Yep! It’s for real, friend. This is my desk! So, I wanted to share some real life with you, wet hair and all (I had just gotten out of the shower), about how I organize my paperwork quickly because I let my paperwork pile up for several months. This may be shocking, but it should not be because organizers will tell you that their stuff isn’t perfect all the time. What is key, however, is that when you have an organized system in place, like my entire filing system which I have shown in this post, it is quite easy to recover your space when life happens, and things build up.
For me, I don’t have paperwork on my priority list. I can get away with this though because I have all my bills automatically deducted and if there is anything that isn’t a regular bill, I know what those look like, I open them right away, and I either pay them right away or put them on my calendar with a reminder to pay on a specific date. I pretty much check everything quickly as it comes in and complete anything that needs immediate attention. However, I do sometimes let my paperwork pile up for a bit. And, here I go showing you how I organize months worth of paperwork quickly!
To ensure I gathered all my paperwork together and got it all done in one fell swoop, I emptied both my purse and my work bag of all accumulated paperwork. I set aside my poly envelope from my purse and you will see why later.
From my desktop sorter, I pulled out some business reference binders to make space and got to filing. I set aside my car registration because I need to get a smog check next week. Throughout my sorting, I set aside the recycling and shredding on the floor. I always discard the opened envelopes and staple and/or paperclip the contents before filing them. Most of the envelopes I don’t bother to open, immediately when they come in the mail, are medical insurance approvals for appointments and prescriptions which I am already aware of. So, I simply open them when I’m ready to file paperwork. When I receive snail mail from friends and family, I put the envelopes that have addresses on them in my follow-up bin so I can save the address to my contacts, then, once I do that, I recycle the envelope.
Once, I completed filing my paperwork into my desktop sorter. I pulled out the coupons from the “coupon” folder and quickly clipped coupons that I knew I would use. I know what we will buy because of my meal plan so this goes by super quickly. I sorted out the expired coupons, and put the rest in my purse poly envelope, and then put that in my purse.
Then, I pulled out my “to file” folder and pulled out my current year filing tote. I pulled out my manual binders to make space and got to filing. I set the permanent files on top of the permanent files tote to file after I completed filing the current year paperwork. I set the carpet shampooer owner’s manual on top of the manuals binder to be placed in there when I place the binders back in this tote. After I finished filing into my current year bin and then set that down and brought my previous year/permanent files tote up on the desk to file the permanent files. Then, I put the totes away and dusted off my desk and I was all set!
This took me about half an hour to organize my paperwork quickly and recover several months of piling paperwork. So, just remember that if you have an organized system in place, you will be able to easily recover your space. If you do not have an organized paperwork system in place, you can check out my previous paperwork post.
We are still going strong with the November Home Organizing Challenge! Go ahead and download it here if you haven’t already as this is the last weekend to get the house in order for Thanksgiving! This challenge is the perfect preparation for our Finance Organizing Challenge next month. And, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the notification bell, so you can know the moment my next video is up and never miss another organizing video.
Happy Organizing!
Author of “How to Organize Any Space in 7 Simplified Steps“