5 Simple Steps to An Organized Filing Cabinet

Every year between Christmas and New Year’s I organize my filing cabinet in preparation for preparing my taxes.  After hearing a friend talk about her unorganized paperwork, I thought I’d write about my simple system.

Because we live in a small house every inch counts.  This means keeping things simple.  We fit all our paperwork in a small two-drawer filing cabinet.

Our filing cabinet was actually my parent’s present to me when I turned 18.  I have since spray painted it black, changed out the handles, and today use it as a leg to my desk in our wall unit.

I keep the files that I use most often in the top drawer.  Here is a list of my files with a brief description of what I keep in that file:

• 2015 – anything I will need for taxes with the exception of medical expenses, this includes pay stubs, receipts from charitable giving, tax records for our house, etc.
• Baci – this is the file for the dogs, even though Baci has passed on, I can’t bear to rename it.  It should read Foxy, oh well.
• Car, Home & Life Insurance – any paperwork from our insurance companies
• HOA – this has a copy of CC&Rs, the last statement from the HOA (they come quarterly.)  When we receive a new statement, I pull the old one and shred it.
• House – paperwork given to me when I bought the house, termite warranty paperwork, the colors we painted the interior walls, etc.
• Kid’s School – report cards and standardized testing results, tuition tax credit info., etc.
• Kurt’s Medical – this includes his cancer paperwork, all of his other medical actually goes in our medical file, but I didn’t want to label it cancer
• Landscaping – this includes the plans from the landscape architect, list of plants we have, watering schedule, anything to do with our landscaping
• Medical – all paperwork relating to doctor visits, receipts for the pharmacy, list of providers (although with everything on line, that file has gotten a lot thinner)
• Misc. – anything that doesn’t fit into any other file
• Mortgage – statements and any paperwork from our lender
• Retirement – statements and any paperwork from our retirement accounts
• Sentra – receipts from work done on the car, statements from the loan, original paperwork from the car loan
• Utilities – statements from water, electricity, cell phones.  I keep all statements for 1 year.  Each December I shred the previous years statements.
• Van – receipts from work done on the van
• Warranties – all warranty paperwork on anything we own that has a warranty.  I go through this every few years and laugh that I kept the warranty paperwork from a blender.  I shred all paperwork of things we no longer own.  This is also where I keep instruction manuals.

The bottom drawer is very full which gives stability to the cabinet.  I keep files that I rarely use and previous years taxes.  I have copies of my tax returns back to 1992.  After 7 years I purge some of the file for taxes, I pretty much just keep the actual tax return.  This allows me to have a file that is from 1992-2002 and another from 2003-2006.

I do have one more file called Important Documents.  This is where I keep our marriage certificate, birth certificates, passports, etc.  I do not keep this file in the filing cabinet.  I have it hidden away somewhere in the house.  You may ask why?  Well , let me tell you about my friend, Jan.  A few months ago her home was burglarized.  The thieves only took paperwork and jewelry.  Hmm.  That made me instantly come home, pull the file from my cabinet, and promptly hide it.  With the rise of identity theft, we must be careful.  This allows me to stay organized and safe.  Eventually, I want to purchase a small fireproof safe to store this file.

This system has worked for me for over 20 years.  When my parents downsized from a four bedroom home to a two bedroom home, I helped my mom implement my filing system.  They too have a small two drawer filing cabinet and it works well for them.

Simplify your life by following my simple steps.

Simple Steps

Make a list of files you need.  Feel free to use my list of files as an inspiration.

Label your files.  I use green hanging files with tabs, this way I can change the files as needed.

Organize your paperwork into the files.

Shred old paperwork.  Get out your shredder and start shredding!  You don’t need to keep that much paperwork.  When you are finished you will feel fantastic.

Find a secret hiding spot for your important documents.