Across Ireland, in cities and villages, solicitors share one problem regardless of what type of law they practice. They have one thing lurking in their offices that they’d rather their clients did not see because it really does not reflect well on them. Files.
Mountains of files. Piles of files so tall that that look like paper hedges growing around desks. Yes, you need to keep them for a certain number of years, and yes, some of them do need to be handy. But those ones at the bottom of the piles? Those files that should be reviewed and closed? And those files that are closed but still lurking in your office because they don’t have a better place? It’s time to deal with them.
Clients want their business finished up before the holidays if at all possible. No one wants to be closing on their house or finalizing their separation agreement in late December or early January. They want to have it behind them so they can relax and enjoy the holiday season. There is a very slow couple of weeks ahead, and while some of your staff might want to take that time off, others would be glad for the opportunity to come in and do some extra work.
It’s a great time to give staff the option of coming in for shorter days in casual clothes to sort out those lingering files. Keep the phones off, put on some music, and roll up the sleeves. Declare war on those files. Finish them off, and close them.
Safe Storage for Legal Files
Then what? Well, you can arrange the files in stacks to form a maze through your office as a team-building exercise or you can get to grips with the situation and put the files into storage. Off-site storage. Not the boot of your car, silly! A secure, rented storage unit is an ideal solution to the problem of files you don’t need to have to hand but cannot shred.
A modern, secure storage unit offers two key benefits to solicitors who need to store legal files. First, it gets the files out of your way. Your office will be tidier, and it will seem bigger. Your secretarial staff will stop giving you that look when you ask them to find a file among the piles. Eliminating the physical clutter will have a knock-on effect on efficiency too.
Second, it means the files are safer. No one is going to walk through your storage unit with a cup of tea. A climate-controlled storage unit will preserve the life of paper files, saving them from dampness – which can be a real issue in some of the on-site storage options some solicitors use. A shed is no place for legal documents, but it is tempting if you have one right by your older office building.
A secure, climate-controlled storage unit with own-door, 24-7 access means you can increase your office’s organization, efficiency and floor space. So why not set aside a day or two to clean up and close out those old files and start the New Year in a better space?