Hold onto your hats…. this is going to be dull.

I need to keep a fair amount of paperwork around the house as I’m self employed and my work is quite spend-heavy so I have to file away about £80k – £100k worth of receipts every year.

A Foolscap Folder / Document wallet holds about a financial-quarters-worth of receipts. Each project generates a folder-worth of contracts, release forms and other notes too. I like using document wallets as they travel well in my bag and I can write pertinent notes on the outside of them for quick reference and the contents is usually made up of lots of single sheets and small documents, and in the case of receipts – lots of different paper sizes.

A Foolscap Box File usually just about holds a years worth of folders, and means everything can stand up on a shelf rather than sprawl on a desk. But it holds them badly – you have to squash the folders in and in a while the boxes start to burst, and won’t stay closed properly (in fact pretty much the first thing that happens is the little closer tab pops off when you put the folders in).

First.World.Problem.

I quite like the folders, I can write a lot of pertinent info about the contents on the outside of them. I quite like the boxes because they stand on the shortest end and are the most space efficient way if storing loose paper. I like that both the folders and the boxes are cheap and I can buy them in the local supermarket. What I don’t like is they just don’t quite work together.

So, stationary fiends… Is there a source of slightly smaller document wallets or slightly larger box files? Or just a better solution all in.

And more importantly… can we turn this into an argument?

Why not use orange 5s filing cabinets or do paperless?

The problem is the wallets and the box files are both foolscap. Can you use A4 wallets and foolscap box files?

Suspension filing and an Orange 5?

EDIT: DAMN IT! 😀

Can’t you get some metal divider/retainer/bookend type things that clip onto your shelves? then you can just use the document wallets on their short ends?

Then you can just use card with a right angle bend to slot between files to denote what’s in that section of folders?

or

Ah. So you want to put the wallets inside the box files?

I thought you wanted to store the wallets on their short ends and see what’s in there without getting them out.

The problem is the wallets and the box files are both foolscap. Can you use A4 wallets and foolscap box files?

The wallets are actually labelled “A4 / Foolscap” so I guess unless theres a specifically smaller make of wallet about then I guess they’re all a one-size fits both.

Why not use orange 5s filing cabinets or do paperless?

A filing cabinet extends into the room too much. I haven’t got the patience to scan £80k worth of receipts.

Can’t you get some metal divider/retainer/bookend type things that clip onto your shelves?

Now I like the idea of those – where from?

Ah. So you want to put the wallets inside the box files?

Correct, or rather, yes thats what I do at present – so a wallet for a quarters trading and 4 wallets in a box for a year. Wallets for projects and those in a box of similar projects and so on

I thought you wanted to store the wallets on their short ends and see what’s in there without getting them out.

Well that could work as well

No idea! Loads of places, I expect. I just did a google image search for “metal shelf divider book end clip” to save time describing what I was on about.

Why not just scan it (make sure you have backups sorted for your pc ) and bin the paper altogether?

There are loads of apps round now to photograph receipts and file them in categories straight away

Why not just scan it (make sure you have backups sorted for your pc ) and bin the paper altogether?

Too many of them, scanning takes too long. And its not just receipts I’m filing, theres all sorts of documents that I need to keeps physical copies of – paperwork for vehicles, some of the film contracts I have to sign are 40 pages long, I also have stuff like enhanced disclosure paperwork that has to be the original hard copy only.

I’m wondering if magazine files might make a good replacement for the file boxes but sizes and quality are a bit hit and miss.

Interestingly… the presentation box that my Rapha Jeans were delivered in is a perfect replacement for the box files – size is just right for the folders to go in (see thats where the money goes – attention to detail!). I’m not sure I need another 30-odd pairs of jeans though. 🙂

CFH to the thread!

Office Depot 230413

http://www.viking-direct.co.uk/a/pb/Office-Depot-A4-Clear-Polypropylene-Document-Wallets-Pack-of-5/id=1430748/

can also buy in different colours, for categorised transport& storage

Don’t pay these prices obvs.

Getting warmer maybe – but because their not bellowed like manilla folders the A4 polyprop ones end up as big as the foolscap manilla ones and will still get snarled up inside box files.

God I’m bored. This thread was supposed to be an escape from the monotony of sorting out 6 months of neglected paper work, but the prospect of shuffling paper again actually seems marginally more attractive than browsing stationary online.

Gusseted – Not Bellowed

http://www.lionop.com/poly-expanding-files-poly-expanding-wallets-and-file-totes/?p=3

or

http://www.viking-direct.co.uk/a/pb/Flexiform-Shelf-Files-40mm/id=ND182339/

I’m wondering if magazine files might make a good replacement for the file boxes but sizes and quality are a bit hit and miss.

But some will be understuffed, some overstuffed. Magazine boxes was what I first thought of, but the shelf dividers do the same, you’d need fewer of them, and you can stick em wherever you want to make the best use of the space you’ve got.

God I’m bored.

Not surprised. Me too. I did chuckle when I saw you back on this thread though.

Gusseted – Not Bellowed

Those two links are still ones that size up too big to go inside the file boxes.. just. Its width-wise that they get squished – the inside measurement of the boxes is 235mm but to clear the clippy bit that keeps the box closed the files really need to be about 230mm max.

Or I need a box thats 250mm wide for regular foolscap wallets.

Archive type boxes work out better size wise but they sit on their long edge rather than their short edge and the cardboard construction is a bit to flimsy for working files rather than stuff thats been filed away for good.

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Or I can just hope the earth will open up and swallow me.

the inside measurement of the boxes is 235mm but to clear the clippy bit that keeps the box closed the files really need to be about 230mm max.

Total shit.

Didn’t know we had a member of the Oxford Debating Society in our midsts.

Woooooohoooooa, hang on a minute, hang on a minute. Just had to rummage out some old info from about 10 years ago. Out from under the spare bed, box file full of paperwork in Elba Manilla Document Wallets. Nominally Foolscap but 15mm narrower than the files I’ve been buying recently (I was sure this never used to be a problem). A quick google of the re-order code on the back…. still available.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjdK1b_Q4wE[/video]

woooooooooooooooooooo11111!!!!!!oneoneone

punches the air

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-hvPCeeFoM[/video]

fist bumps all round

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mMXCBE7RkM[/video]