So, despite my efforts to simplify and streamline, there are still a lot of papers that need to take up space in out living area. I am attempting to get a handle on what they are and how often they need to be accessed so I can set up a system. This post is kind of a thinking outloud.
Let me back up a bit. I spent the morning going through the 3 file boxes and 4 filing cabinet drawers we have. The boxes live in the living room and the big filing cabinet is downstairs in the computer room. I have two big boxes of paperwork to be recycled. And I have streamlined a lot of what needs to be "kept." Bank statements, most regular bills (mortgage, utilities, cc statements), health insurance statements and our paystubs are all available online. There is no reasons to keep the hard copies anymore. That was probably about 80% of what was in the filing cabinet. Here's what is left down there:
- ~birth certificates, Social Security cards, bonds, coins from the years the kids were born
- ~appliance and electronics manuals
- ~car title
- ~deed to house and mortgage paperwork
- ~car, health and home insurance policies
- ~awards & certificates the kids earned in school
Now, a lot of that stuff should actually be in a safe deposit box or a strong box somewhere. I'm putting that on the "when I have some time and money to kill" list. lolz For now, this is taking up two drawers. A third drawer is all art projects and such the kids have done. And the fourth drawer is empty. I could easily get rid of this whole piece of furniture. It's in the alcove under the stairs and behind a curtain, though, so it's not taking up a ton of room. The main issue with it is that simply having it encourages me to hold onto things. I can get over that, though.
So, right now, everything is cleared out of the 2 file boxes and one plastic box that I keep in the living room. And all the papers that I'm keeping are on my bed. It's not much, really, but it will increase in the summer and there is still a lot of random paper around the house that I need to go through.
Anyway, the paper we need to keep around for more than a day, falls into these categories:
- ~homeschool paperwork from the district
- ~classes and clubs for the kids
- ~Warriors for Our Shores packets
- ~there will be plenty more under this topic come Fall
- ~household stuff like take out menus & coupons
- ~some bills that are not available online (these are mainly medical bills)
- ~medical insurance paperwork
- ~medical care paperwork
- ~prescriptions
- ~glucose charts (*can be kept online, googledocs?)
- ~cozmore software and paperwork (could be kept downstairs with appliance manuals?)
- ~packets of info from Sneiders (sick day checklist, phone directory for diabetes team members, etc)
- ~information on supplements and fasts for me
- ~Rob's school work (will be gone by end of October)
- ~personal correspondence (not sure why I cannot get rid of this stuff, actually. I'm going to meditate on that this afternoon, I think.)
I was planning on having accordion file folders for each kid for school work. Well, I am still doing that---I already bought them (they were cute, made from recycled paper and soy ink, AND on clearance!). I was thinking I could put their classes stuff in there and maybe even the paperwork from the district. But, no. I want those folders just for their academic paperwork, I think. I don't want to mix their stuff w/ my stuff, yk? Gets too complicated.
So, it would seem my major categories would be:
- ~homeschooling
- ~household
- ~health
I'm going to meditate on that for a bit, maybe even take a nap. And then I'm going to put on a pot of coffee and build the system.
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