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How to Set Up, Organize, and Maintain a Home or Office Filing System

© Judy Brown

At home or at work, a good filing system is the best way to keep track of the paper you accumulate. If your filing system is set up properly, you'll never have to hunt for a report, bill or receipt.

Basic Filing System Supplies

• File cabinets
• File folders
• Label maker
• File section dividers

Don't skimp on supplies for your filing system. Get a four drawer file cabinet if you are setting this up at home. Depending on how much paper your workplace generates, you will need as many file cabinets as it takes for the office. Generally each department will set up their own files and determine how many cabinets are needed.

Setting Up File Cabinets

Decide what kind of paper you need to keep. Separate the types of paper you need to keep track of. Start to label your categories, and try not to have too many. Make sure each one is named clearly. Your home office might have sections for:

Banking and Loans

Property

Utilities

Make section dividers for each category. Under each category you may have subcategories:

Banking and Loans

First Bank

Second Bank

Credit Union

Property

Our House

Our Summer Home

Within each subcategory you can use different colored folders to distinguish each item, or you can put labels on your folders and file them in alphabetical order. Under "Our House," you might have:

Repairs

Property Taxes

File any receipts for repairs, estimates, and correspondence that concerns your home in each of those folders. Once you sort through your paper, it will be clear what categories you need. File things away after you have acted on them, and subcategorize if you find you have too much for one folder.

Maintaining a Filing System

Don't let filing pile up. Go through the mail each day and separate it into 2 baskets:

To do right away

For reading
 

Keep the "right away" basket where you can attend to it immediately. Place things that you want to read in "for reading." Once you have finished reading, either file it, recycle it, or pass it along to someone else. If there is an expiry date on any piece of paper, note it on the edge of the paper so it will be visible when you look in the file cabinet. Continually remove old, unneeded files - move them to a "concluded" folder or get rid of them. Develop a daily routine of sorting and filing. It takes minutes and is well worth it.

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