Anyone working with large scale drawings and plans knows that it can be a real hassle to store them safely without creases or folds and still be able to access them easily. We’ve created this quick guide to give you some advice on storing your work:

Avoid the sun

Exposure to direct sunlight can cause your work to fade – the ultraviolet rays interact with inks and pencil marks to give a bleached-out effect. Keep your work sharp and fresh by storing and displaying your sheets in opaque covers or cabinets, or rooms without windows.

Clean hands, clean sheets

Sheets are often ruined by poor handling. Make sure that any time anyone touches your work they have clean and dry hands. The last thing you want after spending hours on a design or plan is for a smudge to appear before you are ready to present – so be diligent about this.

Storage types

There are three main types of large format drawing storage to choose from – the one that is best suited for you will depend on the way you work, the size of your sheets and how much space you have, as well as if you need to access your work frequently or not.

Rolled storage

You can store your pages rolled up in tubes. The advantages here are that tubes are relatively inexpensive, you can take your work home/off site with you without having to transfer to a different holder and they don’t need a dedicated space – you can place your tubes anywhere you want. On the negative side, it can be difficult to keep your rolled work organised and accessible, tubes lying all over the place can make your office look messy and, when you do get your work out, you’ll need to use weights or clips to flatten it out.

Hanging storage

Buying plan hangers is a great space-saving option. They let you both store and display your work, and they keep everything flat and in pristine condition. Organisation and accessibility are at their best with hanging storage, as you can leaf through multiple documents quickly and easily group related sheets together.

Options available include wheeled models that let you take all your work around the office or in and out of storage as needed, rack-style, which keeps multiple sheets in the smallest footprint and arm-style, where documents are stored on swinging arms for better access and display. The negative for this kind of storage is that your documents are still slightly exposed – someone walking by and tripping can easily tear your work or spill their drink on it.

Cabinet storage

Cabinet storage is the most expensive option, and it takes up the most floor space. The benefits are plenty, however – you can lock your documents away securely, you can store them completely isolated from incidental wear and tear, and your work is kept perfectly flat. If you are storing large amounts of documents you might find it time-consuming to find the right piece when you need it, but you can resolve this by ‘archiving’ older work in tubes or secondary storage.

Author Bio: First Mats started life as safety matting specialists, but have since expanded to become a complete industrial and commercial supplies company. The focus of First Mats is to provide safety-focused products that improve the wellbeing of staff through quality approved products, backed up by extensive knowledge. www.firstmats.co.uk