apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have a question, what receipts do we really need to keep? I mean do I need to hold onto every grocerry, target, etc. receipt or can I just hold onto the ones for larger purchases like furniture and such.

THANK YOU. This is really helpful!! Printing to PDF is brilliant and I really need to get all of my bills switched to electronic billing.

I use a drawer-based system: everything that I might need to read gets dumped into one drawer in my desk (without being read). Every two weeks, when I sit down to pay bills, I open every piece of mail, and either chuck it (into the trash/ to be shredded drawer) or pay it (into the paid drawer). If it needs follow-up of some sort and I can't get to it, it goes back into the "inbox drawer."

At the end of each quarter, or when the Paid/ file drawer gets full, I move it into a filing carryall (also by Real Simple) in the closet. My groupings are Auto, Credit, Mortgage, Insurance, Healthcare, Home Improvements, Money (Banking, really) and Pets. I suppose I'd add a folder for each person in my household, if I had them (in fact, I'll be doing that for my newly live-in bf). Simpler works better for me. I'd rather have too much in one folder than a few things in a billion folders. When I go to the vet, I grab the Pets folder on my way out the door. Like Maxwell, I file newest in front.

At the end of the year, they go into an accordion folder.

Oh, I keep voter registration, SS card, copies of my credit cards and ID, health insurance card copies, and a contacts list in a zippy waterproof folder in the top drawer of my desk, and the bf knows this. I suppose it's not the most secure, but if something happens to me, I want him to be able to get to it quickly more than I fear a random intruder stealing them out of my desk.

Last thing: I'm having to train the bf to put his bills (or mine) and receipts in one place rather than EVERYWHERE, so we agreed to the one drawer system. Frankly, when the pile makes it to the general vicinity of my desk, I'm happy. And not looking at anything until I'm ready to do something about it (pay the bill, call the company, etc) has made a HUGE difference to me.

I'm not great at keeping papers neat and tidy, but I do work at it, some of the time.

However, I do generally keep my purchase receipts for a month until the next statement comes in, by then, virtually all of them will have shown up and I then shred them. Even car related receipts I'll often staple to the invoice sheet until I go to sell the car, then I dispose of them then, the invoices for repairs and such are kept for record keeping for the next owner so they know what I did (or didn't do) as far as maintenance and repairs on the vehicle in question.

I do, about once a year go through and remove all old insurance packets and keep the ones for the current year and I"m a bit behind on that. I do need to do a general going through of my files anyway and I do file alphabetically but things like taxes, car and one or two other important things, I do keep at the front, then it's file normally after that.

All household type stuff is in one drawer, all other stuff, such as scrap book etc are filed in seperate drawers.

I did a major paper purge about 2 years ago and once done, I'd eliminated something like 24 files all together. :-)

at my business, i had a series of clipboards that hung on a pegboard. each was labeled with a category such as UTILITIES, and i would highlight the due date. as it was paid, i filed it in the UTILITIES hanging folder(in the file cabinet) behind the previous month's paid bill.....at the end of the year, i transferred all the year's files into a box and labeled it on the outside with the YEAR(i purchased new hanging folders each year so categories would stay intact). it then went up on a shelf. you could also paint or "wallpaper" the clipboards so you have a visual cue as to the category. there are small clipboards, plastic clipboards etc. you could also use velcro to attach the clipboard to a linen covered board as an alternative to pegboard.

Signe--I write off expenses at the end of the year since I work freelance, so I have to hang onto a lot of receipts. But if you don't write things off then you don't have to worry keeping them.

--Laure

I hate having papers I can actually see, but one does need to remember to pay ones bills, so here are two systems. 1. mark on your calendar the week before a bill is due (American Express,etc) which will give you time to actually even mail a check is that's how you handle it,. Then the actual bill can go in a file and will be out of site. or 2. Pay your bills at the same time every week. (I chose Tuesday) and put all your bills in a file. The longest time a bill will go unpaid is 7 days, which I cannot imagine would impact the timeliness of any payment. Then, all the bills go in the file and are out of sight.

This is something I've been thinking and rethinking. What do do with all of this paper? I'm using the accordion file method (each file corrals a year's worth of paperwork), but it's all I can do to keep it organized. Thanks for this post; wish me luck!

I went paperless at the end of the year (2007). I digitized all of my archived files and got rid of the file cabinets, file boxes, storage space, etc... It was the best thing I ever did. It can be tedious (it took about 4 months using a high speed scanner, spending a minimum of 2 hours a day), but it's highly rewarding once the transition is complete.

I have two file drawers (one of each side of the desk) - one side holds files for money I owe/spend and the other holds files for money I make/save. I put any paper bills that need to be paid inside a clear plastic folder in a top drawer and then just grab that once a week or so and pay online.
Now I'm doing my Mom's finances too so I have to keep her bills separately and file all her stuff in a portable file box as soon as it's paid.

I recently organized my husband's and my files, following the system recommended by David Bach in his book, "Smart Couples Finish Rich." (good book) We keep our files in two large file boxes, but that is just because we don't have space for a filing cabinet, which I would much prefer.

I divided the files in to the following categories, which I marked with those plastic labels that stick up from the hanging folders:
Identity
Health
Will/Trust
Financial Planning
Retirement Accounts
Employment
Academics
Investment Accounts
Credit Card
Other liabilities
Household Accounts
Insurance
Taxes
Savings and Checking Accounts

Within each of these categories, we have the various manila file folders. For example, in Retirement Accounts, we have separate manila folders for each of our IRA's and 401K's. Within Health, we have separate folders each of our health documents. Under Household, we have folders for our apartment, utilities, warranties & instructions, etc.

Before, my files were all just in the manila folders, and it was hard to find which folders were where. This system makes it so much easier visually because I first locate the appropriate major category and then I find the specific file.

What's really funny is that I work in records management, and I can't keep my own records straight! Well, that's not entirely true. During the Cure I did organize my file box, shredding old stuff and creating new folders. I normally file on a weekly basis. I barely get any paper bills these days, but I do get things monthly that I have to file. I'm not quite organized with the sorting yet, but I'm getting there.

It takes up so little space that at this point I don't feel the need to scan things.

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