Making Sense of Paper Organizing

If you know someone with a perfectly organized house, you should know that it probably does not look like that all of the time. Either that, or they have maids and a lot of free time to stay on top of things. If you work, have kids, and take part in hobbies, you probably have precious few minutes you want to spend organizing things in your home. One of the toughest things to do is paper organizing. If you take some time to come up with a system and actually use it, you can keep that mess down if not eliminated most of the time.

Before you can start paper organizing, you have to know what types of papers you are going to save and what categories you need. If you just have mail to worry about, your system can be very simple. If you have a home business, or perhaps you run your own small business outside the home, you may have more different types of papers lying around your house. You also have your personal items to worry about when you go about paper organizing, like birth certificates and other important personal documents that you do not want to misplace.

Depending on the volume of paperwork you are dealing with, you have to find a fitting container to keep them organized. You may need only a small filing cabinet if you do not have a lot to worry about, but in some cases a large one may be needed for paper organizing. You should have a drawer for each category. For example, you may have one for bills, one for letters and personal documents, and perhaps another to keep business papers. You may also want to have one for special items your kids bring home from school that you want to save.

Next, come up with folders to keep each thing in. You could separate your bills by company, or perhaps you want to have one for ones that need to be paid and those that have been paid. Remember that you should save your pay stubs, bank statements, and your tax returns for a certain amount of years, so you may want to make room for them in their own folders with your other personal documents. Always have a miscellaneous folder as there are always going to be odds and ends that don't quite fit anywhere else.

The hardest part of paper organizing is keeping on top of it. If you just pile mail where it lands each day thinking you will take care of it later, you are going to end up with piles all over the place. If you do manage to file away everything, do not neglect to check out the folders as needed. You should get out your bills to be paid folder once a week to be sure you are not missing something. The most important thing to do in paper organizing is to make sure you throw things out that are useless and to do it right away. Otherwise, you are going to be overwhelmed.