Organizing Your Filing System

Hopefully you have everything gathered for tax season, which is just around the corner. If not, take some time for that this weekend. Then it will be a weight off both your mind and heart.

If you are ready, now is the perfect time to get your filing system in order. It may sound like a long, tedious task, but it will be worth it in the end.

Today I want to share how our filing system is set up, as well as a couple of tips for doing it yourself.

And if you'd like to turn your boring, outdated filing cabinet into a pretty piece of furniture like ours pictured, just click here.

Our filing is set up by month to begin with. I started this two years ago as a way to save my sanity. I am not a big fan of filing each individual piece of paper in a separate folder. That is a waste of my time and energy, not to mention brain power, all of which are often in short supply.

Instead, all of the filing for the month goes in an individual folder labeled with the month and year. This has proven invaluable when we know when something happened because we can flip straight to that folder and there it is. Behind that are individual folders for paperwork we will be keeping for more than two years.

When the next month's bills come in, I take the oldest folder - which is now the current month from two years ago - and empty it out. I shred the old bills because they are now unnecessary and file anything that needs to be saved. That includes house payment receipts, pay stubs and any new paperwork we've signed. This list is narrowed down from a dozen things I would have otherwise filed to just a handful.

The year gets changed on the filing tab and moved to the front of the drawer. I read a comment the other day by someone who doesn't believe in staggered tabs because there is always something new to add, forcing you move all the tabs over and over again. With this monthly system, it never changes, so you can set it up once and forget about it.

Hopefully this idea will help you get your spring organization underway and enjoy that sense of accomplishment that you're keeping your household on track financially.

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