Tackling Clutter: Paperwork

Paperwork. Are you scared of this one just from reading the first word? I'm a little scared to write about it because this is even tough for me. I remember days where piles upon piles of paperwork just cluttered up our guest room closet + our empty desk drawers. Whenever tax time came, it was like a mad dash to hunt down everything we needed. I can NOT stand having to hunt for items. I don't want to hunt for clothing, shoes, dishes, toys, and I most certainly do not want to hunt down paperwork. It's so easy to let it pile up. Trust me, as much as I hate to admit it, I've been that person. When I was single, I literally had ONE accordion folder that held all of my important paperwork. Now that I'm married, it's crazy how much paper seems to have multiplied. I blame Trey. :P

The first order of business when dealing with an overwhelming {or even just a "normal"} amount of paperwork is that you have to get it all in ONE place. I highly recommend a large room with lots of space for lots of piles. I know, it's a pain in the butt and it will look completely overwhelming, but just like in previous posts, it's important to have it all in one place so you know what you're working with. Once it's all in one ginormous pile, you can start sorting through and creating smaller piles by category {i.e. insurance policies, social security information, marriage certificates, receipts,  job-related info, etc}. This will be the longest part of this entire process, but I promise it will make your life a million times less complicated in the long run and it won't leave you begging for help.

Again, it's going to be crucial that you toss + shred as you go. DO NOT KEEP PAPERWORK THAT'S OUTDATED OR UNNECESSARY! Anything with personal information on it needs to be shredded for privacy purposes. That reminds me, we need a new shredder. Let me add that to the ongoing list of "things we need". I'm not kidding when I say that we had receipts from like 2010 in our large pile of paperwork. We also had an enormous amount of random pages from our various policies that were not necessary. Get rid of it, y'all. Get rid of it.

I figured the easiest way to break all this down is with the use of some visuals. I'll warn you that they're nothing fancy + some are even stock photos that I found online, but it will show you how we organize all of our paperwork.

The materials used:

a safe, a black storage crate from Target/Walmart, file folders {hanging + non-hanging}, a label maker {ours is Dynamo}, and a sharpie.

We keep the extremely crucial folders in the safe {birth certs, SS, marriage cert., etc} in case of fire or some other extreme situation. I organized ALL of our paperwork into the following categories + there may even be a few I've forgotten to include, forgive me. You will need to adjust this as you see fit for your needs.

* Insurance policies: Within this folder I have the following separated into their own folder: Life, Health, Home, Auto
* Job-related: my teaching license + all "teacher test" scores, Trey's paramedic/FF certs., resumes, etc
* Marriage + Birth Certificates
* Social Security: cards + other pertinent info
* Gun-related: We are proud gun owners, so all of the necessary buyer/seller agreements + concealed weapons permits paperwork are housed in this folder
* Medical: This folder mostly holds records from when Emerson was born, along with some of my information from our doctor's appointments. It could also be for future medical-related paperwork, excluding health insurance {as that belongs with the insurance policies}
* House: Anything pertaining to our house {aside from homeowners insurance} is filed here
* Taxes: Every year's tax returns and all pertaining info {W-2, etc} are filed here. I have separate folders within this one for each tax year.
* Passports/Travel

Here are a few pictures that I snapped of our folders. The insurance folder holds various colored folders, categorized by the type of insurance {auto, health, home, etc}.

Example of a specific colored folder inside the "Insurance" one.

There is ONE large file folder labeled "Taxes" and each tax year is in a separate labeled folder, you know just in case we get audited! *dun dun dun*

There are endless options on how you can organize these items; this is just ONE simple way to do it that was cost effective for us because I already had the file folders from when I taught. I've seen it separated by individuals in the family. I've also seen it color coded {which I would LOVE to do more of eventually}. If you want to color code by the type of items being sorted {medical, certificates, etc}, you could always use different colored file folders instead of all one color, just an idea! :) Our paperwork is currently stored in the safe, as I mentioned + in a crate just like the one seen below.

Finally, have a specific place for bills to rest until they're paid {if they're not all electronic, that is} and have a space for outgoing mail. Don't let it just pile up on your kitchen counter or entryway table. They have mail sorters like this one below {which I actually use a similar one to store our HGTV magazines} that create an easy way to sort mail by family member, or by incoming/outgoing, paid/unpaid, etc. Other options include baskets or a standing file holder like the one seen on our desk in the picture below.

Paperwork sucks! There's no way around that, but keeping it organized makes life SO much easier. You know exactly where to look for specific items and it makes sorting incoming paperwork a heck of a lot easier once it's assembled in an organized fashion.  Whatever your muse, make it work and keep your life organized. XO!