62.2cm deep overall, so allow 62cm plus the drawer pulled out, plus you.

Steel or wood

Steel is the usual choice for a reason. The Qube cabinets are fully welded, so the body does not flex when the drawers are loaded, and the drawers glide out to their full length. Bisley have made these for a long time and it shows. The two drawer version is 47cm wide and 71.1cm high, so it fits under a desk return or beside one, in Goose Grey or Chalk White. If you want it in something else, the Qube steel filing cabinet in 25 colours is the same cabinet with two, three or four drawers and a colour chart, supplied assembled as standard. Both carry a 5 year guarantee.

Wood finish suits an office where the cabinet is on show. The Impulse lockable wood finish filing cabinet comes with two, three or four foolscap drawers in six finishes, so it can match the desks. It is rated at 20kg per drawer and 75kg in total, with steel to steel fixings, steel handles and a 25mm top that shrugs off a hot cup. I would not put it in a stockroom. I would put it next to the desk of the person who owns the files.

The brief for this post asked about the gauge of the steel. We do not list the gauge on the page, so I will not quote one. Fully welded and rated for use tells you more than a number nobody can check.

Locks and anti-tilt

On a filing cabinet the lock is normally a single central lock covering every drawer, so you are not managing four keys per cabinet. Every filing cabinet we list except the side filer is lockable. If the files are HR or client records, lockable is not optional. Keep the spare key somewhere that is not the top drawer.

Anti-tilt stops more than one drawer opening at a time. A four drawer steel cabinet with two full drawers open at the top is heavy in the wrong place and will come forward. The Qube and Impulse cabinets both have anti-tilt fitted as standard. Check it on anything else. It is the one safety feature in an office that gets used every day without anyone noticing.

The side filer, for when you have the width

Lateral filing takes the files sideways in a wide drawer. The Impulse side filer lateral filing cabinet is 80cm wide and 73cm high with two wide foolscap drawers, so it sits at desk height and doubles as a surface for the printer. Two lateral drawers hold about what a taller vertical cabinet does, with nothing above head height. It is not lockable, so it suits shared reference files rather than confidential ones. In a small office it is often the better shape.

How many drawers

• Two drawers for one person's working files, under or beside the desk.

• Three drawers where the cabinet doubles as a worktop. At around a metre high it is the right height to sort post on.

• Four drawers for an archive wall. Heavier, taller, and the anti-tilt earns its keep.

Buy for the paper you have plus a third. Paper grows. Every cabinet in our filing cabinets range has the internal drawer sizes on the page, so you can measure the pile and count. And if the budget matters, both two drawer cabinets above come in under £250, and there is a page of office storage under £250 that shows everything else in that bracket.