Drowning in paperwork

nesssie1702

What a useful thread - I'm sat at the PC looking at a pile of bank statements and other bits and pieces that should be filed away in the filing cabinet, but for one reason and another I never quite get round to it......

Some useful hints and tips here though, but what I need is time to do it!!

beedeedee

I used to have trouble finding old receipts and stuff, but now I immediately staple receipts to the handbook of any electrical/large/expensive item that I buy and store those all together in a file and also I use an old-fashioned "spike " for my day to day receipts, (yes absolutely all of them) and about every six months I transfer the pile into a labelled envelope i.e Jan-June 09, which I store in a underbed storage box for about 6 years.
You would not believe how many times I've needed to use these receipts as proof of something........

Penelope_Penguin

I have a small filing cabinet, some box files, and some boxes from Au Naturel to file my paperwork I'll add this to the exsiting thread to give you some more ideas.

Penny. x

jinny

Here are my catergaries
Phone-gas-leccy-water bills
morgage details
council tax
health details
passports birth certificates ect
bank details
receipts
gaurantees stapled to instuction manuals
urgent action
to be sorted ( I sort this file every Sunday to to save build up)
Deal with mail every day I know Its easy to pile it up for later but it saves me from having to ever sort out three full bin bags of paper clutter again!!!!!!!!
I use the folder method with each catagory marked on the right hand top corner for ease of finding. These are then held upright in a plastic storage box or you could use a three ring binder with poly pockets.

jinny

Forgot to say I keep my debt papers in this way and seperate from my other stuff all marked with debtors name on the front so every letter they bother me with that goes in the relevant file. So if I do rarely speak to them I write on the date, time, person I spoke to ect on the back of that letter, its handy to remind a company that you only want them to write to you and you consder phone calls to be harrassment. I keep archival stuff wrapped in cling film such as old P60s insurance pension stuff in a plastic storage box in a cuboard. Hope this is helpful, try and keep it out of your bedroom I find that when I moved the paperwork out of there and finally got to grips with this method I slept a lot better. I've gone from searching through plastic carrier bags for stuff to be able to put my hand on any bill ect now.

sillylittlejill

This is all really helpful. OH and I are moving back to parents (for a few months-only so much of my mother I can take!) so need some way of sorting out paperwork but keeping it small. It's currently in a complete mess in 3 plastic drawers. I'm going to go get that folder from wilkinsons later, was looking at one in tescos but that was £4 so will get the cheaper one from wilkinsons.
Thanks everyone!
xxx

red_devil

put them all in a box and have a clear out now and again.

rip off addresses from things or shred them.

jinny

red_devil wrote: »

put them all in a box and have a clear out now and again.

rip off addresses from things or shred them.

Yes but looking through that box of paper clutter when you need to find your driving licence or passport quickly is very stressful . It only takes seconds to put them in a clearly marked folder saves loads of time. If your style works for you thats great, but I used to just dump stuff into placky bags then spend hours looking for stuff.
I see by your signature you are a Man U fan Are you from London?:D

Love from a NUFC fan:beer:

willis

I have a filing cabinet which I wouldn't be without now, it's great.In addition to all the normal files, I keep an A4 plastic folder in the front of the filing cabinet, with the really important documents/credit cards etc in so they are all to hand and the little things can't fall out of the files.
I also have a small box file on my desk for things that haven't been filed away yet, or things I need to do something with (eg pay the bill or make a phone call). Once I've done whatever needs doing, I put it in the filing cabinet.

rhiwfield

After many years and lots of arguments OH and me have finally evolved the following system.

All paperwork goes into one tray before filing (no more envelopes at back of kitchen drawers!) so that anything that has to be dealt with we know where to find it

Envelope addresses are torn off and burnt as received, envelopes in rubbish

Not too much junk mail as on MPS but any that comes in is recycled

The filing is kept in the spare room (now our home study/office) where we took the doors off an old floor to ceiling fitted wardrobe and converted it into filing/storage/stationery cupboard/indoor tools/charging station

If the o/s filing gets above the level of the tray (about 2 inches!) its time to file. We now attach appliance receipts to manuals and have 2 manuals folders. Otherwise we have folders for utility bills, credit cards, bank statements, pensions etc

Both cars have their own file with insurance and registration docs in plastic inserts.

In autumn we have a sort out of folders/lever arch files and take out older bills/correspondence which we use for lighting our woodburner but we keep bank statements or anything to do with tax for longer.

We keep a rolling income and expenditure budget on the pc with detailed records of higher spend areas like energy and shopping and are gradually moving paperless on some of the bills.