I'm curious. Where do people fall in the household admin and paperwork organisation scale?

[FindingMeno]

I can't lie, I'm always a bit surprised when people can't find their passports or they've expired. However I've recently been sorting out admin/ paperwork and I was quite shocked when I found important stuff in the jumble of papers, and how much stuff I'd just been bunging back in the pile for literally years.
It's made me interested in what is the situation for the majority of others.
Do you have all your paperwork together? Is it categorised and filed? Or is it all over the place, you have to hunt for everything and you're just winging it?
Are people even more organised than this? Could you, at a few minutes notice grab a list of your medical history ? Could you grab a folder knowing all your documents are in that one place? Could you have all the information to hand if you had to, for example, call your Internet provider, or would you need to search for it?
It'd be interesting to know others systems, or even tips.

I have a (bulging) folder of important stuff that I won't need very often (mortgage statements, P45s, passports etc) and then a pile of loose papers on the end of the bookshelf for important but more frequently accessed stuff (medical appointment letters, gift cards, driving licence renewal forms etc.). I know roughly where what I'm after will be, but it takes a bit of sifting. And there's definitely a lot of out of date stuff kicking around.

I know exactly where everything is. Wills, POA, death book, passport. I have very little financial paperwork as I do everything online

My household admin was tiptop but has spiralled out of control since we took over MIL's 5 years ago under POA followed by more recently being the Executor of her estate.

Hopefully I'll get mine back on track, vaguely remember my passport needs renewing....

Passport, car insurance, MOT, tax, driving licence, gun licence, house insurance and tax stuff are all in their place, up to date and I can tell you the renewal dates from memory.

If only my pensions were so well organised. I normally check their values and update my spreadsheet between Xmas and new year. Didn't happen in this year. There's a big pile of envelopes in a drawer. 🙄

Same as a PP, I have very little paperwork as it is all electronic. I know where my passport, driving license and car registration document are, that's about all I have.

I can't think why I would need to grab a file of all my medical history in a few minutes?

Same. That's the only paperwork I have, and a birth certificate.
Medical history is on my GPs computer.
I don't want or need paperwork in my house.

It's all online. The only paper things I have are passport and battery book.

My medical history is three box files.

i did go through and scan the most important ones when I did my pip application.

most of the rest is online.

I have one of those concertina files with all of our important documents in, passports, ghics, degree certificates, DBS certificates, warranties , log books etc albeit most stuff is online now, insurance policies, banking , receipts for large purchases etc

Working at home meant I invested in a 3-drawer filing cabinet. Everything is orderly and labelled, but I am now regarded as the archivist and filing clerk for DH and DD too.

I suppose if an ambulance was called I guess.

I have a filing cabinet! I wish I didn't but we seem to get so much stuff in spite of accepting paperless options when we can.

Coincidentally I wanted something yesterday and took the opportunity to do a purge and shredded a huge amount of stuff.

Paramedics would not have time to review an entire medical history. Medical records are kept online and can easily be accessed by medical professionals.

Ha! Fair point!

Mine is OK but I implemented a couple of things to get it there - deal with post immediately, have one basket for stuff that needs doing which I go through twice a week (it’s booked in) and a tray for stuff to deal with/file at some point which I go through at the start of the month. It’s worked, I know where everything is, it isn’t overwhelming…. My email inbox on the other hand is chaos!

Ours used to be beautifully organised but we've just moved house and have been bunging everything into a folder for the last year to sort out at some point in the future...I can procrastinate for another year though 😅

Most of it is online in a shared drive between DH and I. But even then it still is a bit of a mess and a jumble of documents that one of us will sort through and file properly when we're in the mood for a sort out. A bit like a pile of paperwork shoved in a drawer although we do have a small pile of paperwork shoved in a drawer and every now and again we go through and shred, burn or scan in what is or isn't needed.

I have a small portable metal filing case, and documents are in there in appropriate folders: important documents like my passport, marriage & birth certificates, copies of my Will and LPoAs etc are all in one; tax (I file in more than one country), pensions (also from more than one country) in one; household stuff including warranties for things like new windows and rewiring in another; instruction manuals are in yet another; I do have a ‘banks’ folder, but again it’s just info to let others know who I bank/save with, and a paying-in book because I sometimes get overseas cheques. Oh, and a car folder with receipts and MOT certificates (I know they are online but the garage gives them to me, so I stuff them with other bits). My
medical stuff is online; it’s fairly basic: no
medication, no known health concerns, no appendix.

I go through it twice a year - usually January and June when I’m doing my tax paperwork - and chuck out stuff I don’t need any longer.

I can lay my hands on anything, and could carry the whole lot out of the house (or sling it out of the window) with one hand in the event of a fire.

Mine is in half a dozen box files in a cupboard, none of them are full but I find it easier to have separate box files for the categories I have. I do most things online so there isn’t a huge amount of paperwork anyway. I do a quarterly cull, June, September, December, and March.

However, don’t get me started on mum’s stuff; I have POA and so many organisations will not let me access stuff online (looking at you HMRC) so she has way more paperwork than me.

Large filing cabinet holding everything. DC have their own drawers. I periodically shred stuff that’s completely out of date. It also holds things like instructions manuals, GCSE and so on certificates (DH is a teacher and has had to produce them in living memory) and an assortment of other useful stuff.

Passports I check at least a couple of times a year when we book anything they would need them. I know logically that it’s a couple of years before we need to renew but I’m a bit paranoid.

All my important paperwork is stored electronically inc. copies of passports, driving licences etc. and I can find it on my phone or iPad in seconds.

DH is a paper person so he stores his important stuff inc. all our actual passports, birth certificates etc. in a couple of metal ammo boxes under the bed.

We also have 2 x A4 sheets of paper with the basics written down for how to find wills, insurance policies and bank details in case the other person dies or is incapacitated in some way. DH isn’t very tech-y but DS would help him. I set this all up when DH had a health scare a few years ago.

We have one folder with documents like birth certificates, naturalisation certificates, PoAs and wills.

Passport are in one central location and renew dates are six months in advance on the calendar as we have to go via an embassy for one of our nationalities.
Then there's a folder with life insurances.
Everything is also scanned in anti digitalised in a central cloud I can access from everywhere.
All utilities are online, pensions can access online but we also have one paper folder here for originally set up documents.

I am managing the admin for my mum and that is very paper heavy so I have everything in paper and after one year it's scanned in and the paper version is destroyed

Passports and EHICs are in one place, bills/paperwork is all in a folder. Exam and birth Certificates are all together. We don’t have any sort of complete medical history written down for anyone though-presume that’s on our nhs record if anyone medical needed to look it up.

I work from home. If I have a quiet moment I do the household admin. I treat it as I would any office paperwork. I have a set of filing trays (in, pending and out) and a cupboard with a4 folders for the different things eg home insurance, tv licence.

I was incredibly organised, I also used to sort out my mothers bills, finances, lists ect....sadly mum passed away a few years ago.
Since my husband retired, he has taken it upon himself to get more involved in finances, bills, annual subscriptions and so on. I swear he has messed my routine up so much, I can never find important papers I could always put my hand on instantly.

It's one of the drawbacks of having a spouse with time on his hands.🙄