how do you organise/manage your paperwork?

Like bills and bank and mortgage statements etc. How long do you keep them for and where do you put them? Filing cabinet, folders, scan and store electronically? I currently store mine on any flat surface throughout the house. Thank you.

😀

stavaigan why are you asking you already have the ideal system as used by all sensible men.

My wife occasionally gathers them all in one place and files them by category in date order. She has two big storage boxes with hangers to do this in . The whole exercise seems to make her happy.

Electronic/online/paperless/direct debit for everything that I possibly can. That keeps paperwork to a minimum.

All important paper stuff gets stuck in the filing cabinet to be forgotten about till I need it again. The rest gets shredded.

I put the really important stuff in a small filing cabinet, everything else gets scattered around the house in various piles and is occasionally shredded en mass

i let it pile up for ages, then once in a blue moon the important stuff goes in a box cabinet, the rest gets shredded.

Dolcered +1
the pile can grow from 6 months to a year, then I sort it… have done it that way for years & manage to find relevent paperwork when required, as it’ll be in the pile, not some stupid lost folder 😉

I’ve got a chronological system that works roughly along the lines of
Floor, Table, Sofa, Floor, Boxes, Bin.

i had a great system similar to above where by i never lost anything important

moved in with the missus and adopted her folders and boxes filing system

have since lost my v5 for the van

If it’s not done online then it goes in the cabinet.

A LIFO filing system using an age old storage system.

Full size filing cabinet here, but then I do run a small business from home….

At work – electronically, save for original documents.

At home – on top of the bureau until the pile teeters too much. And then in hanging files in a small filing cabinet. Every few years/changed car/house moved this is purged and I break a shredder.

Four of these[/url]

If the house is on fire, I have to grab the red one. I also shred anything old.

Bike stuff has its own place in one of the boxes.

I use the ‘open cast’ method of filing

Feeling a whole lot better about myself now.

I run a business from home so I throw mine on the desk, eventually it will slide off the desk onto the floor behind the desk where it will rest untill about January 30th the following year.

imp[ortant stuff – insurance , acr stuf fpassports in the filin gcabinet
everything ewlse goes in a shoe box till it is full when full check shoebox and throw contents or store what os needed.
about 30% of the shoe box is unopened when i file it under bin

I store it until I can take no more, then bag it, stick it in the loft until Xmas time then take it here:

http://www.shredit.co.uk/Portsmouth/Home.aspx

Big beige filing cabinet, small green filing cabinet, big writing desk, small writing desk and left hand pillar of office desk seems to nearly cover it here, the rest sits around. Mind you that covers two self employed folk, current and former businesses, voluntary groups, kids and family records. Probably could cull around half though, but sorting through would be a right PITA so it just grows and older stuff gets put in more unlikely corners of the house.

The only filing system that ever proved useful in my working life was the first one I ever encountered. It used some old technology which was pretty foolproof – a filing clerk. From then on, they have all been disasters because everyone made up their own rules.

After a ‘dark phase’ lasting about 9 months when I didn’t actually open any mail, I just burned it all. I’m not aware that anything bad happened as a result. Which was a useful lesson in itself.

I put it all on my really wonderful and highly regarded secretary’s desk,sometimes she shoves things in my face to sign then takes it away,does something magic with it and I never have to bother myself with it again.

I’m quite good with stuff like this at work but I’m terrible when it comes to organising my own life.

I don’t really manage my paperwork in any way, shape or form. There is a big pile of stuff in the kitchen which when it gets too big is periodcially thrown in the bin.

I once accidently threw away a file containing all my girlfriends paper stuff- insurance docs, driving license stuff, GCSE, A-Level and Degree qualifications, passport etc. She was maaaaaaaaaaad.

I have a large ring binder with dividers in it to separate out bank statements, pay slips, etc. It’s all nice and neat and sorted and colour-coded so that I can find anything I put in it.

However, because I’m a boy, I ignore it completely and pile up paperwork in a large stack on top of a cupboard until it risks collapsing in on itself under its own gravitational mass.