Filing Without Fear

Do you have a huge pile of papers and documents sitting somewhere in your home? Do you look at it and pray that you never need to find anything in there, because you know it'll be a frustrating and possibly fruitless task? Are you afraid of even attempting to file those papers? Don't be, because they can be easily sorted out.

Firstly, you'll need to buy some binders and dividers, or a filing cabinet and some hanging file folders. This doesn't have to be expensive- pick up a cheap filing cabinet at a second hand store, or ask around friends and family for old binders. Next, decide what groups your papers should be split into. One for you bank statements, another for credit card information, one for insurance, a file for information about your schooling, and a file with your payslips, and perhaps more, depending on what other important information you have.

Now, set aside a few hours. This isn't a job to do half way. Get the filing done and out of the way, and then keep on top of it, so it never becomes a burden again. Get together everything you need. A hole punch, some labels and the binders or filing cabinet.

Label all the folders you'll be using. Now, start sorting through that pile. If some letters are still in envelopes, take them out and flatten them, then punch holes and put them into the correct folder. Put them in chronological order, so that when you no longer need them (after a certain number of years for financial records) you can dispose of them easily, and so that when you need to find something you know exactly where to look.

Now, keep filing papers and documents until everything is ordered. Find something you don't need or can't imagine why you kept? Shred it, to protect your information, them recycle it. All there is to do now is to make a new good habit of filing everything as it arrives. Think of how long that pile took to sort through- better five minutes a few times a week than an hour every month.

As well as taking a weight of your mind, sorting out paperwork can alert you to any potential problems or issues that might be raised in it- do you really check over your bank statements, or just chuck them on the pile? Read through them as you file them, to make sure the charges match up with what you've spent. Check your phone bills- are you being billed the correct amount? Working routines like this into your life can save you huge amounts of hassle in the long run.