How to Use Self-Storage for Business Archiving

Self-Storage for Business Archiving Guide

Every country has laws that govern what records you’re supposed to keep for your business and for how long, and South Africa is no exception. Keeping business records can be a messy job, especially when you don’t or can’t make use of digital storage in the cloud.

In fact, you might be looking around your office right now wondering how in the world you’re going to organise everything and where you’re going to put it all—because it just keeps coming and coming. If you’re tired of business archives taking up valuable office space, it might be time to get your own short-term storage unit.

Storage units can change everything. Many people are turning to storage facilities more often to keep their business archives safe as they run out of office space. This is because these business storage units not only clear up office space, but they create a controlled environment where your valuable documents aren’t likely to degrade.

If this sounds like an intriguing proposition to you, read on to find out the best way to use self-storage for keeping your business records.

Getting Started With Archive Storage

Here are a few tips to help you store physical copies safely in a secure location and secure environment without overspending. Navigating a maze of physical documents can now be a thing of the past. Easy Store gives you special offers and unique storage unit sizes to suit your budget.

• Find a Secure Storage Facility

Your business archives are irreplaceable. If something were to happen to them, your business could be placed in jeopardy, especially if you hold confidential files on clients. That’s why a secure storage unit is a must-have.

You ideally want a storage space where 24/7 security is offered, so you can relax knowing your business documents will come to no harm. That way, you can keep your records safe the easy way.

• Make Sure You Have Easy Access

If you’re a business owner, you know that work doesn’t stop at 5pm, especially if your business is a fledgling. You might need access to your documents at any time, whether it’s for tax records or client details. That’s why we recommend finding a document storage facility that offers access seven days a week as the perfect solution for businesses.

How to Organise Your Business Documents

• Pack Smartly

You might have a wide range of business archives that you need to store. It’s important to organise them in such a way that you can find the documents you need frequently, quickly. That means packing smartly. Put the documents that you might never need to access but need to keep in any case right at the back. Then, store the documents that you access once per year, such as tax return information, in the middle. Finally, the items you need on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis should go at the front of the unit so you can access them quickly and easily.

• Dry Your Documents

Not that you’re likely to have wet documents, but it’s vital to make sure that all of your physical files and documents are completely dry before placing them into storage. Even a slightly wet environment can completely ruin your archives. Paper can disintegrate and moisture can lead to mould.

• Keep an Inventory System

It’s one thing to pack your physical records in an orderly manner. It’s quite another to keep track of them. Having an inventory system that details what is kept where can save you hours or even days of searching if you need to dig up an obscure document amongst your records. Keeping track by year and type of record is one way we recommend organising your inventory system.

• Label Your Boxes

When you’re dealing with thousands of paper documents, your storage boxes should be clearly labelled on all four sides as well as the top, and these labels should be aligned to your inventory system. Even if you don’t keep an inventory system, clearly labelling your boxes and files will save you time if you need to hunt down a specific document.

• Use Sturdy Boxes

Because some of your records need to be kept in near-perfect condition for years—some more than a decade—we recommend you use containers that are strong and sturdy—built to last in storage. Unfortunately, your average cardboard box is probably not going to be good enough for this purpose.

• Consider Pallets

Although not absolutely necessary, you can consider storing your boxes on wooden pallets that keep them off the ground and well ventilated. This is in case the storage unit floods. There’s little chance of that, but if you want to be 100% sure that your business archives are safe from just about everything, it’s a good way to store them.

• Try Easy Store

To make your job a lot easier, you can make use of our packing service. First, we’ll drop off a storage unit at your place of business. That’s right—you don’t need to carry documents up and down in your car or use an expensive truck to get them into storage.

Second, we can pack for you. As long as you tell us what needs to go where, we can make your life a whole lot easier by doing the heavy lifting.

Finally, we’ll pick up the storage unit and take it back to our secure facility, where you can access it seven days a week. Contact us for your storage archive needs today.