Industry Trends

How to Set Up an Office Records Storage System with Bankers Boxes: A Practical Checklist

Who This Checklist Is For

I'm an office administrator for a 200-person financial services company. I manage all office supplies and records storage ordering—roughly $45,000 a year across 8 vendors, and I report to both operations and finance. When I took over purchasing in 2020, the storage room was a maze of unmarked boxes and old tape. This checklist comes from that cleanup.

It is seven steps plus a bonus. Use it if you're setting up a new archive room, switching from plastic bins, or simply about to order your first batch of cardboard bankers boxes. The same steps work for a 20-person office, just with fewer boxes.

Small note before we start: a 20-box order is not a nuisance order. Any supplier who treats small purchases as an inconvenience is showing you what later orders will look like.

Step 1: Pick the Right Bankers Box

'Bankers box' is used so often that it has almost become a generic term, but not every box with that phrase printed on it is the same. A true records box is a cardboard bankers box with reinforced double walls and a tight-fitting lid. The cheapest version might be a single-wall box that cannot handle more than a few years of stacking.

Staples bankers boxes are a normal choice if you need them quickly. I've bought them, and they've held up. The important thing is to check the corrugated fiberboard grade. In my orders, a decent 12 x 10 x 15 box has an ECT of 32 or higher. I'm paying $3.10 per box as of our February 2025 order. That figure will change by the time you read this, but it's a useful baseline.

Here's something vendors won't tell you: 'standard' does not mean 'the same in every warehouse.' If you're ordering a pallet, ask for the spec in writing. If the supplier can't give you a corrugated grade, assume the box is built to a lower price, not to your needs.

Step 2: Estimate Quantity Before You Dream About Labels

The first question should not be 'how many boxes?' It should be 'what are we keeping, and for how long?'

Every legal-size file drawer holds roughly three to four bankers boxes, depending on how compressed your files are. For a standard 4-drawer cabinet, plan on 12 to 16 boxes if the contents are mostly paper. I don't have hard data on this, but after five years of packing archives, my sense is that most people overestimate by about 30%. Last year I ordered 300 boxes for a storage clearout and used 180. The other 120 are still stacked in the back. They have become a reminder that quantity forecasts need a review date.

A good supplier will ask what you're storing before they suggest a quantity. The one who tried to push me to a full truckload taught me that 'price per box' is only part of the story. Total cost includes space, freight, and the labor of moving boxes that you didn't need.

Step 3: Assemble Bottoms the Right Way

It feels simple until a bottom collapses. Flip the box upside down. Fold the two short flaps in first, then the two long flaps over them. Tape along the full seam, not just a triangle in the middle. I use two strips: one on the long seam and one across the center to reinforce it.

Some people skip the tape because the flaps are made to lock in place. They do, but they slip after two years in a humid storage room. We're in the Pacific Northwest, so humidity is real. If you're in a dry climate, you might get away with less. I'd rather not test it.

(Should mention: assemble boxes as you go, not all at once. A corridor of empty boxes gets in the way and ends up wearing a coffee stain.)

Step 4: Label Before You Fill

When I compared our 2020 storage workflow—label after stuffing, with a marker—with the 2024 process of applying labels first, I finally understood why the archive room felt chaotic. The label is the map. If you wait until the box is full, you're labeling under pressure, and 'Misc' becomes the category for everything.

In my opinion, labels before filling is the only way for a shared archive room.

Write four things on the top and one end:

• Department or project
• Category and date range
• Box number
• Disposal or review date

Red electrical tape is one of my favorite cheap supplies for this step. A strip across the top means 'must not be shredded.' A strip on the end means 'verified and ready for off-site storage.' Color coding beats handwriting when you're standing in a dim aisle trying to find the right box.

Step 5: Fill by Category and Date, Not by Person

The biggest mistake I had to clean up when I took over was the 'one box per person' system. It creates fifty boxes named after employees, with no dates and no relation to anything. You might as well use shoeboxes.

Instead, use a naming pattern like '2024 Invoices - Q3' or 'Staff Files - Legal Team - 2022-2023.' Dates are non-negotiable. If two boxes are named 'Contracts,' they need date ranges and numbers, or you'll open both before you find the one you need.

Avoid putting non-paper items in with the files. It seems convenient at the time, but it creates fat, awkward boxes. If you're tempted to throw in a stray office tool just to clear a desk, it's better to put it in a clearly labeled 'supplies' bin and deal with it separately.

Step 6: Make a Box Index Before You Stack

This is the step most people skip. After you label a box, add it to a spreadsheet before it goes to the stacks. The spreadsheet should have box number, contents, date range, location, and disposal date.

I wish I had tracked our box index more carefully from the start. What I can say anecdotally is that the four hours I spent looking for a 2019 tax file happened because the original box index was 'I think it's on the right side, near the back.'

This is also where a records mindset helps. According to NARA's records management framework, information has a lifecycle: create, maintain, use, preserve, dispose. You don't need a federal schedule for a private office, but you do need to know when each box can go. Put the disposal date on the label and in the index.

One odd case: manuals for office electronics. Don't put a Sony ICD-UX570 manual in a records box if you still own the recorder. Tape the manual to the recorder or keep both in a labeled supplies drawer. If the device is gone, the manual is not a record. Shred it.

Step 7: Stack With Weight and Safety in Mind

Standard bankers boxes are rectangular for a reason: they fit on standard shelving and they stack cleanly. But a full box can weigh 30 to 40 pounds. A fully-loaded records box is not a footstool, and it is not a shelf for a printer.

Heavy boxes go on lower shelves. Lighter boxes go above. If you're stacking on the floor, keep each stack under six feet and make the base layer from the strongest boxes. OSHA's storage rule (29 CFR 1910.176) basically says stored materials should not create a hazard. That gives you a legal floor: don't build a pile you wouldn't want to walk past.

If you have a choice between stacking on a concrete floor and buying a basic shelving unit, buy the shelving. It costs less than the boxes you'll lose to moisture and damaged corners.

What Not to Put in a Bankers Box

The following items have made their way into my archive boxes and made my life worse:

• Electronics, cables, and spare remotes
• Red electrical tape that should have been in the maintenance drawer
• Plastic shipping materials
• Anything with food residue
• Old manuals and instruction sheets that don't match the equipment anymore

The common thread is that each item has a home, but whoever was cleaning the desk did not want to put it there, so they put it in a box. The problem follows you into the next year.

One Small-Order Note

You don't need a purchasing card or a national account to get a fair price on a Staples bankers box or a local equivalent. I've bought as few as 20 boxes at a time for a startup office. The vendor who charged a reasonable price and delivered them the next day got our business for four years. The one who smirked at the order size and suggested I call back when I needed a truckload did not.

A small order is not an inconvenience. It's a trial run for a larger relationship. Today's 20-box customer can be tomorrow's 200-box customer.

Bonus: How to Make Gift Bag from Wrapping Paper

Every office needs a gift bag eventually, and the only bags in our building are in a box labeled 'Holiday Decorations' near the ceiling. Last December I looked up how to make gift bag from wrapping paper and got through it in about five minutes. It is not a records-storage skill, but it has saved me twice since.

Quick method: cut the wrapping paper about twice as wide as the gift and about 5 inches longer than the finished bag. Fold one long edge over 1 inch and tape it to make a neat top. Fold the paper in half horizontally, printed side out, and tape the open side seam. Fold the bottom edge up about 3 inches, open the sides into a triangle, fold the triangle flaps to the center, and tape them. Put the gift inside, punch two holes near the top, and run a ribbon through them.

It won't look polished, but it will look like you planned it. And when someone asks where you got the bag, say 'custom.'