Filing System 101

When I decided to revamp our home office, organizing our paper clutter was a project I wanted to get done ASAP. Whenever I needed to locate an important health care document or paperwork for my car, it took a while to find. That’s because we had three places that it could be. I had a binder of miscellaneous paperwork, while Bryan had not one but two lock boxes full. Even though our office isn’t close to being finished, getting our paper organized was a top priority.  

Here’s what I used:

• Brother PT-1290 label maker
• Smead Hanging File Folders – These come 25 per box. I bought two.
• Sterilite File Box – I can’t seem to find this online, but I purchased it at Target. You can find it in the aisle with the file folders as well as in the aisle with the other plastic bins.

I absolutely love this file box, because it can easily be picked up and moved if needed unlike a stationary file cabinet. Plus, it was much more affordable ($11!). 

The first thing I did after buying my supplies was take our paperwork and dump it all over the floor. In all honesty, I did just that. I dumped out all the papers in our living room and took a deep breath. After realizing that I could be in over my head, I started labeled each document with a sticky note. After I went through each piece of paper and decided whether to keep or trash, I grouped them into categories. Once I had all the categories, I assigned each a color. I find that when paper is color-coded, it’s much easier to find and it’s just overall prettier to look at. 

• Red: Medical
• Yellow: Credit Cards & Student Loans
• Orange: Apartment & Auto
• Green: Income & Taxes
• Blue: Misc. (We have two random folders in here: receipts for any large purchases and recipes that I haven’t organized yet)

 Red:

• Medical Benefits
• Medical Visits for Bryan
• Medical Visits for Nicole

Yellow:

• Credit Card
• Jewelry Loan
• Student Loans (3)

Orange:

• Apartment Lease
• CRV Contract
• CRV Maintenance
• Pilot Contract
• Pilot Maintenance
• Civic Contract (old car)
• Civic Accident Reports (yeah…)
• Turnpike EZPass Details
• AT&T Bills (the most recent month’s bill)
• Comcast Bills (the most recent month’s bill)

Green:

• Tax Documents (2010 and up)
• Full-time Employment Contract for Bryan
• Full-time Employment Contract for Nicole 
• Unemployment Files (all details from when I was unemployed last fall)
• Retirement

Blue:

• Receipts from Large Purchases
• Recipes (that haven’t been organized yet)

To see where I’m linking up today, check out my Link Party page!

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