Organizing Home Office Files

Last week I talked about organizing your desktop. Today, let’s focus on the files.

1. Sort papers into broad categories. Common categories are listed in bold.

2. Next, sort into categories within the broad headings. Samples are listed below.

3. Many of the categories will then need to be subdivided. For example, divide "Bank Statements" into: Checking Account A, Checking Account B, Money Market Account, Savings Account, etc.

4. Alphabetizing the files within each category.

5. Label each file folder. (I’ll write more about this next week.)

Action Items: to do, pay, read, etc. Some people prefer to have these files on the desktop, while others prefer to have them in the file cabinet.
Financial Records: bank statements, loans, pay stubs, receipts, tax records, etc.
Lifestyle Records: church, classes, pets, volunteer work, etc
Vital Records: certificates, education records, employment info, medical records, will, etc.
Trash/Recycling: any info you no longer need. 80% of what is filed is never referred to again, so consider if this is something you will look at again.
Shred: any trash that has identifying info: social security number, account numbers, passwords, etc.

I am using the categories of financial, lifestyle, and vital records from Julie Morgenstern’s book, Organizing from the Inside Out.