The appetite for storage it seems is huge, but how much do we really need? Looking at our own office, we need a certain amount of storage space for reference materials, project files, and drawings. Design is a paper intensive business, but once the project is finished we scan everything and keep all the past projects in digital format.

Lesson 1: Even though we need to keep our finished projects on file, we rarely refer to these files. We learned that happens at most our clients offices as well, files might need to be kept for legal or other reasons, but once a project has been completed, an order placed, the files are hardly, if ever, accessed.

Personal storage: Here too, I want to speak from my own experience, I have one pedestal at my desk. This pedestal is full…with stuff for which I have had not had the *cough* time to sort out: name cards that I have received recently (about 50 in a box) that still need to filed, meeting minutes, receipts, drawings, CV’s, post-its, pens, paperclips, note books, more name cards, keys, notes, glue sticks, digital recorder, credit card, dictionary, photographs, post cards with invitation to opening parties (in 2006), data CD’s, sunglasses, warrenties, more post-its…

Lesson 2: most personal filing cabinets are transit boxes for stuff that does not have an immediate permanent location in the office. The transit usually goes from wallet, bag, pocket, top of the work suface (clean desk policy!) to the pedestal, personal filing cabinet. 90% of the stuff could be thrown away or filed digitally.