Right, I've name-changed for this because I'm so bloody ashamed of the state of my paperwork piling filing system. I could locate my passport in an instant (I think ...), but most other stuff - utility statements, bank statements, receipts, tax stuff - no way. I even have boxes of paperwork labelled "to sort" from when I moved house four years ago. And a couple of hundred dollars left over from a holiday two years ago, but I have no idea where.
Because I have never cracked setting up an easy-to-use filing system, and routine and structure and being organised and orderly don't come naturally to me, the piles just mount and mount, and every year when it's tax return time, locating the necessary paperwork is an ordeal.
I feel crap about this, and enough's enough. I have set aside the next three days, on and off, to get my various piles of paperwork sorted into an orderly filing system, with the ultimate aim being that I'll be able to lay my hands on any piece of paper I need to, straight away.
I have a filing cabinet, suspension files, ring binders, the odd box file, shredder, etc. Where do I start? Lump everything in the filing cabinet? Or are some things (bills, bank stuff, receipts) better filed in their own ring binders? I think I have one of those concertina files too.
I'm dreading this, but it has to be done, and the sooner the better. Please give me all your best tips on organising household paperwork, on what must stay and what can go, on how to stay organised, and words of encouragement to get this (daunting) mission accomplished by close of play Thursday.
Thank you!