The 5 Best Metal Filing Cabinets for Home Offices and Under Desks, Ranked & Reviewed

Our verdict: Three locking drawers, fully assembled, rolling under a desk and holding letter, legal and A4 files.

The Letaya is a mobile metal file cabinet with three drawers that lock and arrives fully assembled. It takes letter, legal and A4 hanging files and is sized to fit under a desk.

The assembled delivery is a larger advantage than it sounds, because assembling a filing cabinet with drawer slides is the most common source of crooked, sticking drawers. Three drawers give you separate homes for current work, tax records and reference papers. The casters let you roll it out for access, then tuck it away. The tradeoff is height: an under-desk unit has shallow drawers that hold fewer files than a tall cabinet.

Buy it if you have a regular desk and a modest paper trail. Skip it if you need a tall cabinet that holds years of records.

Drawers

3, locking

File sizes

Letter, legal, A4 hanging

Assembly

Fully assembled

Fit

Under desk, mobile

Our verdict: Four drawers plus a door compartment, two locks and an anti-tip design, in white.

This Livofloral cabinet stacks four drawers with a one-door compartment, uses two separate locks, adds an anti-tip design and supports letter, legal and A4 files. It comes in white and needs assembly.

Capacity is why it ranks so high. Four drawers handle a full year of household or small business records, and the door compartment keeps binders and supplies out of sight. The anti-tip design matters on a tall cabinet: a tall unit with several full drawers open can topple, and an anti-tip mechanism stops more than one drawer opening at once. Two locks let you secure the file drawers and the cupboard separately. The cost is a bigger footprint and the assembly time.

Buy it if you have wall space and a lot of paper. The listing is newer, so expect less owner history than the established models.

Drawers

4 plus 1 door compartment

Locks

2 separate

Safety

Anti-tip design

File sizes

Letter, legal, A4

Our verdict: A two-drawer lateral cabinet, 27.95 by 28.35 by 15.74 inches, for limited depth and spare wall width.

The lateral Letaya has two locking drawers laid out side to side, with hanging file support for letter, legal and A4. It measures 27.95 inches high, 28.35 wide and 15.74 deep.

A lateral design files folders left to right instead of front to back, so the cabinet is shallow but wide. That suits a room where you lack front-to-back depth but have spare wall. It can also serve as a low credenza top. The tradeoff is that lateral drawers need space to pull open sideways in your viewing line, and a wider cabinet is heavier to move once it is loaded.

Choose it when depth is your constraint. If you have more depth than width, a standard vertical unit stores more per square inch of floor.

Layout

2 lateral drawers

Locks

Locking drawers

Size

27.95 H x 28.35 W x 15.74 D in

Files

Letter, legal, A4 hanging

Our verdict: A standard locked steel two-drawer vertical cabinet that takes letter-size files, with assembly required.

The BYNSOE is a two-drawer vertical steel cabinet with locking drawers. It is rated for letter-size files and needs assembly.

It earns its fourth spot for being the plain, familiar shape, which works in most rooms. Two drawers stacked vertically give you a decent amount of file space on a small footprint, and steel is the right material for a cabinet that must stand up to years of use. The listing names only letter size, so legal-size paper may not fit, which sets it behind the Letaya models. Assembly is on you, and it is worth taking time to align the slides.

Buy it if your files are letter size and you want a straightforward locked cabinet. Skip it if you keep legal documents.

Drawers

2, locking

Layout

Vertical

Material

Steel

File size

Letter

Our verdict: A narrow black metal cabinet with a lock and letter, A4 and legal support, under $50.

The SISESOL is a narrow two-drawer vertical cabinet with locking drawers and a black metal finish. It supports letter, A4 and legal files and goes together with easy assembly. It costs $25 to $50.

Its narrowness is the draw: a very tight gap beside a desk, between a desk and a wall or under a short desk is where a standard cabinet will not go. For the money you also get legal-size support and a lock, features that some wider units skip. The cost of a slim body is a smaller usable drawer, so capacity is limited, and a thin cabinet is lighter and can feel less planted when a drawer is open.

Buy it for a cramped office and light paperwork. Skip it if you want a drawer that holds a lot of files.

Drawers

2, locking

Layout

Narrow vertical

Files

Letter, A4, legal

Bracket

$25 to $50