Organizing Your Life One Step At A Time

I've been slowing chipping away at our mass paper & file organization. Old systems that once worked have clearly hung on for far too long and resulted in important documents missing in action and way too much extra stuff that doesn't need to be kept.

This time I tackled a project that has gone through a few transformations: The Home Inventory & Manuals/Warranties project.

When I first started this project, we had a file folder in the filing cabinet where all the random manuals were tossed. Receipts were filed separately in a receipt filer. We also had random manuals scattered around the house where they were more accessible: tv/blue ray manuals kept in the entertainment console, kitchen appliance manuals tucked away in cabinets with the appliances... As a general rule this worked, but there were enough exceptions that I got tired of spending time looking because I couldn't remember which rule I had followed for that particular item!

My first attempt was to gather up all the manuals and corresponding receipts and organize them in a binder. This has been a popular project around the blogosphere already, and perhaps we just have too much stuff, but as you can see, this didn't work too well:



A lot of the manuals were too heavy for the plastic holders. Some of them are so ridiculously thick that they started to rip the plastic down the side. Others weren't a perfect 8.5x11 and stuck out the top of the binder.


My second attempt turned out much better:


Using a file box, each item got its own labeled manila folder. The manila folders were then alphabetized and grouped into the rooms they are currently kept.


I have a summary printout of the home inventory stored in the back of the file box in case I need to look something up real quick and I also keep a copy of this stored electronically. You can read more about the inventory process I have been working on this year here. Its so nice to know that I'll be able to easily find something when I need it and not have to worry about misplacing any important documentation. Its also nice not to have that file folder exploding out of the file cabinet anymore!