...which doesn't do me a whole lot of good when I let paperwork pile up for a year.
Finally today, I strapped on my iPod and settled down to file away that big ol' stack of papers. I thought, "Well, I don't have anything to blog about. Maybe something in this pile will inspire me."
Nope. You know what that pile was? A big, tall pile of boring.
And that is why I put off my filing. Insurance information, bank statements, and gas bills are so eminently dull. There are approximately 16 million uses for my time that are more interesting than filing papers. So I usually wait until the pile gets so big that it's really a big pain to try to find things in it. Then I wait a few more months and finally get around to the big task.
Once it's done, though, it really does feel great. So maybe I should do it more often, to capture that nice, organized calm every week instead of every year.
(Ha, ha.... Like that's going to happen.)
6 comments:
Filing is a sore subject in our house. I've offered to help. I've offered to set aside time weekly or monthly or even quarterly. Nope, it happens every year when he needs to find info for taxes. Makes me nuts.
I'm VERY thankful to email and the Internet. There's rarely anything I need to keep (basically, just receipts and contracts). Keeps things much neater!
I have pretty much conquered the paper monster!! I set aside 5 minutes each morning (no exceptions) and deal with paperwork. It rarely takes the whole 5 minutes and sometimes I don't have any! I set a timer for 5 minutes and when it goes off, even if I'm not done, I stop. You can do ANYTHING for 5 minutes.:)
For about 40 years or so, I meticulously sorted, alphabetized, organized, stapled and filed enormous amounts of "important" paperwork. The "to be filed" stack got bigger all the time. About 3 years ago, I realized that about the only thing I ever retrieved from my beautiful system related to tax info. Everything else just sat there taking up space and my time. "Enough!" said I. Since then I put all my paperwork, in essence the bills that are paid into a cardboard box labelled with the year as soon as it is paid, noted, adjusted, or whatever. That puts together a simplified chronological order. Tax info for that year goes into a clear folder which sits on my desk and is immediately "findable".
I start a new general box every year. And I can keep them the required time and then dump the whole lot into a shredder!
Much simpler, much easier, and much less work! No guilt!!
I let it build up for two years once. That was a nightmare. But it feels SO GOOD when you get it all filed away.
I like Melody's 5 minute game! That is so smart. Because it really only takes 5 minutes a day. :)
I try very hard to file stuff as soon as I've actioned it because if I don't, I would just let it pile up, and up, and up and the house would be a fire hazard!! I'm so untidy that it's essential to be really strict:(
I need a wife!!!!!!!
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