Creating Your Own Basic Filing System

 

Creating Your Own Basic Filing System

Filing papers can be a challenge and each individual’s system can be unique to them. When working with clients, we start with a basic system (explained in this video) and then customize it to work for them.

Let us know your paperwork and filing questions by email at info@BasicOrganization.com

Start with Broad Categories and then group smaller categories within these.

Active Paperwork (You will use these folders most often)

Bills to Pay, Correspondence, Coupons/Gift Certificates, Addresses and Emails, To-Do Tasks, Reconcile Receipts, Notes, To Read, School, After School, Projects, Events, and Appointments, To File

Financial

Checking, Savings, Credit Cards, Savings Bonds, Loans, Mortgage

Utilities

Cable/Internet, Electric Company, Gas, HOA, Mobile Phone, Water

Personal

Birth Certificate, Education, Employment/Resume, Health, Military Service, Passport, Pets, Religious, Social Security

Health

Dental, Medical, Vision, EOB, Bills

Investments

Annuity, College Fund, Mutual Fund, Real Estate, Retirement, and Other Investments

Remember all of these categories can be specified to your own personal needs.

Insurance (for policies that you own)

Auto, Boats, Dental Vision, Health, Home, Life, Medicare/Social, Medical Claims

Vehicles

Auto, Boat, RV

Taxes

Property Taxes, Business Expenses, Donations, Home Improvement, Legal and Accounting, Medical Receipts, Mortgage, W2s and 1099’s, School and Childcare

Legal

Claims, Death, Divorce, Home Deed, Living Will, Marriage, Mortgage, Power of Attorney, Trust, Will

Manuals/Warranties

Electronics, Household, Personal Property, Yard and Garage, Receipts

Old Taxes

Keep for a minimum of 7 years on file.

 

We hope this helped you in creating your own personal Basic Filing System.

Check out our additional blog post titled ” To Keep or to Toss your important Documents”

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Janet Schiesl

Janet Schiesl

Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.

She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.

Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.

Janet Schiesl

Janet Schiesl

Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.

She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.

Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.

2 Comments

  1. Janet Barclay on April 25, 2024 at 1:53 pm

    Broad categories with folders for subcategories is how I file. I use a different color of folders for each category to easily distinguish them in the drawer without extra labels.

  2. Janet Schiesl on April 25, 2024 at 3:25 pm

    I do the same thing. It works for my brain. I’m setting up a filing system for my mom right now , and it seems to work for my siblings who need to file papers for her as well.

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