Organizing Paperwork
How to Set Priorities and
Tips for Paper Organization

When you set about organizing paperwork you must first know how to set priorities.

There are many different ways to organize paperwork, and each one requires that you first decide what to keep and what to discard.

Follow these tips for paper organization and you can become more precise with paper.

It is easier to organize your paper work if you have templates already prepared for recording important information. All you have to do is fill in the blanks!

Forget about establishing categories for filing with the easy filing system template in the Easy Organizer Kit.

When you create a new file you record it on the master list. When the time comes that you need to find that information you just look on the master list to locate it.

Challenged with Organizing Paperwork?

One of the common challenges people face with organizing paperwork is deciding what needs to be kept and what can be discarded. Sometimes people think that paper is so official looking that every bit of paper they receive must be kept in perpetuity!

If you keep unnecessary papers you will soon be overwhelmed with paper clutter. There simply isn't enough space on the planet to keep all that paper!

Organizing your paperwork is easier if you know how to set priorities. Here are some tips for organizing and sorting your paperwork into the keep and do not keep piles.

Keep	Do NOT Keep
Keep anything that is a legal document and must be accessed and used by someone else in the event of your own death or incapacitation. This includes: Personal Wills Power of Attorney documents and Representative Agreements mortgage documents insurance papers - this includes life insurance and house insurance documents These should be kept in a safety deposit box not in your home. Alternatively you can file them with your lawyer. What About Taxes? It is also required by law that you keep the financial paper information that supports your tax declarations for income tax purposes. This includes receipts or any other statements and documents that support your claims for deductions and/or tax credits, and a copy of your tax return. Keep these documents for the required amount of time (usually seven years) and then discard.	It is not necessary to keep paper documents that you have verified to be correct and/or are stored somewhere else. This includes statements for: credit cards bank accounts insurance accounts It is recommended that you keep contact information but it is not necessary to keep the actual statements once you have verified they are correct. What about pay stubs? If you live in a country where the employer is required to send you a statement of your annual earnings and tax contributions then you should not keep your (paper) pay stubs once verified to be correct. However, if you have had more than two jobs or have moved and had more than one address in a year, it may be advisable to keep these records for tax reporting purposes. Without this information you may not be able to file your tax reports on time as statements from previous employers may not have followed you to your current address. Meeting your legal and regulatory requirements is always a high priority for organized living.

More Tips for Organizing Paperwork

Here's how to set up you personal paper organization system using binders

Establish a category for each binder and place all the papers in the binder. It is so much easier to flip though papers in a binder that to try and deal with loose papers in a file folder.

Samples of categories for organizing paperwork

use binders - Binders are the best way for organizing paperwork for those of you who are not that "precise with paper". You will need to invest in a three hole punch, some binders and some tabbed dividers. It is a really simple system for organizing paperwork and will suit most personal paper organization needs.

use a reverse chronological order for filing papers - All this means is that you place the most recent date at the front of the binder section instead of at the back.

Establish a correspondence binder - if you are involved in any correspondence with a company or the government or any organization keep your correspondence in a labelled binder. Once the correspondence is over or the matter is resolved to your satisfaction keep the binder for about a year to make sure then discard.

keep your tax assessments separate from your tax records - it is a good idea to establish a binder for tax assessments and correspondence with the government tax office. Keeping this separate from your tax records mean you do not have to go searching through several file boxes stuffed with your tax records in order to carry on correspondence with the tax office. All the important information you need for accessing your account on line or applying for certain benefits are contained in your tax assessment notice anyway.

Label with discard dates - If you have a pile of papers that you need to keep until a specific date then write the discard date on a piece of paper, place it on top of the pile and secure the whole pile with string or an elastic band. When the discard date comes around take the whole pile to the shredders.

keep a written inventory of the contents of your safety deposit box so you will always know what you have placed in there. Keep this inventory in your household notebook and be sure to keep it up to date.

Paper Organization Without Paper - Go Digital!

And finally, the best tip for organizing paperwork is to reduce the amount of papers you have to organize!

establish electronic financial transfers for bill payment that occur regularly such as your home heating, telephone and house taxes.

set up internet banking for other types of bill payment such as department store credit cards, tuition payments, gym memberships.

set up electronic bills instead of paper ones - many companies will now send your statement electronically.

Organizing paperwork does not have to be a challenge if you know how to set your priorities, reduce the amount of paper coming into your home and understand the different ways to organize paperwork so that you can find those papers again when you need to!

Go back to Home Office Ideas for Organizing Home Office Spaces and the Paperwork of Life

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