It’s Coming – Tax Day

Last weekend my husband sat down to do our taxes. Yes, it’s that dreaded time of year. Some of you might have already filed them – I know many people who do it within in the first month or two of the year, eager for the refund. Then, others put it off, searching through mounds of random papers looking for all the receipts and other relevant information. From what I see, whether you’re relatively organized or not, it’s not something any of us look forward to. Despite this, if we can be organized, it can reduce the stress and anxiety associated with this process.

I’ve always been a big proponent of making a specific place to hold all the tax information – a place where you can put it over the course of the year – knowing where to get it when it’s that time to deal with taxes. This can be a file or a box, it doesn’t matter as long as you put the papers there consistently and avoid putting other papers in that same place. I’ve made files with upcoming years on them so I don’t even need to think about making another file and every time I get to filing papers, I put them in their correct spot.

There’s one exception to this for me – the medical expenses. In years past, I’ve had an envelope that lives by other frequently used papers in a desktop file sorter, where I can add to it easily. Then, before my husband does taxes I pull out all those receipts, divide them into categories, and add them up – giving my husband that grand total on what we spent on doctor visits and prescriptions. Because of the way I’d set it up, I’d need to add the numbers multiple times, making sure I’d not entered one (or more) of them incorrectly. Toward the end of this year, I decided to make a spreadsheet for medical expenses; columns for the categories and let the computer do my calculations. I still need to make sure the numbers are entered correctly, but I make a little effort throughout the year, and it’s that much easier when it’s time to do taxes.

Do you have papers that are important for taxes yet also relevant for other activities? Although not everyone has this to deal with, businesses and those who volunteer extensively are commonly faced with this. It might be “easiest” to make duplicates – then you can have one copy with tax information and the other copy with the other relevant papers. Even I cringe at that – who really wants MORE papers to deal with?

As with any organizing, the bottom line is being able to find it when you need it and having a system for tracking what you need. If you file those papers with the relevant papers and forget that at tax time, you’ll be unhappy. Also, as with most things, there’s multiple ways of dealing with these dual use papers.

When will you use those papers next? Are they something that you’ll need next in September? Put them with the relevant papers. Rather, will use them next for taxes? Put them with the taxes. After you’re finished using them for their next purpose, move them to the next place they’ll be used. Part of how this can work is to make a note for yourself and put in the opposite place from where they’re stored, telling you that these papers are important and then where to look to get them. Once taxes are completed, papers you’ll refer to for their other purpose can live with that related information. You’ll only need access to them from a tax standpoint in case you’re audited.

If you’re computer savvy, you can make a file – spreadsheet or document. If you just need the totals of your different receipts, it can be easy to enter that information and even track it from year to year. It’d be more concise and immediate to have just that information you need in a computer file. This does mean that you’d need to be consistent in adding the information into the file.

It’s not too late to decide on and create a system for handling all the tax documents you’ll need for next year. Think about where you struggle – what papers do you waste time searching for? Why those papers? Brainstorm ways to cope with how they interfere with your system. Let it evolve. My medical receipts lived in an envelope for years before I decided to add them to a spreadsheet throughout the year, making my life and the taxes easier.

Unikeep View Case Binders

View case binder from Unikeep

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Pros:

sturdy
fully enclosed
stands upright evenly and stacks easily
customizable
eco-friendly, biodegradable
cost is reasonable

Cons

sometimes requires pieces from company to work best
somewhat limited sizes

Review

At the NAPO conference in 2010, I came across the Unikeep booth. Initially, the most notable thing was that their binders have a unique feature with the binder rings. The rings, just like the rest of the binder, are made of 100% polypropylene. As I was talking with them, I found out that they brought some free samples to share, so I looked through the various colors and sizes they had and picked one. I’m grateful they did, I now have a blue 1″ view case binder.

Although the case itself is interesting, the rings are odd. I was truly hesitant at first. It feels unnerving to pop them up. Since they’re made of polypropylene, you open each ring individually by putting your finger under the ring and pulling up. It often makes a snapping sound and I have visions of breaking it. Yet, I’ve never done any damage to the rings. Snapping them back into place is easy too.

Another feature of the rings is that the placement of where the rings separate means that you can have pages anywhere in the binder, all to the left, all to the right, or somewhere in the middle. This seems even truer with this product than even the typical 3-ring binders.

Their binders have a snapping closure to keep everything safe and secure inside. The binders are rectangular, and the marketing on the back talk about how easily they stack. Although this is certainly a nice feature, what I find more impressive is that they can stand on a shelf. They are balanced, so they stay upright. Yet, one thing I dislike about typical binders is that because of their shape, they don’t fill shelves evenly. This could never happen with Unikeep’s binders, they’d line a shelf with perfect symmetry.

The line of view binders has a full wrap overlay so you can create and insert pages of the information or design you want. Although I’ve not used it, they say they’re website has templates and tips for creating the insert. With this feature and the line of possible colors, you can customize this binders to fit your needs, whatever that might be.

Their website has many different kinds of pages you can insert into the binder, from basic tabbed dividers, to pockets (with or without tabs), business cards holder pages, disc holder pages, and on. The standard pockets pages with tabs do not fit in the binder, as the tabs are just a little too big unless you fold them. This means that it’ll make more sense to buy the accessories from Unikeep. I’m less annoyed by this than I might be since I find the standard tabbed pockets to be too big for binders too! I might even buy some supplies from them to use elsewhere since they’d appear to be more appropriately sized. I’m also intrigued by the “tear out” pages where you don’t need to open the rings – as I’ve been impressed with the material’s sturdiness, those “tear out” pages might be well done.

One of the first ideas for me was for my volunteering for the support group, I have this large binder that has articles and handouts for attendees. As I talked to them, they acknowledged that they did not have anything that was big enough for that purpose. Of course, I could carry multiple binders, or even consider the extreme case binder. The truth is that my standard binder for this is now falling apart; it’s probably too full. *grimace* I’m now seriously considering these binders.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to overfill standard 3-ring binders. It looks like there’s more room and I’m fighting that triangular shape. With Unikeep’s design, you don’t have the temptation to overfill them. The descriptions also clearly state the number of pages you can expect to get into their binders.

Under pros above, I listed cost as reasonable. I was working on a personal organizing project, and wanted to pick up some binders and was dismayed at the cost. So dismayed, that I bought some binders from dollar stores and whatnot to save money. Those binders are now falling apart. A perfect example of getting what you pay for, yet Unikeep’s prices are comparable in price to your standard binders with better features.

Now I love the idea of being environmentally responsible, though often put other factors higher on the priority list, like functionality. If something is not functional, it doesn’t inspire me to recommend it or buy it for myself, no matter how environmental. Yet this product is more than functional, and is 100% recyclable. It also uses fewer resources to make these products. So far, I’d even be tempted to say it’ll last longer and stand up to use better than your standard binders. Now that’s great environmentally, but also great for us, the one who’s going to use it.

I’m not always a fan of 3-ring binders in general. If you use them without accessories, you need to make sure to take time to punch holes in the papers. This becomes less of an issue if you use the accessories of course. I’m impressed with these binders, and even dropped a book into the case successfully one day when I was out and about. The quality and design of these are wonderful. I hope you’ll consider these for any potential need you have in the future (and I have no affiliation, they don’t even know I’m writing about them).

Do you have another binder that you really enjoy using?

Note: All my reviews are done without consideration for the company (sorry!) – as unbiased as possible! I don’t receive anything from any of them and most don’t know I’m even reviewing their products.

The InPlace System Organization Kit and Post It Note Wallet from Peter Walsh

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Pros

sturdy materials
document sleeves actually hold items, even small ones, well
slightly see through materials
erasable materials, hence reusable
designed to mix and match, to suit the user’s needs

Cons

items in kit don’t work together well
document wallet uses bad closure, it falls out or cannot be used if full
clip tabs are bulky and fall off frequently, as well as don’t work with document wallet
a little expensive
erasable pen doesn’t write well
post-it notes in wallet fall out (of wallet, not once attached by themselves)

Included in the [In]Place System Organization Kit:

•    1 Erasable marker
•    5 Clip Tabs
•    Document Wallet
•    3 Poly File Folders
•    3×3 White Post-it Super Sticky notes – 50 sheets
•    1 Poly Document Envelope
•    3 Poly Document Sleeves

Review

I was curious from the start, I mean it’s Peter Walsh. I looked at it when I was in the store. Have I mentioned how cheap I can be? I could not bring myself to buy it. I was not sure if I thought it was that exceptional. The NAPO list serv had had mixed thoughts on it, which also gave me pause. Then I was happy I hadn’t spent money on it since at the national conference, we were all given the organization kit and the post-it wallet.

From the moment I opened the kit and pulled everything out, it seemed like an odd combination of items. They don’t work together the best although the kit does give you a variety of items to see what is available. The entire line is intended to be mixed and matched to suit the user’s needs. This is one of the strongest pros since we all have different needs and styles and I could never promote anything that tries to put people into a box – with a one size fits all approach!

I was impressed with the document sleeves, which just means that they have 1 ¾ openings and have a slight pocket like purpose. The description actually says they have a 3 sided closure, this is not completely accurate, yet describes how it functions. I was surprised at how open that 3rd side was, and unsure how well it would keep small papers from falling out. It did fabulously! I never lost a little note when I put it in there and this is no small feat when you think about how easily small papers fall out of file folders.

Peter Walsh [In]Place system document sleeves

These hold onto all sizes of paper amazingly well.

The clip tabs look neat, but their size gets in the way. They are meant to be used with both the hanging folders (which I haven’t used) and the file folders. When using them on the file folders, either as a way to hold the papers together or as a top label, the clips fell off frequently. It seemed like the slightest jostling and they’d pop off. They also do not fit on the file folders if you want to put those file folders into the document sleeve to carry them somewhere.

Neat idea to have erasable tabs, yet they're bulky and won't stay on.

I’ve used the pen only to mark the clip tabs, and I needed to go over my words at least twice to make the ink dark enough to read. I’ve not found any problems with erasing, and here is where the idea’s strong – the ease of relabeling something.

I like the idea of the document wallet, which is bigger than what I’d picture with the name wallet. It is a nice sized container to hold file folders, document sleeves, and document envelope. It’s easy to carry around, so not too big or too small. My only problem with it is the closure – it’s an elastic string with a ball that slips into a hole at the bottom of the wallet. If you have filled the wallet, the ball won’t fit into the hole, and it has a tendency to slip out if you haven’t wedged it in well.

Peter Walsh [In]Place system document wallet

I have mixed feelings about the document wallet.

The file folders are sturdy. Since they are made out of the poly material, they feel solid and they’re not going to get bent or crumpled. They are slightly see-through so you can see what’s inside. Since they are poly, the number of papers you can keep inside is limited, as you can’t resize them like typical file folders though I find this less important. (We can all use some reminders to not overstuff our files!)

The document envelope is fine. I’ve got some decorated ones from Divoga that I think I prefer since they are larger. Peter Walsh’s document envelopes are paper sized, so if you have any papers that are a little larger, they won’t fit (unlike the Divoga ones). Also, you are limited to how many papers you can fit inside. Since it is the same size as the rest of his products, these envelopes fit inside the document wallet (and any other of his products).

Finally, the post-it notes are the super sticky ones and come in a neat closing case. The problem arises that the post-its apparently don’t like sticking to themselves very well. Every one of the 5 pads (each a different color) have fallen out of the wallet, though leaving a single post-it hanging on to mark where they’re supposed to go! They do seem to attach to the poly material well, as none of those have fallen off. This leaves the wallet as a useless piece of poly that can serve no other function.

Peter Walsh [In]Place system post-it note wallet

I like the colors, yet they won't stay in their nifty packaging!

Although there are certainly aspects that I didn’t like, overall I find the products to be interesting and useful. I’m not convinced they are worth the price considering some of the problems.

Have you tried or do you use any of the Peter Walsh [In]Place products? Let me know what you think of them.

One of My Favorite Things – Containers

My husband knows me well – he used to bring home containers of various types for me. You see, other than media, one of my favorite things is containers. I ooh and aah over them, drooling. They come in many different sizes and shapes, then there’s the material they’re made out of and if they’re drawers or boxes. How I long to take them home with me! There’s no denying how useful and helpful they can be.

My husband has also stopped bringing home those containers for me. We’ve run out of space and use for them – at least for the time being. This certainly doesn’t stop me from yearning to pick more up. Every so often I’ll still get more, like that time I went to the thrift store – I got a basket and a cute little elephant that just had to come home with me.

What we need to do is make sure that we know specifically what we need and only then purchase those things. I talk generally about when to buy things in a previous blog, True Purchasing Power. When it comes to containers and other organizing supplies though, we often buy first. It almost seems counter-intuitive to buy containers late in the process of getting organized. Yet this is exactly what you need to do.

An extreme example is getting a file cabinet. You see all these piles of papers around and just “know” that you’ll need a 4-drawer filing cabinet. You go out and get it and even have a place to put it. Then you start going through all those papers – and discover that most do not need to be filed. You actually only needed a 2-drawer filing cabinet. You could have saved yourself money by waiting.

We tend to fill the available space – so if you have a 4-drawer cabinet but don’t really require it, you’ll probably end up putting stuff in there – whether you keep unnecessary papers or you drop random things in there later. This applies to any of our spaces, therefore buying what you need becomes even more important and will help avoid things getting inadvertently cluttered. As an aside, many organizers claim that we ahould not have more than one 2-drawer file cabinet for papers.

As you begin to get organized, you’ll see that it changes many things. It’s great to start with some ideas of how you want things to be and look after you’ve finished. Yet, as you work through various things, your ideas begin to change. You have the freedom to decide that you want to move something to another room – not just furniture but also what activities you’ll focus on. Then those containers might not work as well.

If you avoid getting containers before you get organized, you are free to figure out how and where you’ll keep things without being limited by the container you’ve already purchased and without any guilt! In this day and age, you have such a plethora of choices of not only container, but also how to store things – like the ottoman that doubles as file storage (as long as you don’t mind the price!) – so waiting until you know precisely what you need to handle and where you want it to go is critical.

Feel free to drool over all the nifty stuff out there for organizing, yet resist the temptation to buy any of it until you know how you will use it and that it will actually work for your needs. I certainly continue to salivate and contemplate whether I could use those organizing supplies.

Only Handle It Once

I’ve spent time cringing at promoting this to most people! If we take the idea literally – when you grab the mail, you will spend time attending to each bill and making separate trips to the filing cabinet or shredder each day as you deal with each piece of mail. Doing a web search on those terms several hits talk about the myth of Only Handle It Once (O.H.I.O) while others talk about how helpful and important it is. Yet all of these articles, whether “debunking a myth” or using the system, really boil down to the same thing – it’s really about your level of efficiency.

It requires that you don’t try to apply this literally to every situation. There are times to handle something only one – junk mail and spam e-mails are good examples. Is there really any reason to have this cluttering up your space and not getting it into the trash (physical or electronic) quickly? It does also rely on your definition of junk and spam – for example, if you are in the market for a new credit card, those offers might be worth examining.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of things you aren’t going to handle only once, at least in the literal sense. If we think about “handle” more loosely, as in moving the item to a temporary “home” until it is time to attend to it, you can eliminate any worries it could cause by knowing you will complete later. You are handling it once – in that you are moving it along in your system.

Therefore the key piece here is to have some systems that work for you, where you’ll put the things in the meantime. It needs to be the same place each time and not cluttered with unrelated items. This means that you can create different areas for phone calls, bills, scheduling (parties, social events, etc.) and focus on each one independently of the others, or if it works for you, keeping this all together. Regardless of how you choose to set it up, you need to use it and make time to deal with those items.

If you are able to make a specific home for things and when the time is right, focus on them, you are still handling it only once since your brain is not continuing to “handle” it between when you got it and the time when you need to deal with it. Sometimes this is where things break down for people; they don’t have working systems. This is a different issue, as it isn’t handled only once.

This applies to e-mails as well, if you deal with it promptly, you will not keep re-reading them over and save yourself time. In truth, it applies to many things. If your dishwasher is not actually getting your dishes clean the first time through, you have to handle them repeatedly – hence why some people will almost wash the dishes before putting them in. If we can streamline the laundry and get it put away, we’re not handling our clothes over and over again.

The truth is that even I still struggle some with thinking about this phrase as not literal – when I hear it, when I talk about it – I still cringe inside. I’m afraid people cannot take it more figuratively – and from much of what I’ve seen and heard, when people talk about it, they use it literally. Yet, if we can shift our thinking about the term handling to being about moving things along in the process, we’ll become more efficient. As well as we’re simplifying things in our lives.

Tweaking Systems for Yourself

Is there a “right” way to organize something? If you’ve been reading my blog for any time, you’ll know that my answer to that is a passionate NO! The most important question is whether it actually works for you. If you and the people who need to use it are successful, that is all that matters. Often it is challenging to find the systems that will work for you. Goodness knows there are so many “solutions” offered – from books to the Internet, maybe even your mother!

As people promote their solutions, it frequently falls into two categories: the direct outlining of a “do it this way” approach or the more vague “figure out how to do it your way.” Of the two, I’m certainly more of a fan of the later, though this can leave the person searching for those solutions feeling no better off than when they started looking.

Yet we can use those “do it this way” approaches as a place to start. If there is one that draws you – for its simplicity or its logic, whatever it might be, begin thinking about how this would apply in your situation. Then alter it to fit you and your situation better. One of the keys to doing this is to keep it as simple as possible. The more complex we make things, the more likely they are to break down.

I was working with a woman who had found a system for paperwork – break everything down into five categories. I’ll admit this was one system that I’d never heard of and the categories suggested did not completely make sense to me. In my mind I saw a fair amount of possibility of overlap and hence potential trouble in retrieving papers.

Yet the question is not whether this system made sense to me (never mind that I was unfamiliar with it!), it was about whether it worked for that individual. When I talked about setting up filing systems, I’ve been a fan of having some broad categories. What those specific categories are can vary from person to person. If you liked four of those five broad categories, go with only those four. Or even change the fifth to something entirely different that applies to you.

I mention FlyLady to clients sometimes. They come back and talk to me about this or that part of it. They find parts irrelevant or even dislike parts. When we are looking at ways of handling things, from cleaning the house to getting organized, we need to feel like we can follow our own path. FlyLady stresses many different aspects of things: from shining your sink to wearing your shoes to routines for parts of your day. If some don’t make sense for you, ignore them or alter them to mesh with your life.

As you search for the solutions to your organizational challenges, make sure first and foremost that you don’t overwhelm yourself searching through all that’s out there! You could do that for a long time while getting no closer to your own solutions. Next, embrace the idea that you take those specific solutions others’ promote and change them to fit you. There is truly no one right way of being organized and tweak systems until they work for you.

Creating a Digital Filing Cabinet with a Scanner

From the moment my computer connected to the Internet almost 20 years ago, I started saving most of the e-mails that I received. I organized and archived the information. I began daydreaming about converting much of the paperwork around me to digital. I didn’t even own a scanner at that point, so it would have required extensive typing. Then several years ago, when I joined NAPO, I started seeing discussions of scanners and digital filing systems, specifically The Neat Company and Fujitsu ScanSnap. Beyond the actual monetary price of these systems, there are other costs to consider.

Beginning with the upfront, actual cost – the desktop versions range start at $400- and the mobile versions start at $200- so it is an investment not only of your money but your time. They can be helpful for businesses in organizing paperwork and working toward the goal of going paperless.

I adore the idea of these for myself. Then I was talking with my husband about them and how much we could use them. How much more organized we could become and get all digitized to boot! He had envisioned how helpful they could be for having access to reports easily without needing to physically carry around a huge folder. The files that they create are searchable (the extent varies between products) and readable by PDF readers.

I saw myself obsessing about getting all the information into the system. I could then spend hours, or more likely days, organizing it. I could keyword the various files and start shredding the growing pile of papers no longer needed. We could eliminate so much paperwork, making it all digital and I wouldn’t even have to type things out. It takes time to set everything up and then the time to “get caught up” with all the things we want to scan.

What is my time worth? Would it be worth your time? Any time you invest in a new organizational system, it takes time and energy to put it into effect. The new toy and revolutionary tool tempts us with the idea that it will solve our struggles. There are certainly situations where this tool is useful and the best alternative. They’ve been designed so that anyone who wants to pay the money can use it, regardless of their purpose.

One of the things I do as a volunteer, is to scan a sheet once a month to e-mail into the office. I also add the information from that sheet into my own spreadsheet. In addition, I have a file with that original sheet, since that sheet is clearer than the scanned sheet. Oh, and I keep a copy of each e-mail with that attachment. How many copies of this one piece of data do I need? I have fallen into the trap of digital clutter, which I only recently recognized. (I’ve been doing this for almost three years!)

I cannot help but wonder – having this wonderful ability to have so many things digitally available, does that not increase our ability to “hoard?” Those digital files don’t really take up that much space, right? There is no visible clue that we are holding onto more than we actually need. It would be simple to forget about the things that were supposed to be only temporary. Those “what if I need this one day” questions entice us to simple scan it in, adding clutter. Maybe only to our hard drive, but clutter is clutter.

Despite some of the possible detractions, I will keep this technology in mind. It is not for me at this moment, but I am still tempted. That physical cost is more than I am willing to spend and I need to plan how to not lose my time to it when we do get it. I might sound like a broken record, but whatever tool luring us with making our lives easier comes with caveats. The more I look around, the more I am aware of these temptations for making our lives easier have hidden costs that come with them.

Organizer Problem or Personal Problem?

I have been exploring planners and date organizers lately, being dissatisfied with my current setup and wanting to find something that accommodates my preferences and limitations. In talking with my husband about my personal pros and cons of different systems, he brought up his struggles and said, “I don’t have an organizer problem, I have a personal problem.” I knew exactly what he meant. There are systems and organizers aplenty out there, yet they are not the answer to all our problems. Finding the perfect one is not going to solve the struggles we have in using them.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there are personal preferences and different ways that we all process and function, so there are organizer systems that will work better for some people than for others. Yet, some people can bounce from one organizer to another searching for the one that will somehow “fix” the ways we manage ourselves.

I could argue that most planners are all relatively the same concept with slight differences. The market continues to keep producing variations, offering more selections and in some ways propagating the idea that there is a perfect solution for everyone. The temptation is to try the newest, latest versions. This is further complicated by the ever-growing electronic choices. Now we need to choose between paper or electronic, or find a way to work with both.

When I was in high school, my dad was quite persistent about getting me to use a planner, and he was (and he still is) a huge advocate of the Franklin Covey system. Due to the price of getting started and possibly due to my resistance, I began with a DayTimer planner. After using the DayTimer and even liking it, he moved me to a Franklin planner. And for most of that time, it worked for me – in fact, for the past 20 years, I bought purses so I could carry that good-sized Franklin around with me, to the point I was getting shoulder and back pain.

In recent years, I found myself using aspects of the organizer, but there were facets of the system that I was resisting. I find the month at a view crucial for tracking my schedule and I use it consistently. Yet, the daily task list was either empty or it was overloaded with items. I was either significantly overestimating what I could accomplish in a day, or avoiding listing anything so I would not feel bad at the end of the day. In using the task list, I ended up doing the very things I encourage others to avoid: underestimating the time you think a task will take and overestimating how much you can get done.

Attempting to compensate for my resistances to daily task lists, I started making a general list of tasks on a blank sheet of paper, referring to it periodically where I would pick and choose what I was going to work on. The problem with that was it was a huge list, had varying degrees of importance, and could easily feel overwhelming just to look at.

Recently I have begun making weekly lists, working at keeping them relatively short and limited to the important tasks I want to accomplish in the next week. Finding myself processing things in this way I started thinking about the PlannerPad system. It has a two-spread page with a section at the top for the task list, under it the tasks can slide into specific days, and finally at the bottom is the schedule with time slots.

Despite my struggles with certain aspects of planning, I recognize that I have slipped in my own discipline. I was feeling overwhelmed with all the things I wanted to get done and overestimating how much I could do in a given day. This is the very reason I have talked about being careful in our thinking about how long things take us.

We need to stop looking outside ourselves for the answer to the difficulties we have.

As I have been looking at and considering different systems, I am focusing on what would benefit me, the aspects that will assist me in the areas where I am struggling. There is no telling how long the planner I choose will work for me and I will need to re-evaluate its functionality regularly. I have identified how the monthly view and concrete schedule continues to work, but the area where I have faltered is the tasks. Now considering where I slipped into being more lax, I want something that will help me strengthen those skills again. It will not happen overnight, and no organizer will cure that problem. Nevertheless, there is a system that will support me while I improve my techniques.

If you are struggling with a planner or day organizer, step back for a moment and consider: is this a planner problem or a personal problem? If it’s a planner problem, there’s plenty of alternatives to choose from and try out. However, if it’s a personal problem, no amount of money spent on planners can help. It takes discipline, attention to the areas where you are struggling, and most of all, a commitment inside yourself that, no matter what, you will work to be more organized.

Organizing Papers, Ugh! Even More So… Part 2

In our last installment on organizing papers, I was only able to get through what to do with the short-term papers. If you didn’t see that post, don’t fret – you don’t need to have read it in order to read this post. So, that said, we come to an all-too common problem: long-term papers and what to do with them. Do you struggle with that? Don’t be afraid to say so. I know that I’ve struggled with it and overcome it, and helped many people do so, as well.

Long-term papers are those things we need or want to keep. They can be anything from papers we need for filing taxes to recurring bills to the recipes we clip in order to try them. We need to keep the different long-term papers organized with a system that allows us to easily find the various things we might need.

Everyone needs to file taxes, so the papers necessary for this need to find a place and need to be kept. If the size of your tax file is not huge, I recommend a file in a filing cabinet. I make sure to have a tax file for the following year so that anything that arrives during the year can immediately go into the file and it is all together when it is time to prepare taxes.

A few categories that relevant for taxes have a separate file, like the specific business expenses. Medical receipts are another separate category since those need to be itemized and totaled before taxes can be completed.

For some, the paperwork that accumulates for taxes is too large to fit comfortably in a file. One person I know uses manila envelopes to gather each month’s papers together, which are then labeled and kept in a box and organized chronologically. However you choose to keep your tax papers together does not matter as long as it makes sense to you and can be easily accessed.

Any papers that relate to financial investments and property, such as your home and car, need to be kept as well. Credit card statements and pay stubs are often kept; at least until additional paperwork arrives that confirms the important information. Receipts are often necessary for warranties and for valuing your property.

There are many differing philosophies and approaches as to what to keep and for how long. I know some people who keep every utility bill and credit card statement for a certain number of years. I know others who discard these same things as soon as they have paid them. There are plenty of resources available with advice on how long to keep various papers and the most popular one is to consult with your financial advisor. The IRS publication 552 addresses paperwork to keep, if you can slog through the legal-ese!

I am not going to tell you how you should handle your papers. The truth is that it does not matter that much. What is important is that you know where your papers are when you need them. Whether you put them into files, accordion folders or manila folders is completely irrelevant. You need to decide on a system that makes sense to you and how you will look for the items so that you can find them easily when necessary. The system you create needs to work for you.

When I help someone who is starting from scratch to create a filing system, I gather all the relevant papers together, trying to make sure there are no other papers in the pile. I sit on the floor (I find it easier to spread piles around me that way, though as I get older this is less and less appealing!). I then dig into the one big pile, making smaller piles. Each pile is going to become a file in the filing cabinet, so each different kind of paper needs to be separated. I like the hanging folders with categories, so after creating the smaller piles, I would make a list of the files to be created on a sheet of paper. Then I can look through it and divide those into categories for the hanging folders. At this point, I start labeling the hanging folders and file folders, labeling and putting the papers into their files.

Personal preference becomes important, so sharing my system, I have a bank category and each account, even ones with the same bank, will get an individual file to go within the category. My husband’s work papers are put in the company category and then the papers are divided up into files within that. How you decide to organize your papers is dependent on how you will look for them and how many papers exist since you want to watch out for putting too many papers into one file.

One caveat to this process can be the amount or types of papers to be filed. One client I worked with ran a business out of her home, so we divided the initial pile into two large piles. One was for home-related papers while the other was the business. After those were separated out we started making the smaller piles. If there are other types of papers you want to save long term, these kinds of papers can be separated out as well. For example, when I was attending school, those papers were kept in a different drawer and during the initial sorting process would make a general school pile which I would later divide up for the various files within the school category. My vet bills are another example of a file that is not kept with the general household files. This is just my preference, yet provides an example of some things that could be separated from the general household files.

I know many people who have a collection of recipes they have culled from newspapers or magazines, and it is important to find a way to keep track of them and most important have them accessible so you can try out the new recipes. Something as simple as a solitary file folder on a kitchen shelf can work. This was the first stop for one client. The recipe stayed there until she’d tried it, and then she knew if she wanted to keep it. It could get thrown away if she was not impressed or added to a binder if she wanted to make it again. Recipes from magazines are often available online through the magazines website, and I save paper by copying any recipes I’m interested in to my computer’s hard drive and where I can easily make notes as well.

There are so many types of papers that you might want to save, it would be impossible to cover them all. Let yourself be creative in finding solutions that work and strive to be able to retrieve any papers you might need or want without difficulty. Be sure to set up some routines to maintain control over the never-ending papers coming in your door.

Organizing Papers, Ugh! Part 1

Papers never stop arriving. The mail is delivered 6 days a week barring a holiday and even if most of it is junk mail that you throw away, there is bound to be papers that you end up with. If you are well organized then they will not clutter up your home, but how many of us are THAT organized? There are so many ways to organize your papers and the different kinds of papers that you may decide to keep, whether short term or indefinitely.

Everyone has a system for dealing with those papers coming in, although whether it is working well is another matter. It is a system even if the papers are piled or dropped somewhere. Most critical for the system is whether you know where to find things easily and are paying your bills on time. Yet, this often is not enough.

The first step is to figure out what you want to keep. Period. Start this simple. Is there a reason to hold onto something right now? If there is no reason to hold onto it, throw it away.

Next, with the things that you are keeping for right now, what is short-term and what is long-term?

Starting with the short-term papers: coupons, catalogs, and sometimes magazines are easily put into this category. Coupons and catalogs expire or become outdated. Find a place to hold onto these short-term papers where you know where to look for them. Make a point to look through the catalogs within a short time and decide whether it is now trash or something to hold onto for a while longer.

Some people keep catalogs until the next one arrives. If you want to do this, find a relatively small place to keep them. I have seen catalogs kept in a small drawer, an upright magazine holder, and in-box container just for them, to name a few. Creating a place to keep them that helps contain them temporarily helps to make sure that the older version can easily be thrown away after the newer one arrives.

Similarly, with coupons, if there is a small place you keep them, you can see when it is time to review them, purging anything that has expired, and reminding yourself what you want to use. They can be kept in an envelope, a small bin, in your purse, or wherever you find convenient and logical.

Magazines ideally are read before the next one arrives. If you enjoy the magazine and are loathe to just throw away the unread magazines, stop getting more until you are caught up and you can always start getting it again. Canceling a subscription or not renewing it is important in avoiding unnecessary clutter when you do not have time to read them. Try to be realistic about what you can read regularly; no one else can determine that for you.

Deciding what to do with the magazines after you have read them varies from person to person as well as the type of magazine. I am a fan of tearing out articles that you want to keep and finding a way to organize them that way. There are times when you want to keep the whole magazine though. My husband and I have a combination of both these approaches.

If there are articles you want to keep, one option that saves space in your home is to find them online and save them on your computer, where you can do keyword searches for them. If you keep the paper copies, create a way to organize them. You can put them into files with appropriate labels so can find them easily or create binders that keep them altogether.

If you are keeping the magazine as a whole, you also need to find a way to keep them organized. Theoretically, if you decide it is important enough to keep, you are going to want to have access to it at a later point or you do not want them to be ruined. They make binders that are designed to hold magazines without damaging them or what I like using are the magazine holders. The magazine holders can be as decorative or plain as you want and in different materials, from heavy cardboard to plastic, to metal ones. I use each holder for a specific magazine after it has been read and been moved into the keep category and they can be kept altogether.

Organizing papers is a detail-oriented process and I will begin the section on long-term papers in the next post.