Papers, Papers, and more Papers!!

When you have 4 kids, a husband who works from home once a week, and endless amounts of mail coming in, there is bound to be atelast a small forest to take care of from time to time.

In this day of technology, more and more companies are going digital.  So why is it that there seems to be MORE paper coming into my house?  Is it just me??

After spending a few productive moments clicking through my Google Reader this morning, a recurring theme kept coming up.  How to deal with paper.  So after the 100th time seeing it, I thought that I would post my way.

***Note, I am NOT an expert.  Ask my husband how many times I have lost important paperwork.  Yes, I say I because, no one else in my house EVER touches papers or moves them.  Four kids, who can't keep their hands off of anything else, magically don't even think about making paper airplanes out of last months bank statements. (yeah right!!)***

Ok....so on to my list of ways to keep some kind of handle on the Mountain of Paperwork.
1.  Deal with it as soon as it comes into the house!  Sort the junk into the recycle bin or the trash can.  You will not believe how much time this will save later.  In the past when I didn't do this, I was constantly amazed by how much trash I had in my 'to-file' pile!

2. I have 4 different color folders in a letter organizer on my desk.
     Red= Bills and papers that Jon needs to go through (also stamps and the checkbook are in here)
     Blue= kids papers from school, soccer, Girl Scouts, etc
     Purple= my stuff and stuff that needs to be filed (more on that in a minute)
     Green=coupons to be cut and restaraunt coupons.  Also in here is take out menus

**These folders are the cheapie ones that you can buy at back to school sales for pennies.  Pick up a few extra to keep on hand for other files to make.  **

3.  I also keep 2 expandable file folders---one to file important papers:  statements, receipts/warranties, car info, health care info, etc.   The other is for Kid stuff:  this one is where I file report cards, copies of schedules for Girl Scouts and soccer, and any cool paper that my kids did while in school that I want to save.  This file makes it easy at the end of the year to sort into their "special boxes".

4.  In December, I take the entire expandable folder for important papers and put into a box with previous years folders.  It is labeled with the year.  This makes it easy for us to keep those important papers without much hassle.

5.  In June, I do the same as above with the kids expandable.  I just purchase new expandable folders and label with the current year and move on.  Easy peasy!

So, these are my tips.....do you have any to share?  I would love to hear how you deal with Mount Paperwork.

Hugs,
Angie

P.S.  I am linked up to We are THAT Family's WFMW  Go check it out.  There are LOTS of great tips there!