I am a piler. I pile and pile and pile. Then, I deal with the pile and vow I will never pile again. Until I begin a new pile.
I don't like piles but I have yet to find a truly workable solution.
Until now.
My system has been in place for about two months and I have yet to see a pile anywhere! Success, people! SUCCESS!!!
It's simple, really. I made up file folders (decorated them so they aren't so boring) and labeled them with things like: insurance, financial, high school, middle school, elementary school, church, to-read, monthly, brochures/pamphlets, receipts, garden, house checklist.
I picked up an inexpensive file folder stand and placed it in the "hub" of our household-paper-clutter-landfill: the laundry room.
The plan is that once a month I take the file folders and either read and toss or file in our "2011" 3-ring binder that I put together that should make tax time easier as well as an easy option for filing all papers and receipts that pertained to this year. Instead of boxes of paperwork and other crap or a filing cabinet laden with mounds of paper never to be seen again (once they go into a file cabinet they never, ever come out...) the concise 3-ring binder by year is a beautiful thing.
Here are some reasons why it works for us and why I love it so much and why it is so easy:
1. We get several statements, not sure why, from our insurance company. It is kinda like an obsessive relationship and they are afraid that we will switch companies so they send us stuff all the time to remind us how much they love us. I used to have a file in the filing cabinet labeled, "insurance" (I'm so creative) and I would throw these statements in there until the file was bulging. When I got around to needing to find information about our insurance it took me thirty minutes to go through ALL the statements in there and find one with current data. Now, I open my 2011 3-ring binder and see what I have filed under insurance and see if the statements in the file folder is necessary to keep in the binder or throw away.
2. When the kids come home with photo day information, class lists, fundraisers, and any other paper from school I simply place them in their folder (high school, middle school, etc.). When it is time to do something I know exactly where to find what I need. And, if the event has already passed, better yet, I throw the paper away. Again, I had files in the filing cabinet and when I went to move from Pennsylvania back to Idaho I still had paperwork in there from when Josh was in elementary school! What the hell?! This system won't run into that problem. What documentation or paperwork that is truly needed I keep neatly placed inside that 3-ring.
3. I always struggled where to place all those brochures and pamplets that I am sorta kinda interested in but was always prime suspect for King of the Pile. Now, I keep a file folder for them and inside I keep a current Scentsy pamplet and anything else that I may be interested in. None of these make it to a 3-ring but instead when I am no longer interested, I simply throw them away.
4. If brochures and pamphlets are the king of piles, receipts was the queen. I have to keep certain receipts for tax purposes and I keep food receipts because I use those for research as well as comparing what we pay for groceries now against what we used to pay. I also like to add up what we spend in a month. And because receipts sometimes just get thrown out of my purse as we head out the door...the Queen of the Pile was born. Now, I throw them into the file folder and once a month I go threw them and file the ones I want to keep for research/budget purposes, put others in a tax envelope for the ones I need come February, and throw the rest out.
5. The monthly files I keep random items that come in every month that I just need to be able to file into our 2011 binder. The house and garden file folders allows a place to put information about my garden or paperwork from Zamzows on keeping your grass green plus monthly checklists for home maintenance. They are easily accessible and items can be tossed out if they become irrelevant. The financial folder is perfect for all the bank statements (only a few a year will get filed into the 3-ring binder), retirement statements, and anything else pertaining to finances.
6. To Read/To Do is probably the most challenging of all the file folders. I seldom ever get to the "to read" portion under even the best of circumstances but by the time I make my way over to the file folder I am no longer interested in whatever it was I needed to read or do. (I sort of see this as a win-win.) Currently it holds information on sport programs for the kids, a company in which I need to write a letter to, and a scam that I want to bring to my banks attention. None of it is life threatening or so urgent that if I don't get around to it, we will still survive.
A couple of weeks ago I went to put something in the cabinet...the beginning of a pile...gasp...and then thought, "what the hell am I doing?" And pivoted to place the item into a file folder on the desk. Done. And, no pile.
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