Horizontal BESTÅ filing cabinet

This is a very simple, beginner’s hack.

I live in a small loft where I moved in with my old filing cabinet. It was rusty and crooked and worst of all, the only place I could put it was in my living room next to my small media center. That had to go. I managed to get my hands on an older model of BESTÅ and got to work.

BESTÅ filing cabinet

It came with these CD racks which had the perfect parts for my hack (otherwise I could have done the same with aluminum rods from the hardware store. All I had to do was take the CD racks apart and put them in the other direction (front to back), and wide enough so that I can hang Pendaflex file holders from.

Old BESTÅ unit made into a filing cabinet

I disassembled the CD racks.

Disassembled CD rack

I took the rods and measured the depth of the drawer and added maybe a quarter inch, and cut them with a simple pipe cutter (a miter box and a good hack saw would have worked well also). I then measured and drilled two holes in the front panel of each drawer from the inside.

Holes for the rods

The holes are 5/8″ in diameter, same as the rod, and about 15″ and 1/8th centre-to-centre. The CD racks were ideal because I could use their side to hold on top of the back of the drawer (much better than drilling through it).

Positioning the file holders

I fixed both with a single screw and nut so they would not budge. Perfect fit.

BESTÅ filing cabinet

All sorted and stowed away. I have room on each side for, you guessed, more files. I have to clean those out now…