Storage Solutions for Veterinary Clinic Design & Fitout

When designing your veterinary clinic, including sufficient storage space is an absolute must. This will allow you to keep all your important supplies on hand, ready for use when you need them. It will also help keep your clinic clean and tidy and can even increase the productivity of your team.

Thankfully, there are a few simple ways to make sure your vet clinic design provides all the storage space you need.

Focus on Key Areas of your Veterinary Fitout

The ideal vet clinic design would feature storage throughout the facility. But, if space is limited, this won’t be possible, and you’ll need to be selective about where your storage is placed. If this is the case for you, we recommend focusing on the following.

Reception and Waiting Area

As this is the first space your patients see, you want to keep it as clean and tidy as possible. You’ll probably also want to display a few things in this area – like information pamphlets, pet food, and accessories. The design of your veterinary practice should feature plenty of functional storage in the reception area.

Consultation and Treatment Rooms

Having easy access to your most-used tools and materials should make the consultation process much smoother. The inclusion of storage (both cabinets and shelving) in these rooms can help you keep everything on hand.

Staff Break Room

Most vet fitouts feature a “staff kitchen”, complete with cabinets and drawers for cups, mugs, crockery, and cutlery. Adding secure storage (e.g., lockers) to this area will also give your team a safe space to keep their personal effects during the day.

Storage Room

If space allows, it’s worthwhile to include a dedicated storage room in your vet design. This will mean you can buy in bulk, without having to keep surplus stock in other, patient-facing spaces.

Tips for Getting the Most from your Storage Space

Once you have decided where to include storage, you can think about how to optimise that space. As part of this, we suggest you:

Think Vertically

If floor space is limited, think about how you can better use your wall space. For example, running shelves and cabinetry all the way to the ceiling can create a lot of extra storage space. Just be conscious of potential OH&S issues and avoid storing anything heavy or cumbersome above shoulder height.

Divide Drawers

Drawers maximise the accessibility of your storage space and are great for keeping smaller, frequently used items. Adding dividers to your drawers will make it even easier to keep them tidy and can increase their usable space. We also recommend keeping your drawer configuration consistent across all your consultation and treatment rooms.

Use Closed Cabinetry

While open shelving is great for being able to quickly grab things, it tends to look quite untidy. To avoid this issue, opt for closed cabinetry, particularly for storage that won’t be accessed as regularly. Just make sure you label each cabinet clearly, so you always know what’s inside.

Need Help Designing your Vet Clinic Storage?

Whether you need help designing your new veterinary fitout, or want advice on optimising your current design, Cyclo Group can help. We are leaders in vet clinic design and veterinary construction and specialise in getting the most from a limited space.