Hey there! Welcome back to Day 2. Glad you made it and we can continue on our journey to getting control of your filing. I think I may be more excited about it than you so I'll share my enthusiasm. Yay Team! Let's go!
So now you have one great big laundry basket of papers from your hard work yesterday. Now we have to continue sorting likes with likes. You'll be making different piles (shred, recycle, action, file) so you'll need a good work surface to spread out on. Or plop down on the floor. Go through every paper, and I mean every single piece of paper, and determine if it's going or staying. If it's going, put it in the RECYCLE pile (non-confidential, no personal information) or put it in the SHRED pile (confidential, personal information). Don't shred each item individually unless you've got a super speedy heavy industrial shredder that shreds lickety split. You'll do that at the end at once. If you are going to keep it, determine if it is something you need to take ACTION on (a bill that is due) or you are going to FILE it. You can do one of two things with this file pile - a) just keep sorting all papers into these four categories til your done then sort your files into their final category (a pile for bank statements, a pile for pay stubs, a pile for electric bills etc etc); OR b) make your piles as you go. Most people opt for b) because you only touch the paper once and you sort while you purge. There are others who do a) because you can go through the big pile of papers in the basket more quickly. If you can't decide which way you'd rather do it, flip a coin. Heads is a) and tails is b).
Oh, and I have to mention: Do not get distracted! Do not read articles! Do not get waylayed and sidetracked! Put your phone on silent, put the kids down for a nap, put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. Whatever it takes. I'm sure there are 20 million other things you'd rather do but you are determined to do this. Keep going! If you must read that article, you need to put it in the ACTION pile and keep going. It may be fun to set a timer and see how much you can get done in, say, 20 minutes. Then do it again and see if you can beat your previous time. You know... make it a contest. Or put on music and see how much you can get done in a song.
Ok, now back to filing. Once you have gone through your big pile in the laundry basket and you now have small piles, it's time to finish up the project. There's no one way of filing but you do have to make it easy to do and you have to be consistent. I'll give you a couple of choices and you can decide if one works better for you (or maybe you've found out a totally different way that works for you and that is great too). Filing Option A - Straight line filing and alphabetical. Filing Option B - Straight line filing and color coded hanging file folders.
Filing Option A - Straight line filing and alphabetical. In this option, all of your hanging file folders are the same color. All of the tabs on the hanging file folders are all lined up either all on the left side, all in the middle, or all on the right side (not staggered or willy-nilly). Individual manila file folders are all left, middle or right tab. I would recommend left or right since there are more of these in the box. And here's a neat trick - if you choose left tab and run out, you can turn your right tab manila file folders 'inside out' so it now becomes a left tab file folder. Everything is sorted alphabetically (auto, banking, dentist, electricity, insurance, mortgage, etc). Say you have 3 automobiles in your family. You may have 3 individual folders that say Chevy, Ford, Toyota (or whatever you happen to own). You will have 3 manila file folders in the auto hanging file folder. For the insurance hanging file folder, you may have individual manila folders for life, auto, home, health. Create labels. File all of your piles. Ta da!
Straight line Filing Photo: Pinterest
Filing Option B - Straight line filing and color coded hanging file folders. This option is similar to Filing Option A but is more visual. You can use colored hanging file folders and each color can be a category. For example, red can be for personal, green for banking/financial, blue for health/medical, yellow for utilities and so forth. Within each general category, you will file individual/specific categories alphabetically. Create labels. File all your piles. Ta da!
Color coded hanging file folders (but use straight line tabs) Photo: LulubellElaine.com
You'll need to take action on everything you put in the ACTION pile and you will need to shred everything in the SHRED pile. Then you're done! Congratulations! Phew! Ok, that was a lot! But totally worth it!
You know, they now make really pretty file folders in case you want to fancy it up a bit. :) Take a look below.
Tomorrow we can dip our toe in the water of electronic filing. Stay tuned!
Blessings,
Melissa