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Home Filing Made Simple
A lady wrote me an
email today asking for me help with her filing. She stated that she had taken
the day off to catch up on her filing at home, which was sitting in piles on her
floor. When she emailed me, it was 6:00pm and she still hadn’t touched the
filing. She told me she didn’t know where to start.
I suggested to her that she
break the task into manageable bits and use a simple system. The easier the
filing system, the less you will resist using it.
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Buy a file cabinet.
Having a filing cabinet that uses hanging folders is the first step
toward managing your home files. Most families can file all their
necessary papers in a two drawer file cabinet.
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Choosing filing
supplies.
Buy a box of hanging file folders and a box of single file folders in
your choice of colors. Choosing a color you like will make filing a bit
easier. (I use red hanging folders and manila files. Red is my
favorite color.)
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Simple filing
system
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Sort papers in piles according to categories – for example,
all health/medical related papers together, all insurance papers together, all warranties and manuals together, etc.
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Determine how many main categories you have and label a
hanging folder tab for each.
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Hang your hanging folders in alphabetical order.
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Your sub-categories should be manila file folders inside the
appropriate hanging folder. For example, a main category would be
Insurance. Subcategories might be labeled Automobile insurance, Homeowners insurance, and Life Insurance.
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File the papers in the new folders and place in the
appropriate categories.
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Use the 15 minute
method for filing maintenance.
Once you have your
filing system in place, filing will only take about 15 minutes once a
week.
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