Easy Hacks for Organizing Your Paperwork Quickly

Paperwork is not on my priority list, but I can get away with this, because I have all my bills automatically deducted.

When I get a bill that is new or different, I know what that looks like, open it right away and either pay it or put it on my calendar with a reminder to pay on a specific date.

Now that I am sitting down to go through my paperwork, I have emptied my purse, pulled out my poly envelope, and I emptied my work bag of any accumulated paperwork. From my desktop sorter, I pulled out some business reference binders to make space and got to filing.

First, I set aside my car registration because I need to get a check next week. I am also setting aside the recycling and shredding.

I always discard the envelopes and staple or paperclip the contents before filing them.

I found my friend's adorable birth announcement and placed it in the outbox file folder so I can put it up to adore daily. I also set aside an info packet for a possible venue for my daughter's birthday graduation party next year, as well as a check register I used for a post and want to use in a future video.

Most of the envelopes I open are medical insurance approvals for appointments and prescriptions, which I am already aware of, so I simply file them.

When I receive snail mail from friends and family, I put the envelopes that have addresses on them in my follow-up bin so I can save the address to my contacts. Once I do that, I recycle the envelope.

I set aside my recycle sign to place in my work bag in case I get the chance to help someone organize their space. I like to tape up a sign to designate where recyclables will go when we are sorting.

When filing taxes, I prefer using a binder clip rather than a stapler to connect them together. I have had to submit my taxes for various college things for my daughter, and I may need to keep pulling this out a few more times. So a binder clip makes it so much easier.

I found a medical plan I need to follow up on, so I placed it in the follow up folder to either confirm or change. An insurance bill that I have just paid is going to get filed. I tore off the sticky part from my insurance card so that my files do not stick together.

I pulled out coupons from the latest newspaper and quickly clipped the coupons I know I will use. I know what we will buy because of my meal plan, so this goes by super quickly.

Then I pulled out the coupon folder and sorted out the expired coupons, taped a torn coupon and put the rest in my purse poly envelope and then in my purse.

Then I took out my “to file” folder and pulled out my current year filing tote. I pulled out my manual binders to make space and got to filing. I set the permanent files on top of the permanent files tote to file after I completed filing the current year paperwork.

I also set the carpet shampooer owner's manual on top of the manuals binders to be placed in there when I place the binders back in this tote.

Then I noticed some documents were duplicate, so I set those aside to shred.

At this point I finished filing into my current year tote, so I set that down and brought up my previous year permanent files tote up onto the desk to file the permanent files. Then I put the totes away and dusted off my desk. Now I am all set!

It took me about half an hour to recover several months of piling paperwork. This just comes to show that if you have an organized system in place, you will be able to easily recover your space in no time, and it is so easy to get to doing it, too, when you know how simple it will be.

Organizing paperwork

I hope I have given you some new paperwork organization ideas and inspired you to get organized. How do you organize paperwork? What filing system do you use? Leave a comment below and I will be so happy to read it!

Next, check out my 4 Easy Tips on How to Declutter Your Home Quickly.