Home organising for paperwork/bills

[Hodgewell1]

Please can anyone share any good filing systems/storage for home paperwork. We have had a expandable concertina style file but it is bulging. Are there any storage units etc that work well?

We downsized from a filing cabinet to two plastic frames with hanger folders to a small plastic box. Apart from certificates (birth, marriage, exam), we don't keep much paperwork now. No bills or statements - all online. No product leaflets - pdfs downloaded and saved in folders on family Google Drive.

Do you really need all the paperwork you're storing?

I use the concertina folder with current year info. Anything older than a year gets photoed saved in online folder boxed away in box on top of wardrobe. I have an XL sheet recording bill amounts and anything not needed is shredded.

@Cynderella that is a very good point. I maybe need a better electronic filing system (currently without one other than my personal email). Do you have a shared access file so other family members can store documents?

@Marblessolveeverything i am awed by the rigour of your processes. It probably won’t surprise you that I’m not an excel user. Probably time to do that course and discover what a v look up is.

Overall, the move to electronic filing seems the way to go. I have a busy job and I’m not stupid but I am behind on practical ways to use electronic filing etc. Any idiots guide ideas and suggestions would be helpful. My DH and I realised the other night that we have no clue if we have contents insurance or up to date buildings insurance which prompted me to make this post. Life admin is a real weakness for both of us.

I have folders in my email in box for each year. All docs relating to that year are put in the folder, eg insurance, bills etc. So if I need to check how much the council tax was in 2015, I simply look that folder.
It also makes it easy to track price rises - I check how much car insurance was in 2021 when renewing for the current year.

If I only have paper copies, I photo them on my phone and then file the pic in the appropriate folder.
Certificates, passports etc are kept in labelled hanging files a metal filing cabinet. Copies of all of these docs are kept in folder in my email inbox.

We have one 'fireproof' box with passports, certificates. Everything else is on line. Don't need anything else.

I used to keep a folder per year. One of those with the 40 pockets. So all phone bills etc in one pocket. All elec in another. So all of 2021 would then be composted in Jan 2023 and I'd reuse the folder. I'd scan in anything that I thought would be needed in the future.

Now we've moved to France I keep everything but I bulldog clip all the different bills together. So all medical stuff bulldog clipped together. All visa stuff. All electricity bills together. So we can grab the whole bulldog clipped stuff if needed.

We have a family gmail address. So, there's a shared Google Keep for info and a drive for anything family - car and house insurance docs, holiday docs, CVs etc. I suppose they're not family for a lot of people, and we're four adults now, but they still send me anything that needs proof reading.

In the Google Drive, there's a folder called manuals, and every time we buy something, I download the manual and file it in Manuals>Kitchen or Manuals>Tech or whatever.

We also have a family calendar that we can all see/add to and the email address is used when booking a holiday, broadband etc that we all might need to check. Obviously, we all have personal and work email addresses, but we all have the family one on our phones and it's only used for something that isn't personal.

It's taken a while to get everyone to use it, but we regularly say, thank goodness we have it.

Some amazing tips. Thank you all. I will be googling Google Keep tonight and going through the suggestions more rigorously. I intend to use my new system for filing the buildings and contents insurance I plan to purchase this evening too.

take a photo of each and every one as you get them then file in folders on your computer (don't forget to keep a regular backup!).