Manage paperwork?

[Punchy Kaby]

We have a problem managing paperwork in our house. How do I start? How do I keep up?

Here is what we currently do:
I go through the mail daily and recycle, shred and put bills in drawer. Then the bills don't get paid (DH does the bill pay) We constantly have late bills. Then the paid bills get put in a big pile in our office. OUr office is a huge dumping ground for everything including unfinished projects, books, electronics, bills, and other papers 'to be filed.' The files that are in the cabinet include all of last years paid bills, I don't know what to do with those.

AHHH! We don't spend any time in the office because it is a cluttered mess.

[Alyantavid]

When bills come in that need paid, they go in a basket on the desk that holds the checkbook. Dh does the bills and I think he goes through that and the checkbook once or twice a week.

Once they're paid, they go into a calendar with a folder attached to each month. At the end of the month, they're organized and filed in an expandable file folder divided by month. After a year, I toss them.

Anything other than bills, gets filed in the filing cabinet. The kids' bank statements, insurance papers, etc.

[limette]

All my bills are paid online. I still get some in the mail but even those get paid through the bank site. I do this twice a month according to a list I have going of bills that need to be paid;

Example

April 1

mortgage
life insurance
car payment
gas/groceries

and so on

April 15

car insurance
house insurance
visa
mc
gas/groceries

and so on

I keep the list as up to date as possible with several months of payments on it. When dh gets paid I go online and pay the bills (that aren't on automatic withdrawl).

When mail comes in, garbage goes in the garbage, the rest get tacked to the fridge (magnets) until someone can be bothered to take them downstairs and put them on the pile in the office/craft room. Periodically (every 4 months or so)I go downstairs and file them in the filing cabinet.

Dh took over the bill paying once for 3 months and we ended up with the debt collectors calling daily because he never paid any bills (he's very absentminded).

I don't save anything beyond tax relevant papers/receipts, health card information and insurance policies (which get dumped when the renewal comes in).

[zoebird]

we do an electronic with CD and paper back up.

bills come in, and we put them into the computer calendar (when to pay, the amount), and then get it ready in our bill payer online (put the proper amount in). on the proper day, we are alerted by the calendar, and then go to the bank web site and pay the bills.

we then put the bills into the accordian folder which is labeled by month (jan, feb, etc--all bills go in them based on the term of the bill. so, Feb's bill comes Mar 5 and is due Mar 25, but we file it in Feb). at the end of each month, i print a copy of our bank statement and put it in that month.

for our business, it's the same process, except that i scan a copy of each bill into the computer--and all of these are emailed to the accountant in addition to the bank statement and all of the invoicing and receipts. i keep the paper copies in an accordian folder with a copy of the bank statement.

i back up the computer stuff with CDs and put that in the year's accordian file at the end of the year.

I have a home tax and a business tax label in the folder too. at the end of the year, taxes are done, and kept in that section.

[Vaske]

Instead of putting the bills in a drawer, maybe you should tape them to the computer?!

This is what I do, our bills have precisely one well-defined path they are allowed to travel through the house:

Bring in mail, sort. Things I need to deal with go into my "inbox" on my writing desk, where they are visible.

Every day or two or three, go through inbox, write checks for bills and get them ready to mail, and leave them out, on the top of the desk. I take them along with me when I can get out to mail them.

Bill stubs and statements go into files in a file box next to my writing desk, once I've paid the bills.

At the end of the year, when I'm getting the tax stuff together, I go through the whole file box, organize everything, and put the stuff I'm going to keep into our big (and much less accessible) file cabinet.

[ikesmom]

Well I started looking for you and found this "EZ Pocket" thing that looks like the old school calenders that teachers let you put the date up lol..I think I will make one from a poster board and some envelopes or have the kids make it. You could write your to do list and tuck it in and just grab everything out of the slot .

http://www.123sortit.com/resources/products.html

[Punchy Kaby]

ikesmom, thank you , I think that might be the best solution for my DH, he is one of those people who needs things right in front of him. I bet I can make one of those