By now, most of us have adapted to home working and have evolved from the kitchen table to a reasonable area of home office which will consist of the basics of a desk and chair to assist us in our remote working. But organising your home filing system may of fell by the way side.
Managing important documents and paper clutter can be a real struggle, so it’s crucial to set up a functional home filing system that you will actually use. Your filing system must account for all the different types of paperwork you have, and you have to stay on top of getting rid of the papers you don’t need to streamline the storage.
A good filing system should do the following:
- Keep related documents in the same place.
- Make it easier to find and recall documents.
- Help your office stay tidy and clutter-free.
- Provide a safe and secure way to keep important items.
The importance of a good home paperwork filing system can’t be overestimated, but where do you start?
Gather and separate
This is your first port of call. Get all your paperwork into one spot and start the task of dividing it into relative piles. “Action” pile should be papers that are important, need immediate attention and then can be discarded. “Archive” pile are still important documents,but ones that you may need to look back on for reference at a later date. “Recycle” pile contain no relevance to your business or personal life and are often junk mail, but importantly contain no personal details. Your last pile is “Shred” which are no longer of use to you but may contain bank details or company info.
File away
All you have to do now is put the files within each major category in alphabetical order, and then put the major categories themselves into the drawer in alphabetical order. Colour- coding could be your new best friend in your quest for organisation. Each major category of paperwork should be assigned a different colour (your choice). It seems like a small thing, but colour-coding your system will save you a huge amount of time in filing and retrieving papers when organising your home filing system.
Being able to look in your file drawer and see distinct bodies of information broken out by colour just makes sense to your brain. When you know that your action section is green, your archive section is blue etc you don’t even have to think because your hand just naturally goes to the right part of your file drawer.
For further information on organising your home filing system and to view our extensive range of storage options and filing cabinets please contact us here.