I've always wanted to build a dollhouse. Maybe with a filing cabinet in it.
Our apartment is a total mess right now. It looks like we’re moving. We’re not.
Boxes and books are stacked everywhere. Tools are lying on the floor. Old paint cans are hiding beneath my desk kitchen table.
The reason: a baby. (Who, according to our latest ultrasound, has a very sizeable noggin. Poor girl’s gonna have to shop for hats in the men’s section like her mama. Also…ouch.)
I’ll share our nursery progress soon. Hopefully we’ll have it set up in the next week or so, considering I’m almost full-term and would like to have a place for her to sleep here should she make an early appearance.
(Both Matthew and I are firstborns. Both of us defied the stats and were born early. So I don’t trust my midwife when she says to expect to be 10 days late. Nope. Not in this family.)
The construction project in the old office has kept me from “nesting” as I should — the desire to waddle around the house and make it pretty is a very real thing, folks — so I’ve been stuck addressing other house issues. Like paperwork.
Whoever said we were becoming a paperless society lied.
Because we work from home, we have to keep more receipts, bills and bank statements than most.
So if you’re hoping to launch into full-time freelance work and don't know where to begin, paper-sorting wise, here’s what’s currently working for us:
(Not shown: online spreadsheets tracking our income and tallying our annual expenses.)
For the baby:
She has her own accordion file.
(I stole this idea from Unoriginal Mom.)
Categories: Government, Health, Midwife, Resources, Receipts/Warranties, Gift Receipts, Lent, Borrowed, Articles, Keepsakes, Cards/Notes, Misc.
Already filed: our prenatal class booklet, ultrasound pics, a list of local resources for new parents, and our midwife's contact information.
To file: a list of things we've already borrowed from our adorable three-month-old nephew — thanks for outgrowing your Moses basket, buddy! — and the warrantee for our (super-cool) stroller.
For the current year:
Every couple of weeks, I toss all of our bills and receipts that are otherwise scattered across our apartment into this file.
This file separates our work expenses from our personal ones, our individual expenses (my files are labeled in purple, Matt’s are in blue) from our joint ones (the green files).
Record keeping:
At the end of the year, files get consolidated into folders in our brand-new mint CB2 filing cabinet. (It’s the pretty piece of office furniture I’ve ever purchased. Highly recommended.)
Each year gets its own colour. At the front, we keep important files and contracts that will need accessing throughout the years, like life insurance paperwork — I'm finally worth more dead than alive, just like George Bailey! — notices of assessment, and child sponsorship information.
It’s not a perfect system, but it’s the best one we’ve implemented yet.
How do you organize the piles of paper at your place?
P.S. Here's how we've organized our manuals and warranties. And here's a peek inside our laundry closet.