Once you start using eFileCabinet and get rid of all those files and paper documents, you’re going to find yourself with a bulky, useless piece of furniture on your hand—your old filing cabinets. What do you do with those annoying things, now that you don’t need to store documents in them anymore? Personally, we like to take a “waste not, want not” stance on these things, so instead of just dropping those cabinets off at the dump, consider repurposing those old cabinets into one of these much more useful items.
Planters
You can do this with a cabinet of any size, whether it’s a tall, 5-drawer filing cabinet or a small, 2-drawer cabinet you kept under your desk. You will need to make sure that the filing cabinet has a solid bottom in order for this project to work. Just remove the drawers—you’ll have to toss those, so it’s not a completely waste-free project—and drill some holes into the back of the cabinet to provide proper drainage. You can also add some wheels to the back of the cabinet if you want to be able to move it around.
Then, set the cabinet on its back, and give it a fresh coat of paint. Once that is dry, all you have to do is add some elevated planter boxes, and fill those with soil and the plants of your choice! Now, your filing cabinet can grow something useful instead of just storing the remnants of dead trees.
Check out the step-by-step instructions for this project here.
Tool Storage
Filing cabinets are designed for organization, and we’re all for that—they’re just not so good at organizing papers. However, with a little makeover, they can be great for organizing and storing tools like rakes, shovels, push brooms, and other items you may be storing in your garage.
The steps for this project are pretty similar to the steps in the project above. You’ll remove the drawers, add some wheels (if desired), and give the cabinet a fresh coat of paint. Then when the cabinet is set on its back, you’ll have divided storage areas for all of those items you would normally just lean in a corner somewhere.
Read the full instructions here.
Kitchen Cart
Need a little extra storage and counter space in your kitchen? You can transform a short, 2-drawer filing cabinet into a rolling kitchen cart. Finally, a good use for those metal drawers! A few coats of spray paint and some wheels on the bottom, and you have a basic piece of storage for your kitchen.
By adding a wooden cutting board or piece of butcher block to the top of the cabinet, and racks on the sides, you can take that cabinet to the next level and make it something that is not only useful, but attractive as well. (Let’s be honest, filing cabinets aren’t exactly the beauty queens of the furniture world to begin with, so that’s a pretty big achievement.)
You can find complete instructions and materials required here.
Once you go paperless with eFileCabinet, your filing cabinets won’t be needed in your office anymore. Plus, you’ll have a little more free time on your hands, now that you won’t be wasting your hours shuffling through papers. So take that old furniture and that new-found free time and use them both to create something new and useful.