Survey #247—Full Response from Ginger
| Please select the statement that BEST describes your paper backlog. | All of my papers are sorted and filed. |
|---|---|
| Please select the statement that BEST describes your ongoing relationship with incoming paper. | I sort and manage each day’s incoming mail and other papers as they arrive in my home. |
| Describe the types or categories of paper clutter that you find the most challenging to sort, purge, and organize. | None now. I used to struggle with what to do with the incoming paper after I processed it. Could I throw it away? What if I needed to refer to my notes about payment or conversation I had with the company. I always write these notes in the paper. Clearly I was dealing with a risk:comfort issue. I decided for all the papers for the year - we’d keep them for a full year. I hate filing - especially something I’m keeping temporarily. So, I don’t file them. I stack them in a basket. At the start of a new year - I add a cardboard divider and start stacking the current year papers on top. At the end of the current year - I shred/trash the older year. Move the cardboard on top and keep going. |
| Please complete one or more of the following statements: “I struggle with paper clutter because ___.” “I would have an easier time managing paper if only ___.” “The accumulation of paper in my home makes me feel ___.” | I NO longer struggle with paper. I’ll share our system. In use since 2016. OUR PAPER SYSTEM 1. Strip the mail daily. Don’t let it pile up. It takes 1-2 minutes.2. Designated day/time to handle desk work. For me: Wednesday.3. Decide what to keep and for how long. 4. Keep Important Papers together for quick, easy retrieval & portability.5. Paperless billing as much as possible. 6. Automatic payments as much as possible with monitoring.  INCOMING PAPER All mail, flyers, receipts, etc. comes to the kitchen table. When I see it there - I strip it. Any papers needing action or filing - are placed in my active file to handle on my desk work day. ACTIVE FILES (hangs on kitchen wall)I do desk work on my kitchen table. 1. Action/To Do - processed on my weekly desk work day2. Tax Docs - collected throughout the year3. Receipts - Current Year in zippered pouch FILE CABINETWe decided to keep the following.1. Medical Procedures.2. Dental Procedures (major).3. Health Insurance Information. 4. Keepsake Papers.5. Automobile manuals.6. Old Loan Papers (Personal Risk/comfort thing).7. Property Appraisals & Improvements. (Deeds are in Important Papers)8. Tax Returns - recent 3 years. Archive: All other prior years are stored in a bin on a shelf in my studio. Personal Risk/Comfort = We Keep all.9. File Basket holding prior year and current statements & papers. It sits in the file drawer with a divider between the two years. At the end of the current year - I go thru the stack and toss them. Move the divider to the top of the stack and start piling on new incoming papers. I hate to file. So I don’t. Chances are we won’t need any of these papers. But, we have peace of mind in case we might. IMPORTANT PAPERS BINDER w/table of contentsWe choose to keep these all together. 1. Vital and Identification Docs (Birth, marriage, divorce, social security cards, copy of drivers license) 2. Insurance (policies for life, health, home, automobile, boat owners) 3. Property (property deeds, vehicle titles and home inventory)4. Financial Records (Financial Profile listing all accounts, etc.)5. End of Life Docs (will, medical POA, physician directives, burial instructions, info for obits, family ancestry charts, people to contact)6. Access Information (user names and passwords) HOME MANAGEMENT BINDER w/table of contentsThis reference manual explains how we manage our home. Includes a general narrative, information about how we handle finances, care for our home, pay our bills, home maintenance, vehicle maintenance, emergency procedures, etc. We developed this to help each other understand how to handle things we each did around the house. PROJECT ORGANIZER - spiral 24 poly slash pocket. We collect those loose papers we seem to accumulate while researching and working on projects for the year. I keep a table of contents in front. I declutter it at the start of a new year. |
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