Organizing Your Important Papers

We all know how easy it is to let papers pile up, such as bank statements and old billing records. If you are like most people, you probably hate hunting for the papers that you need. Everyone has important papers that they need to organize and keep safe. These could include your mortgage/deed, your will, bonds, your financial records, travel documents, tax documents and the like. You want to keep them at your fingertips in case you need to pull them for any occasion. If you do not have a lot of important papers, you can consider purchasing a fire safe file box that is easy to store and easy to tote around should the need arises. However, if you have many important documents, you might want to consider a file cabinet to store your records. Moreover, if you have documents that are extremely important, you might want to consider looking into a safety deposit box.

A fire proof file box can prove to be a lifesaver if your home is damaged by fire, flood or other forces of nature. These can be purchased at most big box stationary stores and can last up to 30 minutes in 800 degree heat. However, these do not provide a lot of storage space and should be only used for extremely important materials.

If you have more papers than will fit in a small file box, you can start first by sorting out your papers, putting them into piles. Next you might want to consider purchasing a file cabinet from an office supply store for your papers. Documents such as your tax returns, paid bills and other important papers can be stored there.

Setting up an at home filing system is not difficult. You need some basic supplies such as a cabinet, files and dividers. You can have sections such as BANK, BILLS,

HOUSE, PERSONAL, CHILDREN, AUTOMOBILE, etc and break down your papers accordingly for storage. You are supposed to keep important documents (like tax returns) for 7-10 years (depending on where you are living), so you will need to set up a filing system for them.

Within each section, you can put dividers that can break down the filwa into sections that say loan, returned checks, etc and use different colors to organize each section. If you have too much to put into one folder, make a sub category such as under bills, you might want to distinguish between your regular home phone and your cell phone if you have different providers.

It is handy to have a couple of baskets near your filing cabinet. One that you can put items in that you want to perhaps read before you file them and another that is active and can hold your current bills that need to be paid; you can file them after paying them. Try to make the effort to file your papers at least once a week. Also, you should weed out your filing system on an annual basis and destroy documents that you do not need anymore. It is okay to have an inbox, but you need to keep on top of the papers or they will overwhelm you. If you do a little at a time, it won't be such an overwhelming task.

A safe deposit box is a good way to store some important and valuable documents such as your wills, deeds to land, among other things. If these papers are stored off site in a bank, they tend to be somewhat safer. However, the drawbacks include the cost of the box and the fact that it can be somewhat inconvenient to have your papers in a different location if you need them quickly.

Developing a filing system for your important papers will help you stay more organized and keeps vital documents easily accessible.