Yesterday I received a reader question in reference to my action fling Video:
"This is the first of SEVERAL videos, books, articles and blogs I have read that actually addressed how to house the ACTIVE files, and not just a storage/filing system. Thanks so much. I do however, have a question that arose after seeing the action You Tube video: I understand that your major client is usually a business; but I have four kids and I have never been able to effectively file their papers, incoming or outgoing, active versus archived in a way that is functional for anyone except myself. The main thrust of my system is a file system PER KID, and then to break that into their sport, school, extracurricular stuff. It works but as I said, its workings are known only to me - which as I recently discovered through a 2 week bout of mono, is very INefficient. Can you tell me if this PER KID approach is the best or should I do it per activity, per grade....I know you understand my dilemma. Thanks in advance. --Lori" (Florida USA)
The challenges we face as moms with paperwork are similar to that of a business! I’m a mom of 2 boys and have a dog that generates paper too. As managers of our home, we have a number of options for filing away the paper that comes into the house.
Any time that you have more than one person accessing a filing system, you run the risk of the system not making sense to at least one person. The words you use – that make total sense to you – may not be the first words that come to mind to the person that is looking through your files. In fact, this is common.
Use an Index
The trick to any good filing system is the use of a searchable index. Think back to your high school year book. I can go to the yearbook and look up my name and find the specific pages that I'm referenced without having to look through the entire book. You can do the same thing with your filing.
Ways to Create a Filing Index
- Use a program like MS Word or Excel (or equivalent) and type out your index. For example, if you have David's 3rd grade paperwork in a file called "David" your index may look like this:
ITEM LOCATION FILE NAME
3rd grade papers Office top file drawer David
David's school work Office top file drawer David
ISAT test results Office top file drawer David
School papers for david Office top file drawer DavidYou get the idea. You make different alphabetized listings all referencing the same file so that different people can look it up in the way that makes the most sense to them. Of course, your index would have more than that one file listed, so the document could be quite big. You can have a printed copy for reference, or do a search in your electronic document. The biggest challenge here is that if you change a physical file, you will need to go to multiple locations to update your index.
- Pre-made filing systems that have a built-in index can also be a good choice (if the index they created makes sense to you.) They systems come with directions that tell you where to put different papers. You reference the guides to file and find your information. You can find some great pre-made systems at Organized A to Z.
- My favorite solution, and the one that we use in our home, is Paper Tiger. You can get a f'ree trial and an audio lesson I created to try it out if you go to www.FindInFiveSeconds.com.
The software makes it really easy to index your files and it does not matter how you or anyone else thinks about filing. You'll be able to find what you need quickly. Here is a screen shot of my Paper Tiger for David's 3rd grade papers (below). I typed "3rd" into the find feature (see upper left of image) and clicked enter. The software looks for any entry that matches what I type in the search and displays it below. In this case, there is only one file that matches and that is the file I was looking for.
Location = Where the file is and what the file is named. So in this case, we have a file drawer cabinet called "Calahan Family" and everyone knows where it is in our home. The file name is "52." Since everyone in our family can count, it is easy to locate file #52.
Item Name = A bit more descriptive of what is in the file.
Keywords = Think like you are doing a google search. You put all of the different ways that you might think of a file in this field. The software can search on any of it.
Let me show you a few other screen captures so you get the idea of how this particular tool works. Let me start by saying that while I love my husband, we have never agreed on a "right" way to file things. The tab headings that I would come up with are completely different than the ones he would come up with.
In a traditional A-B-C filing system, our car insurance papers would be filed under "I" for Insurance-Auto. Or at least, that is what makes sense to me. My husband, on the other hand, might change on any given day. Might be under "A" for Auto. Might be under "C" for Car. Might be under "H" for Honda or Hanlin (the name of our insurance agent). Well, you get the idea. None of his thoughts are wrong, they are just different from mine. All of that is fixed in our Paper Tiger tool.
He can type in his words and I can type in mine and we are both sent to the same file - #56.
We can also print out a file index to reference right at the files if we don't want to go to the computer.
Conclusion
As you can tell, I love the filing solution that works for our household. However, I don't believe in one-size-fits all either. The real trick if you have a filing system that more than one person needs to access is that they either think exactly alike (and if that happens let me know!) or create a system that has an index of some form.
Comment and Share!
What works for you? I'd love to hear your candid thoughts on this post or how you manage the papers in your home. Like what you have read? Please click the share buttons below and let others know.
To your success!
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