Tell me how you organise your bills/important letters

[SunshineAndFizz]

I need inspiration! When you get something through the post how do you file it away (if worth keeping)?

I currently have a drawer in the hallway that’s full and it’s impossible to find anything.

Do you use folders? Set of drawers? Something else? And which room in the house do you keep this in, I’m struggling to think of somewhere easy to get to that doesn’t look a bit shit.

Firstly I hardly get anything in the post. Try to change to get your bills electronically. And most things are direct debit rather than bills.

In my email folders I have a 'household bills' folder where I move emails to once the bill is paid.

i have very few hard copies of bills / letters to keep. I have a small folder in a small household safe with birth certificates, passports etc.

I leave them on the stairs to file like a grown up. Wait for the pile to get to approx the height of the next step then throw them all away.

I keep the current yearly bills in plastic folders. Old ones go in some old box folders.

All of our bills are automated, so we don't have to do a thing. We also receive receipt of payment electronically. I just file the receipts in relevant folders and subfolders, both on my external harddrive and in my government inbox (not sure if that's a thing in other countries).

Plastic wallet folders kept in binders for stuff like birth certificates, passports, V5s, nursery bills (they only send paper copies), council tax bill (they send via paper only too), solicitor’s letters, etc. They are just kept in bottom of bookshelf in living room so easy to get to.

I have a desk and pedestal with a deep filing drawer. Important documents are kept in suspension files, alphabetically labelled. There is also a filing box in the attic for documents I need to keep but don't require regular access to.

I have an upright chopping board set in the kitchen that I “file” the letters behind. Then when they start to get too many and look messy I carry them upstairs and pop them in a drawer and will probably barely look at them ever again. It’s a system that is working thus far 😝

I have one of the expanding box files with labelled sections, the current one is from Amazon. Over time the folder starts to bulge and not snap shut and that is my cue to go through, throw out unnecessary gubbins and replace with shiny new one!

Plastic drawers

One labelled vehicles
This is for vehicle tax, insurance, MOT, breakdown cover, ordering spare parts, SORN, vehicle ownership documents, manuals
More than one vehicle

One labelled house
This is for insurance, buying & selling info, maintenance & repair, contacts, manuals

One labelled work

One labelled pensions/will/POA

One labelled bills & savings

One labelled other

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A seperate special folder for important documents
Birth certificate
All original qualification certificates
Driving licence
Passport
Travel insurance

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A couple of other folders for special hobby information, qualifications & insurance

scan it and file it using google drive then shred. That way it is always available to you wherever you are. A small number of docs (car docs for example) need to be kept in hard copy, but there are only maybe a dozen of these in a small file.

This is a similar approach to my drawer in the hallway 😂

Ha love this 😂

Document wallets labelled and stored vertically in a plastic filing box for anything hard copy. Online folders for anything not. Archive storage in the loft for keep but don’t need to see.

I have an expandable file that has sections (prelabelled) Gas, Electric, Car, Insurance, Mortgage, etc. Anything that comes in I dump in the relevant section.

I also have a box file - labelled 'Important Box' - that contains passports, kids birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc.

Both kept in study/snug on a shelf.

I do like the idea of plastic drawers but where in the house do you keep them?

I love this idea too, but where do you store the box?!

Plastic wallets in box files - with wallets labelled by topic eg certificates, car 1, car 2, bills, house manuals & servicing, nursery, insurance, pension etc

I receive all my bills, bank statements, etc, electronically. And I save a copy of each electronically and keep for 3 years.

I keep one file with a printed page - I think of this as perhaps being more useful in the event of my death than for my own use. But it would also be useful if my phone/laptop is stolen too.

The page contains a list of everywhere I have an account and the key information on it. So for example:

Bank name, bank account number, current account.
Bank name, bank account number, savings account.
Company name, account number, electricity, paid by monthly direct debit.
Company name, account number, internet, paid by monthly direct debit.
TV licence, license number, paid annually.
Name, subscription service, paid monthly.
Social media accounts: FB, X, linkedin, instagram with username included.
Etc.