Since I am laying it all out there, I might as well confess all.
Filing........I hate filing. Yep, the organizer said it......she hates filing. It is just a tedious task that I like putting off! It is also important to note that I work most days, all day, except for Sundays and I do a lot of computer work at night and try to spend time with my husband so filing moves to the bottom of the things to do list!
That being said, you can view the pictures of my "in-between" filing system. The "in-between" filing system consists of two clear shoe boxes (bought at Dollar Tree for $1) and another filing container found at Staples - bought because I liked it and it is bigger.
This first picture is my temporary living space of bills that need to be paid or for information that I need to deal with about the same time I am paying bills
This second picture is my box for my bank statements. I just need a place to house them until tax season rolls around. Yes, I should have paperless bank statements just haven't made that last step......maybe 2014 resolution
This last picture is my "to do" filing. This is when things have reached this place of file purgatory before arriving at the final filing destination. This stack is about 6-8 months worth of filing so it is not all that much. One day I take about an hour and do a final sort and get them all in their final labeled folders.
Speaking of folders, I will do a double confession tonight. My folders do not all match, are not cute or colorful and they are not all labeled with a printed label. Many of the labels are handwritten and several used more than once. Yep, that may do it, I am going really be kicked out of the Association of Professional Organizers now!!
All this confession really is an attempt to encourage anyone that feels like paper is overtaking their lives. Perfection is not the goal. The goal is only keeping the papers you really need and having these papers in a place where you can put your hands on them at a moment's notice. It obviously doesn't have to be beautiful, it just needs to make sense to you and it preferably is put in an area where it will not co-mingle with all the other things/papers in your life.
So fellow paper shufflers, get to that stack of bills, mail and other papers, throw away, shred and get rid of what you don't need and figure out a system that will work for you!
I hate filing too but I love the idea of using simple boxes like this.
ReplyDeleteHeaded to Walmart :)
~ Ann
Love me some Wally World! Simplicity is the name of the game.
DeleteI have what I call kind of organized piles LOL! I also have a box in the bottom desk drawer for everything tax related because once I file, everything related including tax copies go into that box labeled with the year. Definitely not a perfect system but at least it's better than paper everywhere. Still wish it was all mostly paperless :) Thanks for the tips!
ReplyDeleteKathie, what you are doing is similar to what I do...putting like items together when I don't have time to make it right, the papers are at least in the same area. If a system works that is all that matters!! I am working hard at going paperless but feel a little "old school" about some papers.
ReplyDelete