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Poll: Do you have a filing system at home?
Since I'm going to try and tackle the disaster that is my office at home, it makes me wonder where DH and I fall in comparison to others' paper filing habits. I used to be pretty good about filing away bills, receipts, mail, etc. but I've gotten really bad about it in the last year or so. Everything just gets thrown into a pile and the pile moves from the dining room into the office and then it sits there for months at a time. I have drawers with labelled files and all, but I HATE filing that stuff away. In fact, I've tried to go paperless with most of my bills but I still get crap all the time that I feel we should hold onto "just in case".
So where do you stand with filing paperwork at home? Do you do it? Or are you like me and let things pile up?
Re: Poll: Do you have a filing system at home?
BFP#2: 8/14/11 M/C 8/30/11 6w1d
BFP #3: 10/26/11
Beta #1 @11dpo: 22 Beta #2 @13dpo: 90 Beta #3 @17dpo: 480
Missed m/c 12w3d 12/28/11, d&c 12/30/11
dx Homozygous C677T MTHFR
Most of my bills come electronically and I usually shred anything else after I've paid it and it has posted.
The only stuff I keep really is the stuff for our rental and crap I may need come tax time.
Both...but the piling is taking over. I need to shred. I don't understand why I need to hold on to more than a couple of years of 'stuff'. While I was clearing out the basement yesterday, I noticed H has boxes labeled from the 90's. I have no idea what he has in there, and I don't want to know!
This was my system too. Hopefully now that we have an office in the new house I can be on top of it more. I have one of those shallow bins that everything goes into so I dont lose it and then when it got full I would file/throw away/sort through.
Mommy's little helper
I've been gradually switching over to electronic billing, but of course I still have a ton of stuff I think I need to file. Mostly it's medical stuff ( I can't believe all the tests they run when you're pg) but I keep pretty much everything that's sent to me for about a year. It gets piled on my kitchen table & I usually file stuff away about once a week. Then I purge & shred everything older than 1 year old about once a year or year & a half.
I hate filing, but I'm convinced that as soon as I toss something, I'll need it again.
Serendipity3, South Beach, Miami, FL 2012
I also let it pile up and then purge.
Is it lame that I've been tempted to get one of those receipt/bill scanners that automatically sort everything
What is this thing you mention? I feel like we need to do something better.
We are bad... we pay every bill online and I don't keep anything unless it is for the house (home or call insurance, mortgage papers, or anything needed for taxes). But regular bills like cable, cell phones, gas, elect., water, yeah, it all gets shredded the second I pay the bill online. We don't even save receipts from anything except for the car. Even our diswasher and fridge receipt we threw away after a month. I hate clutter. I know it is going to come back to bite me one day, but until it does, we are ok.
I do this.
We have a filing cabinet with labeled folders. Though I usually end up breaking our shredder because I do too much at once and it either gets overheated or jammed. It usually starts working again once it cools off but I think I broke it for good this past time.
I try to just keep year end investment statements and our tax stuff and the past year's worth of bills that we still get in paper form. Then I have a few folders for random things to keep, receipts for big purchases, etc.
http://www.neatco.com/ (Sorry if this doesn't open in a new window)
This brand is really pricey, but I think they have cheaper options. In theory is seems like a great idea- I don't know anyone who has it though, so I'm leary of how easy it really does work
yeah, we're pretty organized, & DH was like this before I met him (i don't remember how I did things when I was single).
I have a small basket that I put our receipts in when I get them until I input them into Quicken. When I input them, I put them into another bigger basket that has a piece of paper w/the account name & paper clip & I put the receipts to the account until the statement comes.
We input all our bills, receipts, bank deposits/withdrawls, all investments, etc. into Quicken. When we receive our statement (DH still wants a paper copy), we reconcile the statement in Quicken & then I put those receipts w/the statement & paperclip them. I have on top of our desk a filer w/folders for each credit card account we have & also for our cable, electric & trash bills & donation receipts. I love Quicken, it tells us what our Net Worth is & keeps track of everything. You can even set it to remind you of a bill that is due w/in 7 days.
At the end of the year we put all the statements in an envelope & we put it in a filing cabinet that is in our electrical closet in the basement. We keep them for 7 years I believe, the time they say you should keep things. It's helped if we've wanted to look back on a receipt or other info. We have in the cabinet all of the kids' college fund info/receipts, car info, etc.
It's great, no clutter & I love just being organized.
You win the gold star!!! I used to use Quicken but now I have everything organized on my Bank of America online banking. You only have to have one account with them and then you can import all of your other bank, credit card and loan accounts into there and then I can categorize, look at my investments and net worth reports. I am very organized in the digital world! It's just the paper thing that I loathe.
I couldn't read past small basket before I lost focus. Piles. Piles. Piles.
Although, I fully intend to purge this weekend, and I don't mean food or beer.
This is my system too.
10 Years Later
It's really not that bad, it's just hard to explain via computer. It's a process, since I don't record stuff each day, and it helps when you need to find a receipt to return something you didn't plan returning or when the credit card bill doesn't have the same amount as the receipt.
I am super organized, even w/2 kids I'm organized in everything.
LOL I think it's awesome! I am really envious of organized people. I know that my life would be so much easier if I were better organized. I think it takes off a lot of stress, especially when you have kids! Unfortunately, I suffer from extreme procrastination, so organization is a challenge. ; )