I feel I’m fairly organized with everything, but one thing that I just can’t seem to deal with 100% is random papers/mail/etc.
It seems that every once in a while I’ll go to sit at my desk and the “I don’t know what to do with this” paperwork is piled up on it. It could be mail from HR at work, credit card offers, an advertisement magazine with something I may want, Christmas and B-Day cards, receipts from recent big purchases that I don’t know if I need to keep or not, etc.
It doesn’t quite have a place in the filing cabinet, but it has some sort of relevance or importance to something.
What do you guys do with that stuff? I feel like I missed some sort of training, as it constantly seems to happen. I’ll think I know what to do with everything I get and then something will show up that I just toss on the desk. It’s not just junk mail, but “something” that doesn’t really have a place.
Once the pile grows I either throw it away not knowing what to do with the clutter, or I jam it into a drawer for a future “why is this drawer full?” adventure.
So, what do you do? Are you finding yourself in the same nightmare of random paper everywhere?
I’m kind of torn on this too. I usually shred anything I feel I won’t use again in the future. The other stuff I place in a folder I have labeled “Note Worthy”. Then at the end of the month I go through that folder and toss anything that I won’t be using.
I have a desk I don’t use just piled with shit. When I organize that it all gets stacked in drawers. I’ve become a big time paper hoarder- I gotta have a huge bonfire one of these days.
I have a brown paper bag I use for recycling. Everything ‘junk’ goes in there (papers, letters, catalogs, etc). It usually takes a month or more to fill up so i have it for a while before its gone gone. Then when its time for a new one I take the top few inches of paper and put it at the bottom of the new bag. I figure if I dont need it for a month I never needed it in the first place.
huge nightmare im losing sleep. sometimes mail invades my bedroom it gets scary, my wife and I wont have sex because of the mail comes between us. My kids sleep walking go to the bathroom at night and see bloody envelope in the mirror, I told them bloody mary is an imagination. now they think of the USPS in the mirror…
I throw out or shred most of the stuff you listed. I’ve never understood saving bday cards. Receipts for anything with a warranty have a folder in my filing cabinet.
Receipts first sit on the kitchen counter top until my wife gets tired of it. Receipts worth keeping get stapled to the items’ owner’s manual then filed. Other misc. receipts live in the vast abyss that is my wife’s purse.
The metal 4-drawer file cabinet has been sent to the attic for the non day-to-day filings (it’s a walk in attic so it’s easy to get to). The other stuff goes in the new lateral file.
We typically keep things for 5 years then junk year by year.
Filing at home is easy… I let the roomate take care of it.
For household bills, items of interest for income tax, etc, I keep a yearly file.
Mail comes into the house
Placed in a to do inbox in the office
Opened, paid then filed
or
Opened, and thrown out
We manage our to do inbox 2 times per week, we never have clutter from mail and pay our bills on time…
At income tax time, I go through the years file, organize by each billing type, log each months spend and average out for next years forcast. Then I use those totals for my income tax returns (which is why I do the tally) and anything use for income tax get’s placed in a manila envelope and stored for 7 years. Everythign else stay’s in the years file and place in the filing cabinet…
I have files for Vehicle Maintenance Receipts, School stuff, Credit card stuff, Health ins receipts (from the dr’s office, etc), Car Insurance, Student Loans, Utility Bills, Pay Stubs, Vehicle Receipts (from actual purchase, incl titles), Credit report, Birth Certificate, Misc Receipts, Letters of Recommendations, Taxes, Personal Loan, Bank Accounts.
It might be a little too defined but I can always find something when I need it.
