Organize Your Life Day 11: Paperwork

When you have a family there is no shortage of paper running through the house. Whether it is school work, artwork, junk mail, or doctor bills, everything has to go somewhere! Unfortunately, sometimes that somewhere is a stack on a desk in an office that quickly becomes cluttered. Not to mention we can’t find said papers later. No more.

Welcome to Organize Your Life Day 11: Paperwork.

This is part of a mini-series on overcoming parenting (and life!) overwhelm and stress by organizing your life. Click here to see the introduction and links to other days.

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I hope you have had great success with your organizing endeavors so far! Simplify, organize, and systematize really can work wonders! Today we’re taking that pattern to all the paperwork that comes through the house. From birth certificates and rental agreements, to artwork and permission slips, we will cover it all.

Open your Workbook or journal to Day 11: Paperwork. As you read today’s post, record any notes or tips you want to remember about organizing your paperwork. We will follow the same three steps here as we have used before to get our homes organized: simplify, organize, systematize.

1. Simplify

Most of us who feel overwhelmed with paperwork do not keep things simple enough. We save too much or make the system too complex to keep up with. So as always, our first step to organizing is simplifying.

Here are a few tips for simplifying family paperwork.

• Bills:
  • Go paperless with as many bills and records as you feel comfortable. You will have record of payments on your online account. Many companies also offer confirmation emails, or you can keep a simple running list of payments and confirmation numbers in a Word or Excel document. If you do feel the need for some paper bills, only keep a few months worth of records.
• Doctor Records:
  • I have found it wise to save medical records. However, discharge information, vaccine information sheets, and the 25 papers that come home from the doctor’s office are not necessary.
• Maintenance Records:
  • Whether it’s work you’ve had done on the car or house, these are worth saving for future needs or reference. They have been extremely helpful when said repair did not go as planned. 😉 Keep one oil change record at a time for your car in case you forget when you’re due again. Recycle old ones.
• Financial Records:
  • Again, most financial records can be kept digitally these days. However, if you’re more comfortable having some paper copies, keep about three months at a time or look for summarizing statements like year-end or tax returns.

Here are a few tips for simplifying kids’ paperwork.

• Kids’ School Work:
  • Look at all school work that comes home. This is a great way to stay in tune with how your children are doing and what they’re learning. Making connections between school learning and home life can be extremely beneficial.
  • Keep a few pieces of work from each year for a scrapbook. We talk about “Show me” work. I’ll ask my kids, “What does this piece of work show me about you?” If it shows a lot of personality, creativity, or problem solving abilities, then we consider saving it. School journals are by far my favorite school work to save.
  • If it is not great “Show me” work, talk about it, congratulate on hard work, encourage effort, and recycle the paper. I don’t talk about every school paper that comes home, but it is a great way to connect with my kids.
• Kids’ Artwork:
  • I prefer displaying pieces of art. We have an art wall consisting of yarn hung between two Command Medium Utility Hooks. We attach the artwork with clothespins. This is super simple and budget friendly to set-up. I also know people who love their easy change frames for kids’ artwork.
  • After displaying for a while, take a picture of the art with the artist and then recycle.
• Scrapbooks:
  • I for one love looking back at old scrapbooks, especially of my parents. These are meaningful ways to make generational bonds, and I feel they are worth the time and space to make them.
  • However, we don’t need to over save. Keep scrapbooks manageable. Again, go with the “Show me” idea. Does the newspaper clipping show me something interesting about the individual? Does the picture show me something a little unique from the other 50 pictures I took? (Don’t reference the first six months of my first child’s life if you want a good example on this one! 😉 )
  • Having any remembrance will be great, so if you’re not really sure if you should keep something, you can probably toss it.

• 2. Organize

  After deciding which kinds of papers are important for you to keep, it’s time to decide how to organize them. Address our three key questions to make our organization user friendly.

  1.) Who is using it?

  • The place for kids papers should be easily accessible to them.

  2.) Where are they using it?

  • If everyone passes through the kitchen after school, maybe that’s where school work should go. If papers are supposed to go in an office through the hall, unfortunately they are more unlikely to make it there.
  • The recycle bin should be right next to where your papers go.
  • Envelopes should be easily accessible by paperwork for sending money to school, answering mail, or any other needs.

  3.) How often are they using it?

  • If the papers should be accessed daily, forget closed file cabinets. The papers will end up in a stack on top of that cabinet. Seen it here, done by me a million times. I’m going to say I had other more important things to do, rather than claim to be that lazy.
  • If you don’t need to access the files often, they should not be in prime real estate.

  Organization of Our Paperwork

  My favorite way to organize paperwork is in hanging files. As we move a lot, these portable file boxes are my favorite. We have two (that have lasted for years) for all of our paperwork.

  You can make your own categories for files, but if you just want to copy mine, here are the files we use.

  One file box is devoted to important papers.

  • Taxes (Includes mailed W2’s or 1099, deductible or charitable receipts, pin numbers, etc. Slip things in throughout the year to simplify tax time.)
  • Investments (Includes records for 401K, IRA, etc.)
  • Bank Accounts (While we don’t have paper statements, we do keep copies of account numbers and such.)
  • House (Includes rental/mortgage agreements, maintenance work, etc.)
  • Car (Title information, repair work, etc.)
  • One file for each family member with important documents (Birth certificate, social security information, medical records, etc.)

  The second file box is devoted mainly to scrapbook memorabilia. It houses a hanging file for each family member, as well as one for the whole family. Additionally, warranties and user manuals have a file (although it has thinned out over the years with so much online)and temporary files go there.

  Temporary files have included college information, job application information, volunteer work, and other personalized needs.

  3. Systematize

  Now we figure out what system will best help us maintain our organization.

  This is my favorite part because honestly, the system that has served us well over the last several years is so simple!!!

  Our system has three steps.

  1.) Take care of papers immediately if possible.

  • Junk mail goes directly into the recycling box.
  • Artwork gets hung on the art wall.
  • If I have a minute, I’ll send the bill or reply to the mail right away.

  2.) Everything else goes in the sorting stack. ONE stack!

  • We have stacking letter trays. I bought ours at a dollar store, but you can get them online or anywhere else. The bottom trays are for computer paper, scratch paper, and colored craft paper. The top tray is the sorting stack.
  • Kids don’t ever hand me school work because I will probably set it down somewhere random. They put papers right in the sorting stack.
  • If I don’t have time to file a doctor record or take care of the mail, I put it in the sorting stack.
  • If there’s something I want to read later, it goes in the sorting stack.
  • One stack is genius because we never miss, we’re never intimidated by the system, and we (almost) never have random papers sitting around.

  3.) Mom sorts the papers.

  • While I wait for dinner to boil, chat with one of the kids, or brush my teeth before bed, I’ll quickly sort the papers. I examine and toss school work (in the recycling box next to the sorting stack) and take care of permission slips or anything else that is time sensitive.
  • If papers need to be filed, I might do it then, but there’s no rush. It only takes a few minutes every once in a while.
  • When I do file the papers, I always place them in the front of the correct hanging file so they are in a fairly consistent order and easy to find later.

  That’s it. That is as simple a recipe as it gets for no more paper clutter.

  Your Turn

  In your Workbook or journal, answer the following question. What system will you use to keep your paperwork organized?

  Use the remainder of your hour today to simplify, organize, and systematize your paperwork. After your hour is up, record any thoughts, take-aways, or future action items from today.

  After your initial work, you will be amazed at how easy your papers are to maintain. Your paper overwhelm will disappear as you are no longer surrounded by random stacks, and you know where to find everything you need. This organization will serve you well!

  Please be sure to share any questions, struggles, or success stories by email or in the comments.

  Tomorrow we head into fun zone…Organize Your Life Day 12: Toys.

  A few products you might find helpful as you organize your paperwork:

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