Organize Home Office Papers in 5 easy steps
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Are you having trouble finding the important tax papers, or the receipts that you need to return an item? You home office being organized can help! Take the time now to organize home office papers and next time you need an important paper, you will know exactly where it can be found.
Organize Home Office Papers or Organize Paper Clutter: Build your Filing System
Get a filing cabinet, hanging folders or envelopes to place each type of paper you have. Label each folder with the various types of paper that you identify in Step 2.
Organize Home Office Papers Step 2: Organize your important papers
Organize your papers and group them by types. Make a file folder or envelope for each type and label it accordingly.
Various types of paper you need to store could be:
Bank statements
Bill stubs
Paycheck stubs, W2 and any income statements
Receipts
Tax information (by year)
Real estate papers & Investment papers
Insurance policies and statements,
Loan agreements and any other financial papers
Car Titles
Organize Home Office Papers Step 3: Create an inbox and manage incoming new documents
Creating an effective filing system for when these types of papers come in is equally as important. You have to make a habit of putting the documents into their new folders. I use an inbox that I drop the “to be filed” documents in while I am opening the mail. I make it a point everyday to empty the inbox into the appropriate folders every week at a minimum. Preferably once a day if you get a lot of mail.
Organize Home Office Papers Step 4: Purging old documents
Purging the filing system. Ok, so now you have file folders but they are beginning to bulge at the seams. You can use the approach of trashing tax documents every 7 years and any other documents every 3 years. For insurance policies, etc. I typically get rid of the old one when I receive the new one. Unless you see a need to review the differences – or have them on hand for some reason.
Organize Home Office Papers – Step 5: Make it habit
If you commit some time each day to staying on top of the papers, you’ll make it a lot easier when the time comes to locate those important documents needed in a hurry. If you don’t, the paper clutter will come back to haunt you and you will have to start at Step 1 all over again.