My New Filing System That Has Saved Me SO MUCH TIME in the Morning.

I instituted a new system in our household this year. In addition to using a very detailed planner and household binder, we use a filing system to keep track of papers and small things we need. It’s actually a pretty easy system.

Here’s what I did. I bought 50 hanging folders and a hanging folder holder. (Note, if you get those two exact items, it is a VERY tight fit. This doesn’t bother me so much, but keep it in mind.) 

When they arrived from Amazon two days later, I squealed with delight and then got to work. 

I started with making one folder label for each number 1-31. Then, I did one for each month. That’s 43 folders used so far. 

Still with me? 

With the remaining folders, I made labels saying “PreK”, “Bills”, “Journal”, “Coloring”, “Misc”, “Medical”, and “To Be Filed”. 

After wrestling the labels into the hanging folders, I put them in the holder in this order:

School, for various school papers returned to me such as the preschooler’s speech and occupational therapy documents and the school menu and an extra school calendar. 
Bills, for anything that doesn’t get filed in the other folders
Journal, for things I need to put in my journal
Coloring, for fun coloring pages I find for the boys or for me
Misc, because I ALWAYS need a misc category. Right now I have a program from a choir concert I was in and a folder that has some programming I want to learn in it.

Today’s Month. Pretend it’s February 15th. You’d put February next. 
Today’s Day. In our example, that’s the number 15.
Remaining days until the end of the month (16-31).
Next Month, which is March in our example. 
The rest of the numbered folders, in numerical order (1-14)
The rest of the months, in order (April-December, then January).

Medical- All of this year’s medical expenses put in one place for use in next year’s taxes.
To Be Filed- My goal is to go through this MONTHLY! Ha, we will see. 

To be honest, you could really do whatever you wanted with the first 5 folders, but that’s what I needed most at the moment. You could do a misc folder for each person in your family, or whatever you need. Or, leave them out altogether! That’s the beauty of this system. You can pretty much change it to fit your needs. You need to make it in the way that you will use it and it will help you. 

Do you have a filing system? 

P.S. the paper clips are from my Etsy Shop