Organizing Your Paperwork

I keep very little of any of it.

Almost everything is electronic - bills, back statements, etc. This are things you almost never need to see again, period. At the off chance you do, you can get them from the website or call and request it. Almost anything you need can be sent to you as a pdf. I hardly keep any of it.

I have an expanding file folder that I put the kids papers in. Almost all of it gets thrown out at the end of the year, but sometimes I need it, so it's there.

I'm glad others with older kids mentioned all the paper work later on. Thank you for the heads up! Great suggestions there.

I do have a child with special needs. I scan every report that anyone doctor or specialist gives us. That way I can always have printouts for the school, another specialist or just to refer to later. Huge help!!!

There is a great little book called "Getting Things Done" that gives a good overview of how to handle paperwork and tasks in the most efficient way. I don't follow through with everything consistently because my schedule is pretty overwhelming right now but I can say that I haven't lost anything important in the past couple of years. Not every document is in its final resting place all the time, but now I at least know where to look.

I can't address the whole thing, but I will say, that as a parent to high school students (one graduating next month) that in retrospect, I wish I had created separate filling for the kids by name. Rather than doing it by year. I didn't look far enough into the future to plan what would have worked best.
So, with that knowledge, what I would suggest for someone who isn't there yet, would be to create a box (unless you use an actual filing cabinet, like an office filing cabinet) for each child. Then add folders by year. When they are young (elementary and parts of middle school) there isn't much need, but as they hit high school, there are forms/waivers for participating in activities, fees/receipts for lost student IDs, lunch accounts at school (when mine were younger they took their lunch), standardized testing receipts (and scores), yearbooks, class scheduling documents, and then junior/senior year... OY. Order forms for class rings, senior pictures (much more involved than annual school pics), invitations, cap/gown, senior trips, and on and on...

Having a single box for each child, with folders by year, would have simplified searching for documents so many times. And then, one day, it would be nice to just hand it over to them and let them go back through it and have those memories also (down the road, like when they hit 30). It would even be helpful to have dividers by year and individual folders for certain items-- Junior/Sr years especially. When your kid takes the ACT or SAT (or both!) and then retakes them, and you need to keep track of what schools have been sent scores, and so on... And if your kid takes the ASVAB and needs to keep track of that for military recruitment...

When they were little I thought the paperwork was overwhelming, but back then it was mostly short term paperwork that could eventually just be thrown out (and by eventually, I mean, as soon as that activity was over, so a couple of weeks). As they hit high school, much of it needs to be kept longer term.

So, that's my suggestion.
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ETA: A few of you mentioned accessing things online and printing as needed. That's a good idea. But I am old school and like hard copies. It never fails that the moment I need to access something, our internet goes wonky. Or the printer needs ink. I have a full tablet already of passwords for websites, and the amount of time it takes to look up passwords, log in, find the document, print, and then move on--I can already have it in my hands with the stored hard copy. But that's just how I do things. And my senior is NOT the organized type. At all. I also find that when someone wants something, it's just as likely that someone else is using the desktop. And nobody likes accessing websites on phones to track down documents. Our school also will reimburse for retakes of the ACT/SAT if the student scores over a certain amount, but you have to submit receipts, etc. Having all of the relevant things in one place (already hard copy) makes searching so much easier for me, than trying to click through web pages.

I keep virtually nothing. Even with a high school senior I can't think of anything that we don't have access to online.

I check the mail after school each day (I teach high school). Immediately when I walk in the door I go through the mail, throwing out most of it. Anything that I want to keep goes in a drawer (my drawer) in the kitchen hutch. We each have our own drawer so that nothing is ever left out. I'm a bit of a neat/clean freak. The things I save are usually wedding invitations and such.

All bills are electronic. When our sons (12 and 18) give me things from school that need to be signed I sign them immediately and they go back into backpacks to be returned to school. Someone mentioned SAT/ACT scores, but those can be accessed electronically, too, and my son kept track of everything he needed on his laptop. He is very organized like I am, so if I ever asked him about anything for college he could access it right away.

When the boys were little, I kept a file for each of them with their favorite writings and art work, but I learned quickly that none of us ever went back and looked at any of it, so I quit saving it. We are not a sentimental crew. I teach AP English, and I do like to save some of their best essays, but I save those on the computer now.

We do keep SS cards and birth certificates in a safe.

I just recently went through all my past mail since I'm looking to move abroad. One thing that helped me was having folders for each "topic/company" i.e. auto insurance, medical insurance, previous W2s, etc. A lot of times the items we get just aren't necessary. I would also try to make everything as paperless as possible to reduce more paperwork.

I kind of have the same problem, mainly because I am out of the house from 7:15 am to 6 pm and then there is supper to and laundry and homework and just plain craziness in my house. A friend of mine was a stay at home mom until her kids entered middle school. She had the same issue. She found that have work hours helped take care of things, including house etc. She would take her kids to school, then when she got home she started what she called her middle day job. For 2 1/2 hours per day, she took care of things that needed to be done, including all the paperwork. She had a file folder with a pocket labeled "pay", "file", "medical", "school" etc. Each day she filed things iin the folder. Then the next day was her work day for that stuff and she had a file cabinet to keep some things that were needed and shredded other things. Seemed to work pretty well for her. She also used a spreadsheet for her budget and bill payments. She had a monthly folder and when the bills came, she compared the receipts and then shredded them if needed.

I do a lot of filing and I'm quite anal about it. I have filing cabinets.

1 cabinet is for customers and vendors, 1 business, 1 personal.

My immediate file drawer is at my desk and organized for outgoing AP, then A-Z system along with other files.

I keep another drawer style file system on top of my cubby hole file system so I have quick access to checks, paper, tax info, etc.

I still don't have it all together but I can find something that's asked for pretty much within 15 minutes.

Right now I have 3 laptops I use for business, 2 IPhones and an IPad. I do not take laptops on business trips. They stay put.

I have detailed notebooks of day to day to do jobs and to follow up jobs.

I pitch or shred junk mail regularly.

Hope that helps.

Do we have the same husband?? LOL - that's what mine does!

I think the problem with so many papers is that you need to keep them "just in case" but you rarely need the hard copy on a regular basis. So a scanner may be worth the investment - something like Neat Desk. You scan everything and put them into virtual "folders" and then toss the actual paper (shredding if necessary). The chance that you will need all those old bills or bank statements is pretty remote - so you don't need hard copies for 7 years. But they're in the file just in case you, say, get audited or need to prove something.

Once you pay a bill, you can write "paid" on it with the date or whatever else you usually do, then scan it and toss it. Kids' medical records? Scan and then sent the original in to the school, and print out another one in 3 months if you really need one for the baseball team sign-ups.

Set up the folders the same way you would regular file folders - home repairs, medical (separate by person if you need to), oil/electric, telephone, pet care (licenses/veterinary), and so on. You can also scan receipts and even business cards. If you set up the folders well in the beginning, it saves time.

Something you KNOW you will need a hard copy of, you can file in a folder - examples are W2 forms or health insurance summaries for your tax returns. Everything else that's a "maybe-I'll-need-it" gets scanned and only printed if in fact you need it.

We've just started using Mint which keeps track of budget items paid by check or debit card. You can set up categories for that as well. We had a bunch of medical appointments, and Mint keeps track of the parking fees as well as the copayments. Tie it to your checking account so it's updated automatically and you don't have to enter in data on your own.

Not sure what you consider "important" mail. Most of my mail goes straight in the trash or recycling because it's almost all junk. The few bills that I still get by paper (most are auto-pay/electronic at this point) I leave on the kitchen table or counter and pay within a day or two. I keep receipts in a letter size basket in a kitchen cabinet near the front door, I go through it once about every six weeks or so, to clean out old receipts I no longer need.
I don't keep bank, credit card or medical statements/records, as those are all online now and I can print out something if/when I need it.
I have a single binder with pockets and dividers where I keep passports, ss cards, birth certs, auto and vet records, warranty info for major purchases, etc.
So that's it, a single binder for important papers and a basket for receipts.
Less paper means less to manage!
ETA: when my kids were in school I kept their school papers in a separate folder (in a basket on the kitchen table with the pens, pencils, crayons, etc.) and I kept things like sports, lunch and activity schedules taped up inside a kitchen cabinet where I could easily glance at them anytime.

I keep 2 file boxes. They have tabs for everything: bank, credit cards, utilities, insurance, etc. At the end of each year I purge those folders into smaller file boxes which I then keep for 7 years under the stairs in the basement. It is amazing what I have needed to retrieve from those boxes over the years. Mail is processed immediately. Anything sensitive like SS cards, passports, car titles etc. are kept in the safe. I do the filing for my husband. Although he does have his own office in our home, I made files for him so that he can easily drop stuff in for his business. At the end of the year I also purge those files for him and file the stuff with our household stuff.

I file by topic in general but do have a TAXES file that has to do with anything that might pertain to taxes, deductions, paid home improvements, paid monthly bills (if I don't need them for taxes when I pull them out in January, they're just shredded) etc. If I even THINK it might help us or be needed, it goes in there. Yes, it gets fat but I have no doubt where I need to look for important yearly records.
On a daily basis, when I find something I need to address, I have a basket on my desk that it goes in. One day a week, I go through it. This could be bills, school stuff, phone calls I might need to make etc.
It's pretty simple but I find that when things get too complicated, I just avoid doing it so this works for me. Good luck!

i take care of the mail. immediately. if its something that needs to be saved for later i file it by month. every month i check last month to make sure everything got done. if there is something a few months away (like a wedding or dr appt made in advance) it goes on the calendar and that gets seen daily
there is a file for the other important stuff like the vehicle titles, the social security cards, birth certs etc, and thats in a lock box.
for most of our bills we have gone paperless and dh takes care of all that. all online.
i have a box that i stack all important receipts in. and for that one the next one just goes on top of the last one. (they end up being in order from newest to oldest and since i am th only one that adds to it i can keep it neatly stacked.(we are talking like home improvement purchases, and appliances. anything thats purchased for the ongoing remodeling that we are doing in the house or garage any thing related to work on the car or truck goes in the glovebox of that vehicle so no matter where you are you have a current copy of the service records.)

I have a 3 ring binder that I put bank statements, retirement account statements, life insurance info etc. into. That is in a drawer in my kitchen with stamps, checks etc.

I throw out all bills because I get a statement from the bank with a photo of the check.

In our filing cabinet I have immunization records, SS card, birth certificates, marriage licenses. I have a seperate file for warrantees.

I have a binder for each of my girls that I keep their awards, reports card and special projects in.

My husband does the same thing. He'll even try to hand me my debit card when I'm in the middle of typing something. I tell him "I'm not ready for that right now, please hand it to me later or simply put it in my purse in the slots in the front pocket". He won't touch my purse except to carry it for me if my hands are full so he will hardly ever put it up, in it's home place...

What you need to do is pick ONE day of the week. If your trash comes on Tuesday then you need to pick Monday evening. While you watch TV or something sitting down you need to have a trash can, a file folder for those things that you need to keep, and some other things that will help you sort through these.

When I am sorting through my pile I have the trash can on my left, a tub for school papers that need to be looked at more closely but it's often just stuff brought home, and I have a stack of papers that are mine...that I need to read and then toss or save in my own space.

I can get through a stack a couple of feet high in a half hour. THEN I have about half because I threw a bunch away. Now, I take one of the piles and resort it. Let's say I have a stack of school stuff.

Letters/note from authority figures go in one pile. Art, possible keepsake materials, etc...in another. Calendars, events, birthday party invites, etc...things that have to be checked and scheduled go in another pile. Remaining things, if there are any, are put in one pile that might need to just be its own pile.

Other stuff is sorted logically too.

Any bills go on my bulletin board until they're paid.

Recipes, coupons, and sale sheets from the newspaper go into the kitchen where I make the shopping list and menus.

Every single piece of paper can be placed in a folder, stack that will be used when you're planning a shopping trip, put in a place of importance so it can be paid, put where you are going to go through your calendar to organize/schedule things.

It can all be done.

Just pick one day per week when it is YOUR job to sit down with that pile and go through it. Have an alarm set on your cell phone, have your google calendar or yahoo calendar send you a reminder for 2 hours, 1 hour, 30 minutes before so you can get that reminder and remember and get stuff moving along so you have that time without any interruptions.

I did mine while we watched Castle. Then Kate went stupid again and moved out so we stopped watching it. Guess what, I forgot to do my pile of paper stuff. So do use the reminder option, it will help you get moving on it.

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I try to "touch the mail just once". Bring it in, open it and pay it. Most of our bills are "auto pay"
now so that helps. Most everyone these days offers to have electronic bills & statements so I've selected
those. It help cut way down on paper. I do have a deks and it's organized with all the stuff I need: file
box that sits on top, check book for those few bills I pay manually, pens, stamps etc. I bring the mail in,
open it, pay those few manual bills and immediately file the statement in the file box that sits on the
desk. The files are by month (January, February, March etc.) and keep them for a year. (Tax stuff I keep
for 7 years). I shred what I don't need. Know the dates of things that are due each month (mortgage, insurance,
health club etc. Actually write it down on a calendar so you'll be able to see it at a glance. The keys
are to be organized, have a visual (the calendar), have the tools all in one place (check book, pen, stamps)
and to only handle the bill/paper once. Open it/pay it.

https://publications.usa.gov/epublications/keeprecords/ke...

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/how-long...

http://lifehacker.com/5977082/what-documents-should-i-shr...