If your business is like many others, you likely have numerous loose leaf paper binders. These binders can be an excellent option for safely storing important documents in an organized fashion. Unfortunately, there are many individuals that will make some fairly simple mistakes when it comes to these binders that may reduce their lifespan or effectiveness. To help you ensure your business's binders last for as long as possible, you will need to be mindful of these tips.

Store The Binders Vertically

When you are storing the binders, it is important for you to make sure that they remain vertical. Many individuals will make the mistake of storing these items horizontally. Unfortunately, this can put tremendous and uneven stress on the binding, which can cause binders to start to deteriorate because it will become misaligned. Eventually, this problem will become severe enough to prevent the rings from securely closing, which may cause papers to come loose.

Utilize Dividers

When you are storing a large number of documents, it can be difficult for you to locate a particular piece of paper if you did not take the time to thoroughly organize these documents. To help you with this task, you should always use dividers in your binders. By organizing your documents according to topics, alphabetically or any other system that works for your needs, you can ensure that any required documents can be quickly retrieved.

You can further enhance the effectiveness of this system by placing a table of contents on the first page of each binder. This contents sheet should include a listing of the divided sections that are contained in the binder. If several binders will be used to store closely related documents, you should make a master table of contents that lists the contents of each divider as this will make it easier to glance to see which binder needs to be searched to find your document. When making the table of contents, you should leave several spaces between each listing in the event that new sections are added to the binder.

Protect The Binders Against Moisture Damage

Humidity can be a potentially serious threat for offices that are located in warm and moist areas. Unfortunately, many people will fail to appreciate the risk that humidity can pose to their stored documents. These threats arise because condensation can form on the plastic of the binders, which may cause the documents to get wet. You can help to minimize this risk by placing silica gel packets or dehumidifiers in the area where the binders and other documents are stored. While this may seem excessive, it can be a small inconvenience compared to the risk of losing potentially sensitive and essential documents for your enterprise.

Contact a company like The Binderworks, Inc for more info about different binder options to ensure maximum organization.