Best Results Organizing

My blog posts aren’t usually love letters to a company or product, but as the result of a few particular client sessions lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about Bankers Box. Back in August, 2010, I wrote a post called This Is Not Your Grandfather’s Bankers Box. Fifteen years on, let’s consider this post the cooler, smarter grandchild, the one who knows how live in the digital world, but appreciates the value of archiving some documents with more eco-friendly, aesthetically appealing, heavier-duty, multi-functional solutions.

But still, it all starts with the name: Bankers Box, no apostrophe. What does that name call to mind for you?

Bankers’ reputations have never been stellar. Think of Mr. Potter, George Bailey’s nemesis in It’s a Wonderful Life in the 1940s, or picture Edith Bunker walking into a “friendly” bank, circa fifty years ago:

Jump across the pond and back another 50 years, and you find Mr. George Banks, Mary Poppins‘ quintessentially stuffy banker, employed by the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank:

“A British bank is run with precision. A British home requires nothing less! Tradition, discipline and rules must be the tools! Without them: disorder… catastrophe! Anarchy! In short, you have a ghastly mess!”

 
Perhaps it’s these negative images of bankers that often left my clients dubious over the past 24 years when I’ve suggested that they might benefit from using Bankers Boxes. Some (younger) clients had never heard of them; others felt like they must have only been in use in large corporate storage rooms, or law office archives.

For those who know about them at all, it’s no surprise that a document storage solution originally designed — and named — for bankers, would have an equally stuffy, stodgy, conservative reputation. But they have a cool history and seemingly secure future.

THE HISTORY OF THE BANKERS BOX

The Bankers Box brand has a rich history. Let’s time travel backward 108 years to 1917.

Recent university graduate Walker Nickel got a job selling bank record file boxes, but nobody wanted to buy them because they were so badly designed! Unable to get his boss to consider making modifications, Nickel quit and struck out on his own, designing and manufacturing a file box out of a hardy new construction material — corrugated fibreboard — which better fit the standard-sized forms that banks were using. Cranky banker clients smiled!

Nickel worked out of an office building in the tailoring district of Chicago, where he met Harry Fellowes, a tailor in residence who was looking for new opportunities. The two men initially struck up an acquaintance in an elevator, and Fellowes came to learn more about Nickel’s business. 

Jump ahead about half a year. In April 1918, Fellowes saw Nickel packing up his office; the latter man had just been called up to serve in World War I. The men struck a deal, and Fellowes bought Nickel’s company, primarily the inventory, for $121.40, mostly for inventory. This is an improbably small amount, only $2584.49 in today’s buying power, especially for what became a major office supply powerhouse.

The Bankers Box Company was eventually renamed Fellowes Brands in the 1980s to better reflect their expansion beyond filing supplies and into shredding (which is kind of the opposite of filing, right?), binding, laminating, air purifying, and ergonomic solutions. (Sadly, I could find no further information about Walter Nickel.)

Fellowes’ relatively small investment had great potential, as the 16th Amendment (allowing taxation of individuals and corporations) had just been ratified in 1913. People and businesses were going to have to start archiving and coming up with a lot more permanent document storage, as they’d have close to a century to wait before cloud storage would show up. 

Even if you’ve never used one, you know the Bankers Box. Your mind’s eye probably painted a picture that looked much like this:

Boring? Maybe. Stuffy? Paper Doll won’t disagree. But you can’t deny the simple, practical benefits of the traditional Bankers Box Stor/File. 

THE BENEFITS OF BANKERS BOXES

In a world where the first storage solution people consider tends to be a plastic, lidded tub, a Bankers Box may seem to be a strange choice for singing praises. Aren’t they old-fashioned? Aren’t they less sturdy? Aren’t they bad for the environment? 

Well, yes (and not always, and surprisingly no). Bankers Boxes have some distinct advantages.

Bankers Boxes are tougher than they look.

Bankers Boxes are surprisingly sturdy, even for their lower-end, “basic duty” weight storage box.

At 10.5″ high x 12.5″ wide x 15″ deep, the Stor/File has a stacking weight of 450 pounds, suitable for “moderate” stacking or shelving. It’s made for letter and legal sized paper filing, pretty much any document you need to store or archive for long-term.

Bankers Boxes come flat-packed and are easy to assemble.

In fact, I sometimes think the illustrations for assembling a box are more complicated than the steps themselves.

(Unlike something you might get from IKEA, at least you don’t end up wishing you’d studied Swedish in school.)

Judging from recent client experience, it only takes about a minute to put one together. You start by opening everything up and separating the lid from the box at the perforations, and then separating two other connections. Fold the big bottom piece in, then fold in the exterior bottom (which is attached to the two interior side flaps, and flip everything over.

Wait, that’s probably confusing, too. How about a video?

Sadly, the video doesn’t show how to fold the lid into existence, but it’s as simple as folding at all of the scored lines and tucking everything in. If you can make hospital corners on your bed, the Bankers Box lid is just as simple.

Well, for most people.

I should note, right around the time I wrote The Great Mesozoic Law Office Purge of 2015: A Professional Organizer’s Family Tale, I was working in one room while Paper Mommy and our close friend Jennie were working in another. I’d assigned them what I thought was the relatively simple task of setting up some Bankers Boxes, only to later follow the sound of giggling to find that at 79- and 91-years-old, they might not best be left unsupervised for this kind of project. Picture Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory.

For people like Paper Mommy and Jennie, some of the Bankers Boxes are now manufactured with FastFold technology, and can be put together even more quickly with what might be considered a pop and lock approach. (No, not the hip-hop dance moves.)

Oh, and if or when you don’t need a particular Bankers Box anymore? You can just reverse the process and make it flat again! For example, let’s say you have a box of paperwork related to a project that didn’t go forward or stored catalogs that will never be needed again. You could just pile up the empty boxes until you fill them again, but the glorious thing is that you don’t have to!

Bankers Boxes are manufactured without glue and require no tape for assembly.

Creepy crawly creatures love nibbling at glue. I always advise clients that in general, cardboard is a bad choice for long-term storage, particularly of documents. A plastic/rubber/resin lidded tub is often the best choice, particularly if you are going to store things in an attic, garage, or basement, but even in office or closet storage, cardboard boxes manufactured with glue are a no-no, as that glue is a clarion all to tiny things with too many legs.

Additionally, most boxes require require packing tape to put them together, meaning you’ll have adhesive on the bottoms and sides of even an open box. However, by using a Bankers Box, put together solely by folding panels into place, you end up with a sturdy box, dependable and useful for long-term document storage, sans icky, gooey, bug-inviting adhesives.

Bankers Boxes are relatively inexpensive.

Bankers Box is a brand-named product, so it’s going to be somewhat pricier than generic or store-brand versions. Still, for example, a 12-pack of the basic, white Stor/File version is $38.98 at Amazon, or $3.25/box. Walmart has a 10-pack for $18.74, or $1.87/each. (Don’t ask me to explain pricing options. That’s a capitalism issue, not an organizing one.)

MYTHS AND SURPRISING TRUTHS ABOUT BANKERS BOXES

If you haven’t given a glance to a Bankers Box since you sneezed your way through the file room storage boxes at an internship sometime in the late 20th century, you may be surprised by how Bankers Boxes have changed and advanced.

Myth #1: You can’t use hanging folders with Bankers Boxes

Of course, what people mean when they say you can’t use hanging folders to organize files in a Bankers Box is that, unlike with typical plastic file crates, hanging-file desk-top boxes and plastic boxes designed for file storage, the original Bankers Box didn’t have file rails.

True enough. The traditional box merely folds into place leaving you with, well, a box — a big empty space into which you can throw papers, or hopefully, stand your files upright.

If you’re transferring a filing cabinet or desk drawer full of files all at once, the box will fill and the sheer volume of file folders, pressed against one another, keeps them from falling down. 

Because the traditional boxes have nowhere to place the hooks for hanging folders, you generally have to remove your manila file folders from their hanging folder homes in the filing drawers to move them to the boxes. It may take quite a while and yield paper cuts. And what if you only have a handful of folders? Yeah, no, the Stor/File may not be your best bet.

But that doesn’t mean you’re out of organizing file luck.

Enter the Bankers Box Hang’N’Store™. The Hang’N’Stor is one level up from the basic-duty Stor/File; it’s considered medium-duty, with stacking strength up to 550 pounds.

It’s a time-saver, as you can quickly transfer folders (like client files, the past year’s invoices, etc.) from active storage in your filing cabinet to inactive/archive storage without having to remove your tabbed manila folders from the hanging folders!

The Hang’N’Stor is still packed flat for easy shipping and supply storage, and designed with Banker Boxes’ FastFold methodology for easy assembly.

The letter-sized (9.75″H x 12.25″W x 15″D) Hang’N’Store is built to allow hanging files to tightly hang over the box edges. Grab your active files (client files, prior years’ invoices, etc.) and move the whole organized system directly from active to archived storage without separating out individual files. A four-pack on Amazon runs $34.

The letter/legal sized Hangn’N’Store (10″H x 12″W x 15.5″D) has plastic interior channels that acted like file rails — just turn it 90° to accommodate letter vs. the legal documents. 

 

Understandably, the file rails make these a little more expensive. Amazon carries a four-pack of the letter/legal version for $40, or $10/each, various office supply retailers.

Both styles are made of 60% recycled paper (post-consumer recycled content).

If your file drawers are overwhelmed by hanging files you must maintain for legal, financial or regulatory reasons, the Hang’N’Store offers a smooth transition.

Myth #2: Bankers Boxes can’t keep piles of papers or bound materials from falling over.

There will be times when you want to store your documents a few chunks at a time, perhaps quarterly. Other times, you want to store stacks of paper, directories, or other loose or bound material, but anything less than “full occupancy” in a traditional Bankers Box will make your documents flop over.

The Bankers Box R-KIVE Divider Box is tailor-made for this purpose. The Divider Box comes with three heavy-duty 5″ corrugated cardboard dividers designed to keep files upright, even without hanging folders, when the box is only partially full.

(Philosophical question: is your Bankers Box half-empty or half-full?)

The Divider Boxes are heavy-duty weight, with triple-end, double-side, double-bottom construction, and reinforced, tear-resistant handles for more comfortable carrying. In addition, there’s a locking lift-off lid for secure file storage.

The letter-sized (10″H x 12″W x 15″D) has a stacking weight of 850 pounds.

Myth #3: Bankers Boxes are ugly

Yes, some of the traditional boxes are un-pretty. Your grandparents’ (or even parents’) Bankers Box was either white with black, white with blue and black, or the oh-so-classy 1970’s Station Wagon “woodgrain” box with the flip-top lid, popular with attorneys and accountants (who, like bankers, are not exactly known for being the coolest cats on the playground).

Given this, I don’t blame you for being dubious that Bankers Boxes can add some style to your document storage. But the fellows at Fellowes aren’t quite as stodgy now that we’re a quarter of the way into the 21st century.

For example, the medium-duty Decorative Stor/File (10″H x 12″W x 15″ D) is a snazzy black-and white brocade-style version with a black lid that, if left in the corner of your office floor, won’t detract from your “up-and-comer” identity. There’s still space to label the contents of your box, but the box itself no longer shouts, “I’m Practical!” at the top of its corrugated lungs. A 10-pack will run you about $34 or $3.40/each at Amazon. 

(There’s also a basic-duty weight version, with the same measurements, though it seems harder to purchase.)

For those who find the brocade squiggles not to their liking, there are two other decorative versions,  a basic-duty weight decorative white/grey criss-crosses:

and a medium-duty weight version with pinstripes.

Aesthetics, function, and ease of use make for a not-so-stuffy delight!

Myth #4: Bankers Boxes aren’t so great for the environment

I’d call that an enviro-fib!

Bankers Boxes have a pretty good environmental record, especially compared to plastic storage resources. (Plastic is petroleum; petroleum is dead dinosaurs.)

Most of the Bankers Boxes in the basic-, medium- and heavy-duty file storage lines are made of at least 60% recycled product. However, the Bankers Box Recycled Stor/File line is made of 100% recycled materials.

For example, there’s the medium-duty Recycled Stor/File, measuring 10″H x 12″W x 15″D, and with a stacking strength of 550 pounds. There’s a longer one measuring 10″H X 12″W X 24″D.

More significantly, Fellowes/Bankers Box has an impressive Earth-friendly sustainability focus.

Myth #5: Re-stacking Bankers Boxes is a pain

The impressible stacking capacity of individual boxes, even those at basic-duty strength, still fail to solve the inevitable organizational problem: if you just pile your boxes, one on top of the other, the box you want is invariably going to be on the bottom of the stack!

I feel your aching back from here!

Certainly you can use a variety of ad hoc shelving solutions such as those designed for offices, warehouses, garages, or basements. However, there are shelving solutions designed specifically for Bankers Box-style document storage.

Fellowes’ own Stor/Drawer® Steel Plus™ line lets you remove the box lids for any of the Stor/File boxes and slide them right into stacking units, drawer-style. This set-up allows you to stack five boxes high with the assistances of a heavy wire frame that provides stability and strength for the corrugated cardboard drawers.

There are four-layer front and back panels, and removable rails for hanging files. The steel support frame for the entire unit reinforces heavy-duty the corrugated cardboard to increase durability, and the front plastic handles are reinforced for improved drawer access.

These come in letter (10.375″H X 12.5″W X 23.25″D) and legal (10.375″H x 15.5″W x 23.25″D) versions in the standard white, blue, and black, or the 100% recycled tan, green, and black, in recycled letter and recycled legal versions.

 

Of course, if you’re a multinational corporation and have even more archival files, Fellowes has a line of Staxonsteel® Steel Frame Heavy-Duty Storage Drawers.

You can stack ten boxes high, storing 80% more records in the same floor space, into a towering and scary, sci-fi file drawer unit.

The Staxonsteel framework interlocks both horizontally and vertically so worker bees can open the drawers to seek documents all day long. The steel stacker bars create a hardy framework that, per Fellowes, “won’t buckle, twist or bend and offer space-saving stackability with the accessibility of a filing cabinet.” The Staxonsteel drawers are designed to easily snap together with poly-lock technology.

If you’re a person, and not a ginormous conglomerate, this is overkill. So if you’re looking for something that’s somewhere between random shelves at Lowe’s and the big Fellowes shelving, consider (ProSlat) Bin Warehouse‘s box shelving. Although Bin Warehouse is better known for letting you to stack rubber/resin tubs without having to rearrange them to access something lower down, they also make ideal racks for storing boxes.

Bin Warehouse’s 8 filebox rack holds 400 pounds across two columns, eight boxes high. (Maximum box size: 12.5” wide x 10” high x 15” deep.) It’s designed to be installed right to the wall to ensure security and maximum stability. It’s available from ProSlat for $115. 

An 18-box rack accommodates three columns of six boxes each, for a maximum of 1000 pounds. It’s $135 at Pro Slat or about $125 at Amazon.

BANKERS BOX ISN’T THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN, BUT…

Obviously, Bankers Box isn’t your only choice for foldable, non-glue, no-tape-needed document storage. 

Almost every Big Box and online office supply store, like Staples, Office Depot, and Amazon has its own line. If you want a straightforward letter- or legal-sized box, I’m not going to tell you that an Amazon Basics box is going to leave you crying over poorly supported files. It’s not.

And cardboard certainly isn’t your only option. As we’ve covered in Paper Doll posts before, there’s a large variety of plastic, railed file boxes, and file crates to archive your documents.

Similarly, I’ve merely illustrated a fraction of what the modern Fellowes Bankers Boxes have to offer. For example, this post just looked at lift-off lid boxes, but there are myriad basic-, medium-, and heavy-duty corrugated Bankers Boxes (plus their line of plastic ones).

There are also their “String-and-Button” Bankers Boxes (which still, after all these years, have a decidedly Little House on the Prairie feel, as if velcro had never been invented) for seriously extensive and heavy-duty file archives where you don’t think you’ll ever need to tote them around for deep research.

There are flip-top boxes — if people say you’d forget your head if it weren’t attached, these Bankers Boxes with hinged, attached lids may be your style.

And this just covers Bankers Box products designed for document storage. If you’re moving house, or just storing stuffed animals until the next tiny human (or next generation) comes along, Bankers Box has basic, classic, and even tape-free Prime locking boxes. Or if you need specialty products for storing literature stacks or magazines and homework, there’s a solution for you.

Bankers Box isn’t the only game in town, but after 24 years of examining storage solutions, I say Fellowes are nice fellows, especially if you want to be planet-friendly.

DO YOU REALLY NEED TO KEEP ALL THAT PAPER?

Finally, before you seek to store oodles of paper, it’s important to stop and consider your options. 

Ask yourself if you, your family, or your organization really need to save your papers. (One popular professional organizer maxim says 80% of papers stored are never retrieved or needed again.)

A good start for confidently making decisions about your paper is my classic ebook, Do I Have To Keep This Piece Of Paper? It walks you through the possibilities and questions you might have regarding the documents and fluttery pieces of paper that waft through your life.

Once you’re sure what you want to keep, consider whether you want to maintain paper records or digitize the documents. Weigh the safety and permanence of digitized documents in the cloud against the time, physical effort, and cloud storage costs to turn your paper into bits and bytes.

From there, think about the different types of paper storage, for action, reference, and archives, you hope to use. A good start is my 2024 series on paper filing and document retention. 

• Paper Doll Shares 12 Kinds of Paper To Declutter Now
• Reference Files Master Class (Part 1) — The Essentials of Paper Filing
• Reference Files Master Class (Part 2) — Financial and Legal Papers 
• Reference Files Master Class (Part 3) — Medical Papers
• Reference Files Master Class (Part 4) — Household and Personal Papers

Finally, be sure to label your document storage accurately and with useful details and dates to make retrieval and destruction procedures go more smoothly.

If you’ve got more file boxes than you can eyeball, consider creating a handwritten or (preferably) digital inventory. An Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet will be easily searchable and update-able for your needs.

Nobody is ever going to product a reality show like Love Island focused on Bankers Boxes, but for a company that started with a chance meeting in an elevator in the tailoring district of Chicago 108 years ago, Bankers Box is still pretty nifty. Oh, and if you do want to read a love letter to Bankers Box, CJ Chilver’s The Wisdom of the Bankers Box is a charming one.

 

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, and I may get a small remuneration (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking through to the resulting pages. The opinions, as always, are my own. (Seriously, who else would claim them?)