Paperwork in the New Year

[ArmsOfLove]

Every year I start out with a great plan--and in the past I've actually been able to stay mostly on top of it all :heart But 2012 found me again dumping everything into 2 plastic boxes that will go to the garage. :doh I'll hold it all for 7 years until I know I don't need anything from it and then I'll shred or burn it :shifty

I would love to see/hear about your paper organization :popcorn

I would love to know how you decide what to KEEP vs what you throw away. I have the hardest time :doh

I admit I've considered investing in this http://www.bestbuy.com/site/The+Neat+Company+-+NeatDesk+for+Mac+Sheetfed+Scanner/1388061.p?id=1218255234717&skuId=1388061&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=1388061&extensionType=pla:g&s_kwcid=PTC!pla!!!22278234874!g!!6892553434&gclid=CJn3iuyf0LQCFUxxQgod2lEANg but obviously it's far too expensive :doh

But I'm hopeful I can tackle the paper monster this year :rockon

[tazmom]

I have a 2 drawer filing cabinet.

The top drawer is short term storage. There is a folder for each month for bills. I empty the old bills out at the beginning of the month and put new bills in as I pay them. There's also a folder for DES paperwork, medical bills/estimates/eobs/etc, one for current year tax related papers, and one for IEP related stuff.

The bottom drawer has folders for old tax returns, military documents, manuals/receipts/warranties, and whatever else I feel needs to stay stored long term.

[charla]

:popcorn Paper organization is beyond me.

[mommylove]

Aah, scanning everything. How great would that be?


For paperwork, I have a 4-drawer vertical filing cabinet. Each category has it's own labled hanging file folder. Statements are placed face forward, most recent one first. (Type 4 anyone? :giggle)

Top drawer is divided into 3 sections, with each section in alphabetical order.

Section 1: Investment statements & Income (back when we received paper paystubs.)
Section 2: Bills
Section 3: Mortgage statements & property insurance.

I thin the bill files periodically, but never the mortgage statements. :no

Drawer 2:
Inactive files that are not ready to be shredded. For example, the file on a credit card that has been closed. I keep the file around for awhile until I've seen the debtor accurately reporting on my credit report. Then I shred. There's not much in this drawer, so files hang out there awhile . . . out of sight, out of mind.

Drawer 3:
Anything pertaining to the mortgage at or before closing. (Anything after closing goes in Drawer 1.)
Taxes.
Homeschool legal stuff . . . and any other legal stuff.
I should put DH's performance reviews & employment contracts here, but I've let him handle his own paperwork. I might change that. :think

Drawer 4:
Manuals & warranties. Admittedly, this one is messy. It's more for DH. If I didn't have a designated drawer, I'd toss most of them. This is also the drawer that houses the history of our vehicles (bill of sale, etc.) and paperwork on other large ticket items. Our medical insurance paperwork is here, but I think it should be moved to Drawer 3.

For kids' paperwork, they each have a memory box that I modeled after the ones on Orgjunkie. I cannot find the link right now.

What to keep & what to toss . . . well, you saw what I keep. I probably keep more than most, but I (deliberately) have the space, so I err on the side of neatly organized caution. :)

Ok, that's not entirely true. I have another file cabinet & 3 file boxes. Those are mostly business-related, so you don't need to hear the details of those.

I also used to keep all my bank statements, but I went paperless, so they're stored electronically.

[librarianjojo]

Since we rent and only take the standard deduction at tax time, our paper clutter isn't too bad. We typically keep 3 manilla envelopes on the desk in one of those organizing bins that are meant for magazines. (like this: http://www.staples.com/Staples-Granite-Magazine-File-Storage/product_458844?cid=PS:GooglePLAs:458844&KPID=458844) Those envelopes are for my current tax receipts, DH's current tax receipts, and FSA medical receipts. Since we've never had enough deductions to itemize (yet), we shred these after taxes are filed.

In a plastic file storage (http://www.staples.com/Staples-Letter-Legal-File-Box-Translucent-Blue/product_749129?cid=PS:GooglePLAs:749129&KPID=749129)bin, we keep previous years' tax returns (7 years), car maintenance records, important loan documents, certifications, the most recent credit report and important medical records. We keep our social security cards, car titles, and marriage license in a fire safe. We don't keep bank statements, credit card statements, old medical bills, etc. We do have a shredder, which is nice. I imagine with kids and a mortgage, the paperwork can get out of control. Typically my litmus test is whether it is likely that anyone will need to see this piece of paper. Usually the answer is no. I go through at this time every year and take out what we don't need anymore.

I would like one of those little scanners so I could get rid of some of the paper I still have. It would be nice to just have an electronic file of medical bills and car maintenance instead of hanging on to all those papers.

[Teacher Mom]

Little late seeing this thread, but I'll chit chat :) :giggle

I have two vertical business file cabinets.

Cabinet one - monthly and yearly businees/tax records & yearly home school records

Cabinet two - personal - all categories imaginable, all in alphabetical order (yes ma'am T4 here), and tax records for current years. Past years are in storage boxes. I have all of my tax records from the first year I filed taxes....:shifty I know that is excessive, but it just - well I have no real answer. They don't take up tooooo much room (a business tax box).

So obviously, before we had our business, I was able to have the one file cabinet and I had TONS of extra space. I clean out things periodically too (bills) as time permits or drawers are getting full.

I had kept pics the kids had drawn and school work and I went thru a TON of those this past fall and filtered many things out.

Oh and I used to just use a pretty shoe box type box, I think they call them picture boxes now, but I used one of those to put bills in and keep them in a pretty place. Now I keep them in an even nicer bin type canvas thing. They are out of the way, but accessible to me on the shelf.

One of the things I did a looooong time ago, is to trash junk mail every single day. If I just let the mail/bills pile up, it is just so much more work to go thru those. And I cannot function with piles :no It just about paralyzes me.