Filing: The Prequel

As mentioned in a previous post, keeping paperwork organized is not one of my strengths. In an attempt to get myself better organized, I am taking a page from the television show Til Debt Do Us Part:

The containers are cheap flowerpots from Ikea. The labels are:

-Housing/Utilities
-Recreation/Gifts
-Personal Care/Clothing
-Food
-Transport/Other

I am hoping that because they are so easily accessible, I will start putting receipts in them when I walk in the door. Once sorted like that, it should be an easy transition to move them into the bigger filing system at the end of the month. I am experiencing a bit of "Where did my money go?" syndrome lately. This should help me figure out the answer to that mystery.

Filing System: Before and After

To try to tame the  paperwork chaos in my apartment, I am creating a filing system. With any luck, I'll stop losing important documents. The paper situation intially looked something like this:

Eeek. Yes, those baskets are full. Yes, there are important papers in there. Yes, that black box is the start of my last failed attempt at getting my paperwork organized.

These are the headings of my new filing system:
- Housing & Utilities (Warranties/Manuals, Contracts)
-Personal (Medical, Lawyer, Hobbies, Important documents, Miscellaneous)
-Work (Current position, Previous position, Reference material, Certifications, Resume)
-Financial (Income tax, Banking, Insurance)

This is the end result (plus a big bag of paper for recycling):

It was a very lengthy, painful, and tedious process that I hope never to have to repeat again. Moving forward, my goal will be to touch every piece of paper coming into my apartment just once before it lands in its appropriate home (recycling, filing, or pinned to my bulletin board for ‘action’ items). I'm hoping that will be a better approach to controlling the paperwork chaos.