How do you organize things like financial statements, legal documents and just overall important papers? I struggle with this one because I have no idea how I should keep them organized. I'm looking for some tips!
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I'm not sure either but would love to hear what other people have to say.
All the papers from when we bought our house are all just sitting in a brown folder on our desk. I have no idea what to do with this kind of stuff either!! EEP.
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I bought a filing bin from office max and store it under our desk.
like this: http://www.officemax.com/office-furniture/storage/file-storage-boxes/product-prod3461274?R=21893970&ssp=trueI have each folder labeled - bills, insurance, legal documents, taxes, loans, bank, medical, etc etc. I go through it every 3-4 months to make room for more. It's really efficient and takes up minimal space.
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@Mrs. Pen: How long do you keep things for? I struggle with that too.
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@Bao: depends on the items, in general, a year.
When we moved out of our last apartment, I threw away all the utility bills for that place. For the bank, I keep statements for a year.
Credit cards, I keep statements until it's paid off, but I always keep the terms and agreements.
I also always keep warranties and user manuals.
I usually keep big medical bills for quite awhile. I don't see myself throwing out my L&D bills for awhile, even though it's been nearly a year. I keep receipts for big items (furniture, etc) for over a year, or however long the warranty is.I would say generally a year.
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@Mrs. Pen: great, thanks!
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Same as mrs pen. I have one for myself, DS and DH. Alphabetized and then each year has a separate Manila
Folder. -
We have a little filing cabinet. We get most of our bills paperless, but the paper bills we DO get, I usually only keep for a year. I keep all medical bills and receipts for huge purchases (cars...appliances...every bill from the wedding...) indefinetely.
I think I get this from my mom. The other day she whipped out her L&D bill and paperwork from when I was born...I'm 25. Clearly our family keeps things for a long time!!
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We have a filing cabinet from the 70s (its a groovy orange ;)) that we use to keep our things organized. I have a file for every bill category, our bank statements, pay stubs, home stuff, repair bills, medical bills etc. Every time I pay a bill I file it immediately. I actually need to go through and chunk stuff. Like @doxielove I will be keeping medical bills and large purchase receipts indefinitely. My other bills I'm gonna through out yearly.
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We have some of these, so they look nicer on the book shelves. Then file by category. Bank statements and pay stubs, and most bills are all online. So it mostly 401K statements, insurance policies, etc. Then I go through when they start to get full and shred the things over 2 years old.
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We have a filing cabinet downstairs.
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@Mrs. Pen: I do pretty much the same thing! I have a separate folder for all utility bills, that way if there is an issue or I need to reference something, I can. I throw them out after a yearish as well.
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