All businesses have to retain financial reports, client files and legal documentation for prolonged periods. All too often, mounds of paper build up and eventually overflow shelves and filing cabinets, inundating desks and other work surfaces.
As well as creating a potential fire risk, piles of documents clutter work areas, making it difficult for employees to be efficient.
A cost-effective and secure solution is to opt for offsite document storage.
Typical requirements of business storage solutions
Business archives generally include hard copy documents. Most of these documents have to be preserved in their original format. Wear and tear, climatic conditions and frequent use can all damage these documents over time.
When choosing a self-storage provider, it’s essential to ensure that the facilities and services on offer are suitable given your needs. If you plan on storing business documents, you need to ensure that the documents won’t be damaged.
Secure, climate-controlled units
Document storage is best in climate-controlled, high-security self-storage units. It’s vital to choose storage facilities that are clean, dry and free of dust. You should be able to lock the unit you’re assigned yourself, and access to the unit should be limited to one or two trusted managers or employees.
Optional self-storage products and services
Organising, packing and storing files, documents or digital devices is tedious and time-consuming.
Full-service self-storage providers, such as XtraSpace, supply the appropriate storage space and provide optional value-added products and services, such as durable packaging materials, heavy-duty trolleys and trailers, and independent courier services. These can all save you time and effort.
Flexible self-storage space
Business archives come in all shapes and sizes, and may range from small to vast in volume. So you’ll need to ensure that a self-storage service provider can provide you with a space of a suitable size. Also, consider whether you require extra space so that you can add to the archive over time.
Tips for packing and storing business archives offsite
Follow these tips to keep your business documents safe and minimise the effort involved in packing, storing, and – when necessary – retrieving them:
- ensure documents are dry and in good condition before placing them in self-storage; any moisture can result in the growth of mildew or mould
- place fragile business files, photographs or blueprints into durable plastic sleeves prior to packing
- pack documents into sturdy, high-quality bankers or archive boxes
- label boxes clearly on all four sides
- store boxes you may need to access at the front of the unit
- arrange boxes on a wooden pallet to increase air circulation and prevent water damage in the event of flooding
- organise and pack boxes according to the year or document type.
XtraSpace Self Storage offers clean, dry and secure self-storage units in a wide variety of sizes.