How to Organize Paperwork – Creating a Paper Trail

This month we are working on organizing our office spaces and getting rid of all that paper clutter for The Household Organization Diet {you can find this month’s to do list HERE}.  I know that paperwork can be a huge source of stress for many people, and it can be very overwhelming when it comes to trying to organize it all.  It is amazing how quickly all of that paper can add up, so it is extremely important that you have a plan for how to organize paperwork in your home.  Creating this “paper trail” will help you come up with an organization system that will work for you and banish that paper clutter once and for all!

In order to tackle all of your paper work {and develop a plan to keep it organized!}, you need to have an idea of where it comes from, where it goes when it enters your home, and where it should ultimately end up.   First you need to figure out where your common dumping ground is.  This is the place that you would typically drop your mail or other papers when you first bring it into your home.  For many people {us included!}, this dumping ground is often the kitchen table or kitchen counter; however, a table by the front entry or mudroom are other common spots.

If you are looking to create an organizing system that works for you, it needs to be simple, it needs be convenient, and it needs to be practical.  If you know where your natural dumping ground tends to be, try to set up your organization system as close to this as possible or choose another convenient location that does not really put you out of your way.  It doesn’t have to be big – you could use a portable filing box, attach some file folders to the inside of your cabinet doors, or come up with a wall mounted system similar to our kitchen command center.

I have two main places in our house where our paper trail ultimately goes – the kitchen command centre and our basement office space.  The kitchen command centre is basically used for short term paper storage – the kids’ school papers that just need to be signed and returned back to school, letters or bills that I receive that need to be mailed back out, store coupons that I wish to keep, etc.  I have 4 main folders that I use – one for coupons/gift cards, one for bills to pay, one for things to do, and one for things to file {these are things that need to be filed downstairs in our home office}.  I also have a set of small drawers below that I use for the kids school papers.  Every Friday, I try to spend about 5 minutes going through this area tossing anything that I no longer need and just tidying it up.  I then take anything that needs to be filed downstairs and pay any bills.

Getting Started
Before you actually start to work on setting up an organization system, you will need to go through any piles of papers that you already have accumulated.  Gather everything up and sort them into three piles: keep, recycle {or garbage}, and shred {for any paperwork that has any personal information on it}.  Group the papers from the keep pile into categories. This can include {but is certainly not limited to}:

• bills to pay
• events
• kids papers {lunch orders, school notes, book orders, sports/activity schedules, etc.}
• coupons
• records to file {i.e. tax forms, pay stubs, investment reports, etc.}
• personal papers {birth certificates, SSN card, medical forms, etc.} You may even want to further divide this into a separate file for each member of your family.

Once you have determined how you are going to sort your papers, you need to find somewhere to store them.  If you have a lot of paperwork, a filing cabinet is probably the most obvious choice for paperwork that you need to keep long term but there are lots of nice portable file boxes that you can find at office supply stores as well.  For more information on how I file our paperwork, check out this post.

Bills
Obviously the easiest thing that you can do to decrease your paperwork when it comes to bills is to sign up for online statements so that you are not actually receiving a paper bill every month.  Create a separate folder in your email account to put your online monthly statements until they are paid so your bills don`t get lost in your emails.  If this is not an option for you {or you just can’t give up that paper!}, you need to come up with a system for storing and paying your bills.  When I initially go through our mail, all of our paper bills are placed into a “Bills to Pay” folder in our kitchen command center.  I take this down to the basement office when I pay the bills on Fridays and then the majority of the bills are shredded. The remaining bills {which is generally just my credit card statement that I keep for my blog taxes} are filed away as soon as they are paid.

Junk Mail
Get rid of junk mail as soon as it enters the house.  Better yet, cancel all of those catalogs that you never look at and take yourself off mailing lists.  Always think twice about giving out your contact information at stores and avoid placing your name on raffles, surveys, and warranty cards {you really don’t need to fill these out unless you are concerned with getting safety recalls}  To get off mailing lists, follow these steps…

• In Canada
  If you are in Canada, you can put a note in your mailbox stating that you do not wish to receive unaddressed admail and Canada Post will stop delivering these.  To get off addressed mailing lists, you will need to write to the Canadian Marketing Company {as well as the Direct Marketing Association in the US if you receive junk mail from the US – see below for info}.  You can find their contact information HERE and find even more information HERE.
• In the United States
  If you live in the US, contact the Direct Marketing Association HERE.

 Kids Artwork/School Work
Kids artwork and other school work that you would like to keep can very quickly get out of hand if you don’t have a plan.  You {and the kids!} need to come to terms with the fact that you just cannot keep everything and come up with some kind of system for deciding what you are going to keep and what needs to be recycled.  There are lots of creative ways of saving space – take photos of their favorite projects and make a collage or take a video of your child explaining his artwork.  Keep only your very favorites that have a special meaning to you.  It is much easier to deal with this as you go as opposed to going through piles of papers years later.  You can find more ideas for organizing and displaying kids artwork here.

Tax Records

There are always a ton of receipts and other forms associated with taxes.  To avoid lost documents {and to save your sanity when it comes to actually doing your taxes!} it is important to have an organization system down that is easy to follow throughout the year.  I have a separate little portable file folder that I use just for taxes and have files set up for the various sections in our tax forms {i.e. income slips, RRSPs, medical receipts, childcare expenses, etc.}.  This way I can easily file things away in the proper category throughout the year as I receive them and they are already sorted when it comes to tax time.  Here in Canada, we are required to keep all of our supporting documents for taxes for six years from the end of the tax year  so I have all of my previous documents grouped together by tax year and will then shred it when the six years has expired.  If you are in the US, you can find more about how long to keep your tax records HERE.

So there you go.  Time to get sorting and organizing that paperwork!!

For more info on tackling the paperclutter and organizing the home office, check out these posts…

How to Organize Paperwork

Home Office Inspiration and Printable To Do List

Updated Kitchen Command Center

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This post is part of The Household Organization Diet.  If you need some organization inspiration, check out THIS POST  to learn more about the plan and THIS POST for all of the 2015 updates.  You CAN get that house cleaned and organized once and for all!  To see all of the previous posts click the Get Organized tab at the top of the blog and go to The Household Organization Diet.  I also have all of the posts pinned to my Household Organization Diet pinterest board.  Start at any time and make sure you are following along so you don’t miss out…

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