How do you organise your mail, bills, etc? Need help!

CharleneUK

I have a big folder and sections for:

Bills
Credit card and savings accounts
Council tax, rent and tax credits
Letters
Misc

It's already full, so I'll have to get a new one soon! This is great for easy, quick access to things.

Zed42

Paperwork .. ah yes.

I have a filing cabinet with suspension files, I have A4 lever arch files for bank statements and I have a box for receipts.

Each morning when I receive mail I immediately open it and shove the junk mail in to a paper recycling box which I have in my office, w/o the plastic windows of course. I then put mail to be dealt with on a pile on my desk to the left of my monitor. I try and deal with the bills within a day or so. All statements / receipts get entered in to MS Money and reconciled.

Most bills are paid by direct debit, so it's only the CC bills which need to be actioned.

I did have a shredding session last year, but I really don't like shredding any statements as SnowyOwl says you never know when something is going to bite you on the posterior!

I do, however, need to re-visit the receipts box soon as it is bulging (I mean, do I really need to keep supermarket receipts longer than a month) ... however for this I am going to need an exceptionally large glass of wine!

Pooky

As post comes in it gets opened and sorted - rubbish into the recycling bin and everything else makes it to the computer desk. I then seperate into 2 trays - top tray is "deal with it" - bottom tray is "file it"....

Top tray contains a book which lists all credit card balances, minimum/actual payments/dates/interest rates etc and all statements get put straight into their and I write them in each evening. Anything else in there gets dealt with within a few days.

Bottom tray gets filed when it's full. I've got ring binders, one for all bank statements, one for creditcard statements, one for utility bills/insurance, one for car documents and one for anything tax/national insurance related...then several for work stuff.

I've learnt that if you don't deal with the post each day that it soon builds up.

All recipts go into a small wallet in my handbag, they get sorted at the end of each month to see what needs to go through my books - the rest get recycled.

Essex-girl_2

I run my business from home so need lots of filing cupboards - I have one that is full of personal stuff - and I put everything in folders - diff folders for cards/insurances/savings etc. At then end of the financial year I label it all up and put it in a storage box in my loft with my business records.
I need to sort out my receipt folders though as they are receipts in there for fridges I had 10 years ago.

I do worry about shredding things/thowing them out but Im working on the basis that I will keep everything for 7 years for tax reasons and thats it.

I recently did about 6 months filing and will not be letting it get like that again - so by the end of each week everything will be filed away.

I am also a bit sad - I love going to Staples its my favourite shop I just love stationary!

ageandjo

My oh and I both work from home the concertina files seem best option to start with for anything 'pending' then other files for 'completed' and also labled.
Earlier in the year I had to file 7 years worth of filing for one reason or another:eek: I never want to do that again, also keep a diary of things to do re post so it's not forgotton as it easily can be

nabowla

I had a massive OS sort-through of my paperwork a couple of months ago. Ultimately I'd like to get lots of ring binders to file statements etc but I haven't got the money for that at the moment. So all my paperwork is neatly filed in old shoeboxes - one for bank statements, one for phone bills etc. I used an old stationery box for super-important small stuff (passport, credit cards, birth certificates). Paperwork gets opened as soon as it comes in and dealt with that evening (unless it's bank statements, which get done on a Friday evening as they need more time to process).

spaghetti_monster

I'm also happy with a filing cabinet I picked up 2nd hand - one of the drawers is full of folders, each one for a separate bill or whatever. Then by the desk I've got an open box file for anything current and things that need doing, where I will chuck important post (and recycle everything else).

Like some of the others said every few months I then file everything away from the box file and have to spend a while dividing things up into piles. The cat always sits on the most important pile (why do they do that??!!)

Linda32

I have a letter rack which gets cleared out every two weeks or so. One ring binder with an A-Z file in where bills are put. I only keep the last month or quarter bill respectively.

Our bank account is set to paperless statements as is the credit card which is paperless anyway.

Another fold has all the pension and mortgage stuff in which hardly gets touched at all.

Other half keeps are the car paperwork. I keep the house stuff.

WeirdoMagnet

I am terrible at filing, and have tried lots of methods in an attempt to be a bit tidier. I've tried the concertina file - sounded like a good idea, but you do still have to 'file' stuff!

I pay everything by Direct Debit because I would forget if not, so I don't have to worry about what's due. All incoming post gets opened, I keep the important bit and bin the rest (envelope and junk leaflets) and put the important bit in a magazine file for filing at a later date.

I have ring binders for Bills, Money, Car/s, Work (me), Work (OH).

Dr.Lou

I love my expanding file folder (the ones you can pick up for a fiver or so). I just put everything into its correct section.

I use a normal A4 folder for bank statements. I also have a safe to hold very important documents.

The clear document holders with a little botton on top are very handy for grouping stuff together too.

We used to be very disorganised but I find that I can find everything I need within a minute or so nowadays.