Some Paper/Filing Organizational Tips

[AmyBoz]

Found in: The One-Minute Organizer: Plain and Simple by Donna Smallin (my favorite organizational author)

-If the stack of paper in a file folder is more than one inch thick, separate the stack into two folders

-choose staples over paper clips for keeping papers together in a file. Paper clips tend to fall off or get attached to unrelated papers

-insert hanging-file tabs on the front of the folder so that they're visible even when the folder is full. When you want to look in the folder, just pull the tab forard to open the file in the drawer

-color-code hanging file tabs to distinguish between different types of files such as financial or insurance records. Also use color coding to separate business and personal files or to differentiate project or client folders

-don't waste time filing papers you don't need to save. For example, there is no legal or tax reason to save your cable bill and other utility bills after paying them unless needed to document business expenses. You may wish to keep just the most current paid bill as documentation that your last payment was received or for easy reference to customer service numbers. Shred the rest.

-Information gets outdated quickly. If you know where to find the most current information, there's no need to file the paper

[momof42003]

I save the utility bill for each month-maybe the last two... I have separate files for each.. Do you think it is a waste of files to do that? I could just file all utilities into one folder marked utilites, right? I would keep the house and loan stuff separate though. Just wondering. It just came to me as I was reading this thread.. Thanks.