How to Organize Documents and Papers
6:00:00 AM
Sure all houses have this and this one is an
unnoticed clutter culprit. After all, how can one paper bill makes a room
clutter, it barely occupies space. But if you keep getting them every month,
wait until you see it piled up in your house. So today’s post is dedicated solely
to paper clutter. Let me share to you our paper system.
First step is to limit the paper inflow in the mailbox. To
do this, I would enroll most of our utility billing into paperless so I get
billings online instead of the actual paper going into our mail. I am also a fan
of online books and magazine so those things do not come to our house also.
This way, we would have less paper to organize.
Digitalize
Now, for those papers that came into a mailbox, I will deal
with it immediately and will check whether they can now be disposed (or recycle)
or be stored digitally. With today’s great camera phone and cloud storage, we
can now keep our files virtually so they won’t take up physical storage space.
Some people are hesitant to use the digital file but let me you the benefits:
- It prolongs the life of your document. Papers are destructible, after a few years you may not be able to read what’s written on it but with digital paper, its immortal (as long as you don’t accidentally delete it)
- You will always have it without having to have it physically. I love that I can take notes and keep references on Dropbox or in my email. Every time I need it, all it takes is a search button or better my favorite shortcut keys CTRL+F and there you have it.
- You can share it. I’m actually neutral about this one. You can share it but it’s also susceptible to being accessed without your permission. So you have to be extra careful in dealing with your digital file.
Going back to my system, my rule is to store every paper
digitally except if it will require having the original copy or if it will be
too difficult to get a new copy. Those things I called Permanent File and will keep
them. But the rest, I will scan, store in cloud storage and dispose after. I do
have an HP scanner but it’s quite slow and consumes more electricity so for most
of the time my phone is the reliable scanner device. I use this app for my
android phone called TinyScanner. It scans neatly, has an option to send your
documents to dropbox or google drive directly and best of all its free! But not for iPhone though, it's still cheap anyway.
Have a centralize storage
Now let’s tackle the Permanent File. Permanent file includes birth certificate, marriage certificate, contracts, business
registration, official receipts of an important purchase and anything important
you can’t get rid of. A permanent file varies per individual so go decide your
own permanent file. But let me remind you, a love letter you dearly keep is not
part of permanent file. Sure you are not willing to get rid of it, but it is categorize as a
Sentimental Item which I will discuss on a separate blog post. So please, don’t
include it in the permanent file folder. Now I keep these papers in one accordion
folder because it has pockets inside and it has enough space to hold my entire
permanent file. The category I use is Certificates, Contract, Receipts, School
Credentials etc. I also keep the first pocket empty and I use
it for papers that I’m not sure yet if I should keep or dispose, I will keep it
there temporarily until I was able to decide.
So that’s how I keep my paper organized. This
system works for me and I hope this will help you too. Keep in touch for more
organization tips. You can subscribe to my rss feed so it’s specially delivered
to your mailbox. Thank you.
For those who find difficulty in organizing your home, I want to help. Send me an email at info@romanelle.com and let me know your organizing problems and I will give my best to help you. Talk to you again next time.
For those who find difficulty in organizing your home, I want to help. Send me an email at info@romanelle.com and let me know your organizing problems and I will give my best to help you. Talk to you again next time.
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