If you live alone what system / storage do you use for your paperwork?

[FlaotingAway]

I'm fairly proficient at decluttering and organising most areas of my home yet struggle with paperwork.

I want a system /storage for important papers like will, pensions, passport etc and also a system like 'in box' and 'pending' items.

How do you do it?

Shove everything in a box binder and hope for the best!

It’s marginally better now I have one for me, one for house and car, one for my late parents.

TODOs get stuck on the fridge

I have a pouffe with a lid that lifts, everything gets chucked in.there

I used to organise things and categorise them but realised there was still a lot of rummaging to do so now I just have three box files for anything important.

I scan everything to the cloud and only keep originals of important documents and there are very few of them. They are kept in a secure place - probably going to get a safe soon to shove them in.

Things like wills, passports, house deeds (if still appropriate), original birth certificates etc really should be in a firesafe. If you get one, make sure it will hold A4 documents - our one annoying won't meaning you have to bend A4 things in half.

4 files.

Slim file for bank statements and savings accounts.

Slim file with all instruction booklets, receipts for big ticket things and guarantees.

Thick file for stuff that needs keeping but seldom looked at eg life insurance, p60s, mortgage paperwork, birth certificates, divorce decree and deed poll, will

Thick file for actual household bills - council tax, energy, phone bills, car/house insurance etc.

The to do pile generally sits on the kitchen worktop, and filing gets done when I can't wedge any more paper on top of the files in the cupboard.

I do a big cull about once a year with a shredder handy, and revise a big list of all my accounts/bills in the event of emergency

Please don’t rely on a fire safe. Having experienced a wildfire and evacuation with 72,000 of my neighbours, we can confirm they don’t work. Luckily my house survived, but many friends lost their homes and the valuable items they had in fire safes.

We have all our important docs in a plastic box file. Can easily be grabbed if you need to leave in a rush.

We have a small 2 drawer filing cabinet under the stairs.

Documents like birth certificates and passports I have in a metal tin stored in sideboard

Other paperwork goes into a ‘bag of shite’ for an indeterminate period before being sorted into appropriate files in office : pension , utilities , insurance etc

A few months ago I bought a shredder and had a cull down to the bare minimum.

I now have almost everything in just a ring-binder folder, the biggish one that is about 2" thick, with coloured separator cards for bank accounts, pensions, utilities, HMRC, receipts for big items, etc. Then at the back in plastic wallets are my will, passport, driving licence.

My ex-husband died earlier this year which spurred me on to streamline my paperwork to make it easier for my sons when I go. Ex left his affairs in good order so feel I should do the same!

I’m trying to figure this out too. My plan is to dump it all in a IKEA kallax but how long are you meant to keep things like bank stuff or insurance or bills?

Not sure what living alone has to do with it? 🤔

Its just DH and myself. I previously had documents in several expanding files. We now have a larger house and I bought some stacking, metal filing cabinets 2nd hand. I have a 'grab file' with important documents inside, but they are are scanned incase we can't get to the grab file if needed.

I file newer documents at the front of the hanging file, under certain headers- home insurance, car insurance, household warranty certificates, passports etc. Every few years, I remove older documents and shred.

A way to deal with paperwork coming in is to open your post every day, put it in a nice box with a lid near where you open it and deal with the paper once a week on the same day. Obviously deal with anything really urgent but most bills can wait for a few days and you've gathered up some filing to do all at once. It's also a good time to check your bank statements for any unusual activity and check you've got enough in there to cover outgoings.

JC03745
Not sure what living alone has to do with it? 🤔

I was wanting to clarify that it's just my paperwork and not for my DH, six children and their assorted pets.