I’m not sure what your volume requirements are, but have you considered using binders? I switched from an actual filing system earlier this year, got some three-ring binders and a big stack of page protectors. I devote a page protector pocket to each statement, bill, whatever. There’s a designated pocket that all new gas bills go into. Paperwork from the mortgage company goes into another pocket. Documents that I know will be helpful come tax season go into their own pockets.

My paperwork used to be really disorganized because I hated my filing system since it’s such a laborious process to keep things labeled and then to determine which folder a document goes in. These are way better, because everything is in a clear pocket so you can immediately see what it is, and they’re easy to put on a shelf and to get into.

I also like this way because it has all my financial, tax, bills and other paperwork in one place so if something were to happen to me, it would be relatively easy for someone else to come in and figure out what to do with it all.

I think that it’s not quick enough because it’s not simple enough. In the example you give, I would personally create a folder for car insurance and file it in the C drawer. I believe in giving my files as much room as possible, and only have 7 letters per drawer.

I’m a GTD person, and find that Allen’s advice on filing really good. He advises not be afraid of creating a file even if it is for just one piece of paper. In your example, when you think you need the car insurance document, you think car insurance not just car or insurance. File it under car insurance and it will make retrieval much faster.

Secondly, I think it’s a good idea to purge paper files regularly. I do it once a year, right before the holidays, or in the new year. I scrap files I no longer need, and scan as many documents as possible to reduce the physical space they take up. You could scan your bills and archive them as PDFs – much neater in a folder on your computer than a physical folder gathering dust.

Hope this helps!

Personally I like lateral files with a countertop. We have a two drawer that is probably 5ft wide and has a nice countertop on it. In my case I have a wine fridge that I use to pop it on and the balance of the space is storage for a wide format printer that I periodically use. The lateral drawers have plenty of space for our needs, plus works well as a gift hiding place at times.

Thanks for the comments. I think one of the big problems, and it’s something I didn’t touch on in the post, is that I don’t purge enough. Once a year is my target but perhaps because the filing box isn’t very large, towards the end of the year it gets really stuffed. It makes the whole filing process even more tedious.

I’ve not tried binders for filing but I may consider filing boxes. The problem I had with binders when I used them for productivity system is that the process of unclipping the binder and shifting stuff around was also a chore.

I’ve used filing boxes. They’re great for archiving bunches of related stuff, like old bills, but not so great for papers of different types as the stuff on the bottom tends to get forgotten about.

My set up sucks as well. My dream set would be to open the mail, do what needs to be done, then scan the item and shred it. Then I could file it on my computer in several locations or tags and save space and time. Now, I just need to implement this.

A computer based filing archive sounds interesting. However, again there is the problem of going through the whole scanning and tagging process. Not necessarily an issue for the odd piece of paper… but when it’s a day-to-day task it becomes a chore very quickly.

Argh, the agony of filing. I have three locations for files. At my desk I have project folders I’m currently working on, further away – not in reaching distance – I have my reference files and then in my garage – much further away – I have some archive files like tax stuff I need to keep for seven years.

It’s all straight alphabetical, although I too have a dilemma with your car insurance question. Currently I keep it under insurance-car near my insurance-health and insurance-home sections. If I were a car buff, I may keep it separately under a car section.

Everything is in file cabinets or filing drawers. One of my reference filing drawers sticks a bit, so I recommend easy-to-open filing drawers to make this dreaded chore easier.

I use a office file cart for our files, business on the left and personal on the right. When I set things up, I had the same debate about how to organize things. The system that works best for me is to file things under several main categories such as cars, medical, house, financial, etc. Everything related to our cars goes in the car category in separate folders like repair records in one folder, ownership documents in another folder, insurance policy info in another, etc.

It’s not perfect. Some categories have some overlap. For instance, mortgage stuff could go in the house or financial section. I decide those based on which it is most closely related to.

I don’t alphabetize. I order the categories and subfolders with the most frequently used in the front so I can get to them easily. Each category has less than ten subfolders so alphabetizing would be overkill.

I keep my monthly bills in a separate accordion style folder. Current bills are in the five front sections which are set up as weekly tickler files that I check on Monday when I pay my bills. Paid bills are kept in the back five or so sections by type until January when I pull them all out, toss what I don’t need for tax records and file the rest with our tax returns. I keep some stamps and envelopes in the last couple of sections so I can grab the whole thing if needed and pay bills on my lunch break at work.

I think that’s about it! I hope you find the right system for you. It took some trial and error to get to this point but I’ve found that, for me, this system has eliminated most of the, “Where the heck did I decide to file this last time?” when I’m trying to find the folder for this year’s auto insurance policy.

Get rid of your paper files and scan all your documents with a ScanSnap S510. I’ve been an insanely happier person since making this decision. Now I can file a document in multiple locations (say, a taxes folder and a health insurance folder) and I can use the search function on my computer to search the text of even the fine print of the back of my cell phone bill. If there’s ever a fire or a flood, I’m 100% backed up and protected, too. And were I ever audited by the IRS, I could just print a few folders worth of documents and be done with it.

The only paper documents I have now are my original birth certificate, my car title, and my social security card.

Hi James, here’s what I do:

On every filing level, I have no more than five categories. I force myself to. Therefore, on each level it is perfectly clear to me into which category something goes. If a category does not have subcategories, I allow for an arbitrary number of document blocks in it. This approach resembles a paper phone book (nobody sorts the entries he’s got under the respective starting letters, right?) and is sufficiently fast, because people can pin down a document quite easily and fast enough.

I use hanging files for the top level. Inside, I use either spine bars for blocks of equal-sized documents or transparent file jackets (that are closed on two sides) for blocks of documents that vary in size. Both solutions allow for quick reordering, adding and removal of documents.

Finally, I attach post-it notes like with the dates they can be disposed on, to blocks of documents that I don’t need to keep anymore after a specific period. During the yearly review, it becomes clear what to throw away.

This is why my paperwork is a disaster zone. There’s always some bit of paper that doesn’t fit.

After trying lever-arch binders for a while I’m going back to drop files (have found a brand that are coated so the metal rails don’t make my nails feel weird) but I’m going to try the computer tagging method – put two tags on that file, one for ‘car’ and one for ‘insurance’. Two or three tags should cover most overlap situations.

Do you play Warcraft? ‘Epic’ is a very WoW-playerish adjective…

Helen, epic is one of the current ‘cool’ words amongst middle and high schoolers. Apparently it is the only adjective they ever use, or so it would seem. Being a middle and high school sports coach, asstistant scoutmaster and father of a fourteen year old boy, I have come to hate it, given that its used more than the word ‘the’. I’m sure back in the 60’s parents came to regard the word ‘groovy’ similarly.

Nope, never played Warcraft. I used epic, as in epic failure because I’d spent too much time reading the comments on Digg.

Ah, I see. I wonder which came first. ‘Epic’ is either a category of Warcraft gear/weapons which are high level and insanely hard to get, or it’s just a coincidence and I hear it on WoW because lots of teens play the game and their use of the word comes from elsewhere.

When I was a kid it was ‘grouse’ (yep, strange I know), meaning good or great. Which of course has nothing at all to do with filing, except that my filing is an epic fail.