I hate to file.
No, I HATE to file. Filing has never been my friend. Even in the workplace many moons ago the only "negative issue" I had during review time was my lack of filing. I hated filing then and I hate it now.
My total hate and disgust for filing has created a bit of a pile-up of problems for me in all areas of my life.
For instance, my writing. Oy. I used to have papers and ideas and notes scribbled everywhere. Notebooks, binders, tablets of paper. My published clips and character sketches in piles living wherever they happen to land. I worked hard at the beginning of the year to remedy this situation. I have noticed, however, that I am a constant note-taker on any bit of paper I come across. I'm not sure why I can't rid myself of this habit, Lord knows I've tried, but I don't care how many notebooks I use to write stuff in I inevitably slip and write bits and pieces of information on anything I can reach fast. I still have some minor "filing" to do in my writing but overall this is probably the one area that has remained rather "tidy".
My scrapbooking. What I need to do is just purge all the papers and start over fresh. But, I can't seem to bring myself. I have torn out ideas from magazines, lists of projects I want to do, ideas for pages, and memorabilia piles. This is still a work in progress because I have yet to come across an organizational plan that seems to work for me.
And finally, my household paper clutter. Dear Gawd, does it ever end? Mail, bills, school paperwork and art, brochures, insurance paperwork, savings statements, receipts, and so on and so on...AND SO ON!
I will admit something here. A small confession, if you will. This household paper clutter has been in shambles since we moved back to Idaho. I'm not sure why exactly other than the sheer overwhelming situation I was in the middle of. For example, when we moved back last year I had carried with us (in the car) all the kids school documentation so I could get them registered easily. After visiting three different school over about six different days I came home and placed all the paperwork in the middle desk drawer in the laundry room. I haven't touched it in a year.
I am holding my head in shame.
In fact, I pulled out papers for fundraisers, photo-day, and class schedules for last fall.
I'm surprised we managed to pay our bills (there were a few minor bills that did fall between the cracks, oops)because there was zero rhyme or reason to the cabinet. In the cabinet where we kept the bills before was also filled with gardening paperwork, school paperwork, art projects, CDs, nail polish, candy, maps, etc.
Now, all that is in there are bills to be paid, envelopes, 3-ring binders, organzing books, extra set of keys, and the pool key.
And that brings me to my recent revelation over filing and my use and love affair with the 3-ring binder.
I believe that we can have world peace, clean water, and food for all if we just embrace the 3-ring binder.
I love, LOVE, LOVEEEE the 3-ring binder. It solves ALL PROBLEMS. Swear to Gawd.
Okay, so this is what we USED to do. I had a filing cabinet and inside a couple of drawers I had tabs for things like: school, cars, insurance, job-related, house, garden, medical/dental, savings/retirement, etc.
I noticed one big important thing about this way of filing: once it got into the filing cabinet, it was lost into the abyss forever and ever. The stuff in there QUICKLY became outdated and upkeep on the filing was too much and too painful and simply too bloody awful. Therefore, I never did it. Larry never did it. And the dog certainly never did it.
I can't tell you how many retirement statements I have in there from Larry's days at BigUmbrella, Incorporated. Or, how many pieces of paper from when Josh was in the fifth grade, Jennifer's preschool data, first communion paperwork that took place five years ago, and car insurance information on cars we no longer have. The list goes on and on, believe me.
Oh sure, you perfect people are like: when something new comes in, take out the old, and put the new stuff in.
Yeah, Whatever Superstar.
It ain't workin' that way around here, I can tell you right now. This is the one thing about organzing that I have learned: When it doesn't work one way, change it until you find a system that works.
I have ALWAYS thought to file that way...by subject. My parents filed that way. Larry wants to file that way. So, we filed it by subject and twenty years later I am STILL struggling with filing!
Have I mentioned how much I hate to file?
Anyway, today I had a breakthrough.
I used dividers by subject and file paperwork by YEAR in a 3-ring notebook. Ding, ding, ding. Alex, we have a winner!
Here is my thought process...
I made the dividers for things like utility bills, housing, car, insurances, retirement/savings, grocery receipts, taxes, school, and jobs.
Utility bills: I am keeping only one so I have information at my fingertips. We pay our bills online but we aren't technically paperless since we still get a bill in the mail every month. Just a couple of days ago I went over all the utility bills (the ones that flucuatae so we can not only budget easier but also try and "beat" same-time-last-year numbers. Yes, we are dorky on things that bring us joy!) over the past year and was able to spot a difference in our cable bill. Larry called yesterday and we were able to save $10 a month.
Housing: I have notices from our mortgage company indicating year end information like paperwork we just received informing us that our fixed rate mortgage was going down by $40 because our property taxes are lower now (yippie!). I keep anything relevant from our homeowners association, repair receipts, and anything else related to the house.
Car: Here we keep the registration information, receipts on oil changes and any other work done on the cars, and a couple of statements so we can see the balance going down on the new car.
Insurances: Information on doctors and dentists, paperwork from appointments, and our online perscription paperwork.
Retirement/Savings: We have to consolidate the 401ks one of these days so I have several different statements in there, stock information, and IRA documentation.
Grocery Receipts: This is simply for me and my silly obsession with food shopping totals. I think it will be really cool to see and total up all that we spend on food every year. I also think it would be handy to see how much certain items increase year after year. Other than receipts for my garden (also for obsessive documenting purposes) and tax-related receipts, the grocery ones are the only ones I save.
Taxes: This is more for income tax ease come spring. I keep forms in there so we can track information and data quarterly, making April 15th about a billion times easier. Now, if I can successfully get beyond quarter one and this truly makes our lives easier, I'll let you know. But, I have hope.
School: Just yearly information about teachers, classes, and anything else that is worth saving during the school year.
Jobs: I keep my paystubs for my little crossing guard job, information on Larry's new job...I would even consider putting updated resumes here as well.
Here is why I think it will work:
1. At the end of the year, I can just file the binder somewhere out of sight. If I need to know what our property taxes were in 2011, I can grab the binder. If I want to compare utility bills from the ones we paid in 2011, I can grab the binder. If I want to see if bread has increased since 2011, I can grab the folder. If I need information on our car, or a phone number for the cable company, or if I need to get in touch with Josh's fourth period teacher, or if I want to cry over how much our 401k's have plummeted, I can grab the binder! (I was also thinking how freakin' cool it would have been to have file binders for the past twenty years and be able to track, via the tabs and binders themselves, what we paid for things, where we stumbled, what our mortgage payments were in, say, 1993, and what it cost to operate our cars through the years. OR, if I didn't care about any of that, I could simply file the binder away and forgetaboutit.)
2. I am convinced it will make tax time SO MUCH EASIER. I am always scrambling around trying to find what our property taxes were or how much we paid for car registrations or what we paid in internet costs. It'll all be in there all handy and ready to help me help Uncle Sam.
3. Binders with the help of the File Folder. Okay, so there still needs to be a temporary "home" for the paperwork that comes in otherwise Mr. Ugly Pile appears and then Ugly Pile takes over and demands food and a bed to sleep in. So, I have made up file folders for similar topics: housing, school, insurances, receipts, financial...etc. plus others like: brochures/pamphlets, church, needs attention/to-do/to-read (I'm not sure what I am titling it yet). This way, I have a place to put that insurance paperwork that comes through the mail, the paperwork from the kids school, information on their religious education, and brochures from things I like to order fairly regularly like Scentsy bars. Here is the key to the File Folder: it has to be worked regularly. Not everyday (that'll never happen) but I'm hoping for once a month when we pay the bills. I can go through the File Folders, throw out what is no longer needed and file the rest in the binder. Done. I feel confident about this working because I have a very similar set-up for my recipes...I have file folders titled the same as the 3-ring binders and I just grab a file folder, the matching 3-ring binder and bada-bing, bada-boom it is done.
I'm pretty excited about my new system and I think it is going to work out really well. I'm also so relieved to put the big filing cabinet to rest. That thing has always given me nightmares...I hate to file!
The organized cabinet with my 3-ring binders. (Only one of them is for 2011...the other two are for Important Documents and School Records.)
Here is a wide shot of the laundry room desk where the cabinet above is located. The rack to the right holds envelopes for tax receipts and one for various restaurant coupons, etc. This will also be where Mr. And Mrs. File Folders will sit and live happily ever after.
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