Properly store and archive documents

It is best to store documents in a location that provides optimal conditions for cardboard and paper, that is discreet, and that gives you and your stored documents a high degree of security. All this combines LAGERBOX in itself and its convenient document storage. You can keep your files and documents with us as long as necessary. You enjoy a lot of comfort and service, and your records are stored in optimal climatic conditions to be sustainable and gently archived for the sometimes extremely long storage periods. If you need them, LAGERBOX will always give you the opportunity to access your document warehouse during our business hours, and all the documents will remain in their condition for years after they have been stored in self-storage.

We are so sure because we know that LAGERBOX offers the optimal circumstances for the storage of documents. You have already completed the detailed work on the storage of your documents, i.e., sorting, labeling, filing, and you now wish for your important documents from the commercial or private sector a storage space that is ideally suited for document storage. With a storage space, you have found exactly such a storage unit! We tell you what makes us an optimal solution if you want to store documents correctly.

With LAGERBOX there is a perfect storage climate

An essential point in this context is the climate at LAGERBOX. By that, we do not mean wind and weather at our Germany-wide locations, but rather a kind of microclimate. On a small scale, our individual storage spaces have their own climate, one characterized by dryness and cool air.

Ideal to store documents or even keep files and books

Constant temperatures are important for stored documents

Because we do not forget that your documents are made of paper and that they should be stored in part over many years, but if a paper is exposed to unfavorable conditions over a more extended period of time - not even years - it can first turn yellow, then mold and finally become porous and thus destroyed. An important factor to prevent this is called coolness. In our storerooms, there is a consistently cool temperature, in which one can ideally store documents or even keep files and books.

Tip: For your book storage, we can take over the shelf installation in your storage unit before you move in!

Paper interacts with the humidity

This is accompanied by the humidity. It is also essential for extended, successful storage of your documents, records and business records. Here we have found the optimal balance because paper must not be stored at too high or too low humidity. If it is too high, a paper will absorb moisture, curl and mold. If the humidity is too low, the paper releases moisture and contracts.

Dryness ensures the durability of your documents

You can rely on the ideal humidity at LAGERBOX. In our warehouses, there is always a perfect humidity that guarantees your documents and papers long, undamaged storage. Also, you also store your documents outside the reach of any weather conditions. Even if it rains outside for days, no moisture gets through to your documents.

Choose not to store in the basement or the garage

Of course, that is entirely different if you store your documents in the basement or the garage. Of course, these rooms are in the truest sense close, go down only a stair or two and already a supposedly perfect documentary is found. However, proximity is, unfortunately, the only advantage, because all the aspects mentioned above of an optimally air-conditioned warehouse for documents do not offer cellars or garages.

Disadvantages of basement or garage compared to a storage space:

• Temperature fluctuations
• Humidity
• Direct sunlight
• Pests can invade
• Low security

In the garage storage is even prohibited

But especially the garage not only has serious defects as a proper warehouse for documents. Did you know that you can not use the garage as a warehouse at all? Only motor vehicles and everything that belongs directly to them are allowed in the garage. Things like garden tools, clothes, instruments or just documents have no place in the garage by law. Please also read the article "Rent a Garage".

At LAGERBOX you will store your documents safely.

Store documents with certainty

Speaking of searching: Especially in cellars and garages, it is also not saying that you are the only user of this premises and are the only one to have access to them. Especially with sensitive company documents for the storage of documents is out of the question. LAGERBOX is, therefore, the right answer, because, in addition to an optimal room climate for document storage, we also offer another, eminently important aspect: With LAGERBOX you will store your documents safely.

Video-monitored, alarm-protected, only you have access

For this, we ensure that our locations throughout Germany are provided with a general alarm system for our buildings. The corridors are video-monitored so that every entry can be tracked, and only you have a key and access to your archived documents. Especially if you store commercially important documents with us, it can, of course, be that other people need access to the warehouse. You can then tell us, and you will receive an additional key.

Your safety advantages with LAGERBOX:

1. Alarm security of the buildings
2. Video surveillance in the corridors
3. Only persons authorized by you have access

Also, with LAGERBOX you also take out insurance on the items stored at our place, without having to contact the primary insurance, free of bureaucratic hurdles.

Flexible document storage - very accessible

After all, that's how easy we handle it with your access to your document archive. Whenever you want or need, you can access the documents stored by us. Anyway, we will be on site for you every working day, but of course, access to your storage unit is always open during our opening hours. If you want to store additional documents or remove them, you are welcome to do so during our opening hours.

Additional services at LAGERBOX

If you are convinced and want to store documents at LAGERBOX, you can do so at short notice. On request, we will be happy to accommodate you for long-term bookings - some documents need to be kept for a long time - and if you move in, we will give you a free van to store your documents. How much storage space you should rent can be found in our free Unit Calculator. Give the tool the number of files and the calculator will tell you the storage space you need and the number of boxes and rides you need. Alternatively, we can also help you over the phone, by e-mail or in person when calculating your storage space!

Which documents must be kept for how long?

How many years you store your documents is often wholly dependent on the reports. We tell you which documents you need to keep for which periods, and thus help you to load your file storage at LAGERBOX with the correct documents.

It is widely known that tax records must be kept for 10 years. An extended deadline, but it can last much longer, for a lifetime. This retention period applies to the following documents and papers.

Kept always / lifetime  (in private individuals instead of in the context of private storage):

• ID card
• Passport
• Driver's license
• Birth certificate
• Death certificate of relatives
• Marriage certificate

Keep until retirement age:

•  Proof of Pension
• Proof of unemployment
• Contracts
• Payslips
• Also recommended for student records, such as enrollment and Exmatriculation certificates

10-year storage requirement:

• Tax-relevant documents
• Tax bills
• Copies of tax returns

Store documents and tax office: Attention!

In document storage, such documents occupy a special position concerning finances and taxes. For example, individuals whose receipts and invoices have been submitted to the tax office and whose tax returns are correct should no longer keep these documents. However, it is true that if tax evasion is suspected, the tax office may claim relevant supporting documents 10 years later. Corresponding notices and explanations can, therefore, be copied and then filed, if you want to be sure.

Businesses and freelancers

It is different for non-private persons, i.e., companies or freelancers. You must store documents such as books, inventories, management reports and/or annual accounts and also accounting documents. Incidentally, the 10-year period also applies to digital documents. Incidentally, the retention period does not begin until the end of the respective fiscal year.

Store for 6 years

Self-employed persons must keep documents from their business, which contain payroll accounts and/or tax-relevant data, for 6 years. Loan contracts, orders, insurance contracts or export, and import documents can also be added here.

Store for 2 years and more

At least 2 years, you should store documents related to purchases or warranties. These include not only receipts but also craft invoices. By the way: If you want to dispute the purchase of a product, the debiting of the money in your account as evidence of the purchase, and you can so for example, major purchases even up to 10 years after the actual purchase still prove.

The best basis: a good storage system

If you start to sort out all these documents later, you are facing a massive mountain of work. So try to come up with a good filing system and get used to storing everything where it belongs with the ultimate storage of your documents with a few simple grips. It depends on how many documents accumulate on you. If you store documents as an individual, a manageable shelf is certainly sufficient. But when it comes to entire company archives, that does not work without a corresponding file warehouse.

Create a good foundation for proper storage.

Folders, slip sheets, label

No matter how big your file warehouse will be, you'll have a good foundation for proper storage, so you'll find it all right when you need it. To do this, you build your archiving on a robust system of office helpers, so stable folders with dividers and a consistent traceable label. Who knows, maybe somebody has to be able to understand your document filing, and even if you look back years later to find something, this should succeed.

Storage in transparent films

So sort everything well, label and then put it neatly in folders. Label these too and store them on shelves or boxes.

Within the folders, you can also work with transparencies for, particularly important documents. But then make sure to use those without plasticizers, so-called "document-right" transparencies. It is essential so that the ink does not stick to the films after several years of storage. Alternatively or additionally, you can also select archive boxes.

When disposing of documents, do it correctly

But what about the documents you do not need to store, so you want to dispose of records? Then you should do it correctly. Our tip: To hide critical personal data from your disposed documents in front of other people's eyes, use a shredder, also called shredder. So you can be sure that no potential scammer will get your confidential data from discarded documents.