Industry Trends

How to Order Bankers Boxes for Your Office: A Practical 6-Step Checklist

Who This Is For

If you're an office manager, administrative professional, or business owner who needs to order file storage boxes for the first time—or you've been burned by ordering the wrong size—this is for you. This checklist covers the six steps I use when specifying Bankers Box products for our office.

I review about 200+ unique storage-related orders annually as a quality and brand compliance manager. Over four years, I've rejected roughly 12% of first deliveries due to sizing or specification issues. So I've learned the hard way which steps matter most.

Step 1: Confirm Your Box Dimensions Against Your Shelving

Before you even look at product listings, measure your existing shelving. This sounds obvious, but it's the single most common reason orders get rejected in our audits.

Bankers Box has become an industry standard for a reason: their dimensions are consistent and widely recognized. But not all "standard" file boxes fit all shelving units.

Here's what you need to check:

Width and depth: Most Bankers Box letter/legal file boxes are roughly 15.25" x 12.5" at the base. But if your shelving is, say, 14" deep, that's a problem. Measure your shelf depth, not the shelf width—the boxes sit side by side, and depth is where clearance gets tight.

Height with lid: If you're using a lid (the "box" part of the name implies one, right?), account for the lid height. A standard Bankers Box with lid stands about 10.25" tall. Without the lid, it's closer to 9.5". I've seen orders where the buyer assumed the box height excluded the lid. It doesn't. (I learned this one the hard way.)

Clearance at the top of shelving: If your shelves are adjustable, great. If not, leave at least 1" of clearance above the box lid so you can actually pull the box out without scraping the shelf above.

Step 2: Choose Letter vs. Legal, and Verify

This is where things get tricky. A Bankers Box for letter-size files is different from legal-size. You'd think this would be straightforward, but I've rejected two batches in the past 18 months because the order specified "letter" and the product shipped was actually a letter/legal convertible (which has a different internal configuration).

Letter-size box: Fits standard 8.5" x 11" hanging files. Internal width is usually designed for letter-size folders. If you're storing letter files, get the dedicated letter box.

Legal-size box: Fits 8.5" x 14" files. The box itself is typically wider to accommodate the longer folders. If you ever store legal documents, get this one—but know it won't always sit flush on a shelf designed for letter storage.

Letter/legal convertible: Some Bankers Box models have a divider that can shift to accommodate either. This is a compromise. The storage density isn't as efficient as dedicated boxes, but it offers flexibility. I personally avoid convertibles unless the office has a mix of both file types and limited budget for two SKUs.

Step 3: Calculate Quantity Based on Linear Fill, Not Box Count

Here's a mistake I see constantly: someone orders "enough" boxes based on how many files they think they have, without accounting for how many inches of file space each box holds.

Here's the math I use:

A standard Bankers Box letter-size box holds approximately 1.5 linear feet of files (that's 18 inches of hanging folders). Most people overestimate this by about 30%. They think a box holds two feet. It doesn't.

So if you have 50 linear feet of files to store, you need roughly 34 letter-size boxes (50 ÷ 1.5 = 33.3). Order 35 for good measure.

For legal-size, the linear capacity is roughly the same per box, but the boxes themselves are wider. So your shelf layout may need fewer boxes if you're stacking.

One more thing: If you're ordering Bankers Boxes for long-term archival storage (not active file access), consider the weight. A fully loaded box of letter-size files weighs about 25-30 pounds. With legal files, it can hit 35-40. Don't stack them more than three high unless the boxes are explicitly rated for heavier stacking.

Step 4: Verify the Product Line—Standard vs. Basic vs. Heavy-Duty

Bankers Box offers different product lines, and they're not all the same. I ran a blind test with our procurement team last year: same box dimensions, different product lines. 78% identified the heavy-duty version as "more rigid" without knowing the difference.

Standard (white or kraft): Most common. Fibreboard construction, string and button closure. Fine for active records that are accessed regularly. Not ideal for long-term storage in humid environments. (The bottom can sag over time.)

Basic (often unprinted): Lower cost, lighter weight. I avoid these for anything that needs to last more than 12 months. They're fine for temporary storage or one-time moves. But I've seen them fail on the bottom after six months of stacked storage.

Heavy-duty (corrugated, often with reinforced bottom): More expensive upfront, but lower total cost of ownership if the boxes are stored for years. The reinforced bottom resists sagging. I specify heavy-duty for any archive storage that's expected to exceed 18 months.

The cost increase from standard to heavy-duty is roughly $1-2 per box. On a 100-box order, that's $100-200 for measurably better performance (unfortunately, I don't have hard data on how much longer they last, but based on our 4 years of storage audits, we see about 60% fewer failures with heavy-duty).

Step 5: Factor in Shipping and Handling

This is where the total cost thinking comes in. The per-box price on the website is not the price you'll pay.

Shipping: Bankers Boxes are bulky. A case of 6 letter-size boxes weighs about 20 pounds but takes up significant volume. Shipping charges are based on dimensional weight (DIM weight), not actual weight. I've seen shipping costs add 25-40% to the product cost for orders under $100.

Minimum order thresholds: Many vendors (including Staples, which carries Bankers Boxes) offer free shipping above a certain dollar amount. If you need 25 boxes, see if ordering 30 (6 boxes more than you think you need) pushes you over the threshold and saves you shipping costs. At $10 per box and $15 shipping, 36 boxes at $360 plus free shipping beats 25 boxes at $250 plus $15 shipping—if you can use the extras.

Damaged boxes: This is a hidden cost. Cardboard boxes can arrive crushed if the shipping carrier isn't careful. I recommend ordering 10% more than you need for the first order, just to account for potential damage. You can return damaged boxes, but that's time you don't have.

Step 6: Create a Labeling and Tracking System (Before the Boxes Arrive)

This step seems optional—and it is, until you have 50 identical kraft boxes in a storage room and can't find the one with the Q3 2023 tax files.

When the boxes arrive, label them immediately. I use a three-line system:

• Line 1: Department/project name (e.g., "Finance - Accounts Payable")
• Line 2: Date range or folder name (e.g., "2022-2023, A-L")
• Line 3: Box number out of total (e.g., "Box 3 of 12")

If you're storing boxes long-term, also note the storage date on the box. Cardboard degrades over time, especially in non-climate-controlled storage. I've seen boxes from 2018 that are structurally fine, and I've seen boxes from 2020 that disintegrated when moved. Humidity is the variable.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

I've seen all of these in our quality reviews:

Buying too many boxes upfront. Start with 50-75% of what you think you need. You can always order more. Over-ordering leads to empty boxes taking up valuable shelf space (and that's a cost you didn't plan for).

Assuming all Bankers Boxes stack together. Different product lines from different years may have slightly different dimensions. If you're stacking 10 boxes high, a 1/4" variation adds up to 2.5" mismatch at the top. Buy all boxes for a given project from the same batch if possible.

Ignoring the lid closure type. Standard string-and-button is reliable but slow. Some Bankers Box models have pre-attached lids or interlocking closures. If you're accessing boxes frequently, the closure type matters more than you'd think.

Forgetting about pest protection. Cardboard attracts pests in certain environments. If you're storing boxes in a basement or garage, consider pest control measures. I'm not an expert on this, but I've seen enough damaged archives to know it's real.

That's the checklist. It looks like a lot of steps, but once you've done it once, you'll have the measurements and quantities dialed in for future orders. The vendor relationships and repeat orders are what save time in the long run.