Remodeling a dental office has lots of goals that include improved appearance, improved work flow and increased patient satisfaction. When a doctor wants to stay in their current location, another common problem is dealing with patient records that keep growing. Space limitations make more storage a real challenge,

In one recent dental office remodel, the available wall space for files was only 106”. Using two, 36” and one, 30” lateral cabinets, 5-drawers provided 480 patient record filing inches. The alcove was about 30” deep. What could be done to get more records in the space available?

Current Situation (three lateral cabinets, 5-drawer) fit into 106″ alcove:

Current Patient File Area Layout3D Image of Current Layout

3D Illustration of Current Lateral File Cabinets

Solution:
The alcove is about 30” deep. While traditional lateral cabinets are 18” deep, taking most of that space, modern end-tab folder, flipper-door cabinets are only 14” deep. So the available opening will get more capacity with narrower cabinets.

A “Side-Trac” system came to the rescue. Our special, narrow space-saving cabinets are available in 30”, 36” and 42” wide, and just 14” deep. By placing three cabinets in back (2, 36” and 1, 30”) and two in front on movable carriages (1, 36” and 1, 30”), the same space now stores 92% more patient files. This new configuration shown below adds 443 filing inches of storage in the same 106”.

New Moving Cabinet Solution - 3 in back, 2 movable in front

3D Image of New Layout, 3 cabinets in back, 2 in front

Side-Trac Mobile, Side-to-Side Movable Storage Solution

To learn more about high density storage in tight spaces, click on the Side-Trac Picture above or visit our web site, click here.

The problem

A firm in the Bay Area called us recently to see if we could solve an upcoming record management filing problem. The space set aside for record storage in a pending move was much smaller than their existing space. Could we help?

The client has legal files, currently stored in Pendeflex folders in lateral and vertical cabinets. They have four, 42” wide, 5-drawer lateral cabinets and 40, 25” deep, legal width 4-drawer vertical file cabinets. The file cabinets are full of files with about 1 Pendeflex holder per 2 filing inches. We calculated they have about 4,611 filing inches of records (12 filing inches per foot). Although spread out in their current facility, these 4 lateral filing cabinets and 40 vertical filing cabinets would need to be stored in a room about 20 feet by 15 feet in the new location (or about 300 square feet). Over time, the cost of the 4 lateral file cabinets and 40 vertical filing cabinets was about $16,000 that works out to about $3.50 per filing inch.

Space Needed for Existing Filing Cabinets

Since the client only had a 15 foot by 12 foot room in the new location that could be dedicated to corporate records, the client called upon us for a solution.

The Solution

High Density Storage will come to this client’s rescue. A 15 foot by 12 foot room can be outfitted with a high density mobile storage system with 1 fixed shelving unit and 4 movable shelving units. Each carriage holds a 76” tall, 7 opening, legal depth filing shelf unit. By converting to side tab filing (the professional way to store records), taking advantage of space above eye level, and eliminating wasted space (aisles), the high density system will store 6,076 filing inches in this small space, a 39% increase over the current filing capacity of their lateral and vertical cabinets. Plus, an added benefit, this solution only requires 180 square feet of space, 39% less than the alternative 20 x 15.

High Density Storage Plan

Another benefit of this solution is the elimination of the Pedeflex hanging files. Eliminating the Pendeflex hanging files freed up an additional 242 filing inches, the equivalent of almost 2 ½ vertical file cabinets. RefBPCH-0006

The investment required to install this system the high density mobile system is about $20,700. So while the investment amount is more (about 29%), there is more storage capacity (about 39%) and the space requirement is less. This solution works out to about $3.40 per filing inch. And the customer continues to get the benefit of reduced space by lower lease rates and building costs such as heating and air conditioning.

You can see a quick 50 second video of the moving aisle high density storage system concept at

Call us for a personalized recommendation to save you space

If your organization is running out of record storage space (or any storage space), give us a call at 408-656-1709. We provide a no obligation assessment within a day or two and can often double or even triple the items you can store in the square footage you already have.

Recently we were called upon to move office desks for a client. Since we did not do the initial interior design, we first inventoried their desk sizes and orientation. Of the 25 offices, 21 were U-shaped configurations and 4, L-shaped. Desks are referred to as right return or left return based on which way the return (the side the return is on when the user faces the main desk.

A typical desk orientation is right when the door to the manager’s office is on the left as the manager faces the door.

The current facility was evenly divided between Right and Left orientation, ½ of the desks were Right Hand, ½ were Left Hand.

Right Return L and U Desk Configurations

As we started to plan the move, we discovered, much to our chagrin, that the interior designer for the new facility pout virtually all the doors on the left. If this was a new installation, there would be no issue. However, since we were moving existing desks into this facility, this was going to be a problem.

Right Return Desks used with door on Left

Unlike cubicles that are easily configured, handed desks are not typically reconfigurable. Eight desks would NOT work in the offices because the office doors were on the wrong side. We can reuse the bridge and credenza hutch but the desks and credenza/returns had to be replaced because the pedestals are on the wrong side.

And that is precisely why we always recommend reconfigurable desks for any of our clients who expect or plan to move (and in Silicon Valley, that happens often because of rapid business growth).

Two product lines from Indiana Desk (one laminate and one veneer) are completely reconfigurable. Recognizing a need for flexibility, Indiana Desk’s designers cleverly developed two lines that are easily reconfigurable. Called the Revolutions (veneer line) and Resilience (laminate line), these units feature predrilled under work surface pin receivers that accurately and securely attach pedestals and modesty panels to be connected to the work surface without drilling into or connection to side panels. Plus pedestals, lateral cabinets, and modesty panels are finished on all sides so that if their position is altered, it end configuration is a completely finished product. When reconfigured, no holes are drilled or patched. No glue is used in final configuration assembly. RefBPCH-0004

So if you are considering new office desks and may move, get reconfigurable systems to give yourself the ultimate flexibility and avoid unnecessary furniture expense because things don’t line up right in the new location.