February is about paper organization and document storage.
Once a year (usually January), I go through my entire file cabinet and update each file one at a time to prepare for a new year of papers. In each hanging file, I have paper-clipped all the 2006, 2007, 2008, etc. stubs from each bill together and label them with the year. This makes it easy when I open my file for stubs from my electricity bill, car payment, mortgage, or whatever file to see where the new document goes and everything is in chronological order. I go through each file and shred anything that is more than 7 years old (except copies of our taxes), create new files for new bills (like from purchasing three kitchen appliances in one year due to the Black Power Kitchen Revival that happened in 2008), visiting new doctors, etc. I re-alphabetize the cabinet because new things are added, dr's offices change names, and files get removed and replaced in the wrong spot throughout the year. When I'm done, they all look like THIS:
Ooh just looking at that makes me happy. Lucky for me, we had an ice storm and I was able to tackle the file cabinet by pulling out a few files at a time (no more than I could finish and put away in an hour) over the few days that we were stuck in the house.The best part?
Reese and Quincy were entertained for almost 2 solid hours using the shredder.
This week, I am making photo copies of our identity documents, laminating them, and filing them away with the 72 hour kits. If we had to evacuate immediately, we wouldn't have original copies, but at least we would have SOMEthing (something water-resistant) on paper to identify ourselves with.
Here is a basic list of documents to copy, preserve, and store in a backup location:
Birth/Marriage Certificates
Wills
Passports
SS Cards
Vaccination Records
Insurance Policies
Legal Contracts
A List of Emergency Contacts
Medical Records (Rx information, known medical conditions, allergies, etc)
Banking information
Other suggested (paper) items to store include:
Genealogy Records
Prepaid phone cards
Cash in small bills-who has change for a a $50 in an emergency?
Patriarchal Blessings
If I have time, we'll finally get to those DNA swab identification kits on the kids that I've had hanging around since April.
So there you have February.
That laminater was the greatest gift EVER! Who knew how much use it would get in just a few weeks in our house?!
11 comments:
What a great project! I am organized in every other way, other than with paperwork. I used to be SO in control of the papers. Now, I don't have time for it and I hate it because it's so hard to get anything in the cabinets. Mark does the organizing about once a year and it takes all day, with piles of paper all over the floor. I think it got out of control when he filled up our two 4- drawer file cabinets with all the school papers he couldn't bear to part with (he's 41 years old). I couldn't fit anything in them, so I quit filing because he wouldn't let me throw anything away to make room for it. So now it's HIS job. There. I don't feel so bad now about being disorganized because it's really NOT my fault! I blamed it on him. :-)
Aaron has an incredibly difficult time parting with ANYthing. He still has 11 gray rubbermaid storage bins in our garage FILLED with papers. College papers, tests he got a C- on, you name it...it's in there, ironically accompanied by a bin that is solely filled with papers from an "Organizational Behavior" class. I hate paper trash, but love Aaron enough to offer him 2 bins to fill every year until he is ready to let them go! Unfortunately, he saved Sams Club about 2 million dollars last year when he was able to come up with some document that had supposedly been shredded---he had saved it, and therefore saved the day!
I don't think he'll be ready to part with anything anytime soon. Good luck with your 2 file cabinets!
love this.
you guys have wills? can i have your kitchen aide mixer? Paul already knows you get my diamond earrings. you. are. welcome. ;)
How inspiring ... :)
Mozambique...WOW! Welcome. Thank you for not blurking.
Yes I had to use spell checker to spell Mozambique. And no...I'm not positive where it is exactly.
Thanks for the reminder and list of things to make copies of. I need to add docs to our 72 our kit AND re-vamp my files for this year. I think I have a 10 inch stack of "to be filed" hiding in the office closet. If I need a bill, I rifle through the stack. Not the most efficient method, but at least I know it's there.
Yea for organizing!! Love your ideas and I know what you mean about looking at such a beautiful site like an organized file cabinet.
Wow. Good for you! That's a big task I dread, but it's got to be done!
You inspired me to get some things together for our emergency kits. Thanks you!
WOW. You are so prepared and organized. I wish I could say the same about myself. Can you come organize my papers?!?? Pretty please? ;)
Man, you are so organized! And I thought I was organized. Not even close!! You'd be proud, I'm going to the cannery next month to get a start on our food storage!! Yea! I need to get on our 72 hour kits. I kind of feel like we should really have those, especially living in a big city. Thanks for the great info. on the documents!
Megan,
You inspired me. I spent the weekend filing or sreading 3 years worth of bills and important papers. I can see that this could become an obsession. After I was done I kept looking around for more to file. Very exciting!!! Thanks
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